Sheet Metal Workers (SMW)

A union has the right to run its own affairs, but at the same time it has to play by the rules.  And one of those rules is to refrain from imposing excessive fines and penalties upon dissenting members – or indeed any fines if those members decide to become ex-members.  Unfortunately, Sheet Metal Workers International Union Local 18 doesn’t adhere to this view.  Late last year the union imposed a $30,000 fine on each of four members who earlier had resigned in protest.  But with free legal aid provided by the Springfield, Va.-based National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the workers, all employees of Pre-Heat, Inc., located in the village of Oostburg, Wisconsin (near Sheboygan), are mounting a defense.  On January 7, they filed an unfair labor practices suit with the National Labor Relations Board against the union for levying exorbitant and illegal retaliatory fines.  It’s a case certain to test the scope of union power.

Sharon Ann Burt, secretary of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 611, was sentenced in federal court to one year in prison for embezzling $72,701 in union funds.  Federal prosecutors said that Burt, 49, a resident of Fort Payne, Alabama, in the northeast part of the state, wrote checks without authorization, paid her bills with union money, and doctored bank statements delivered to her personal post office box.  She was indicted last May and pleaded guilty to embezzlement and mail fraud in October.  Local 611 represented employees at the Earthgrains plant in Fort Payne, which closed in 2005.  (Gadsden Times, 3/14/07; Huntsville Times, 3/15/07).

Pittsburgh-Area Local Chieftain Pleads Guilty to Thefts

On October 10, David Taylor, former financial secretary for Carpenters Local 1402, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to one count of making false statements on the union’s reporting form.  The statements were part of a scheme to cover up his embezzlement of $72,422 in union funds.  The guilty plea follows an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.  (OLMS, 10/31/06).

Ex-Boss of Connecticut Union Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement

On March 31, Donald Hutchinson, former financial secretary for Local 763-C of the Chemical Workers, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to one year of supervision and three years probation for embezzling union funds.  He was ordered to pay $103,248 in restitution to the local.  The sentencing follows an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.  (OLMS, 4/29/06).   

Kansas Financial Officer Sentenced, Another Pleads Guilty