Don Hahs

Locomotive Workers Union President Announces Retirement

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 14:58

Locomotive train The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is about to get its fourth national president in less than three years. Paul Sorrow, head of the Teamsters-affiliated railroad employees union since last November, announced in a letter a few weeks ago that he would be retiring on July 1, making way for current First Vice President Dennis Pierce to take over. Unlike his two predecessors, Sorrow's departure is unrelated to corruption. Sorrow, 63, cited health problems as the reason for departure.

Locomotive Engineers President Rodzwicz Pleads Guilty to Bribery, Related Charge

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Wed, 03/10/2010 - 18:56

The resignation of Edward Rodzwicz last November as president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) was almost inevitable. So, it seems, was his guilty plea. On Thursday, March 4, Rodzwicz pleaded guilty in St. Louis federal court to bribery and interstate travel for unlawful activity in relation to solicitations for bribery totaling $20,000. He had been indicted and arrested last fall at his home in Avon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, headquarters of BLET. He faces sentencing on June 3.

Rodzwicz Resigns as Locomotive Engineers President; Union Names Interim Leadership

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Wed, 12/23/2009 - 14:56

Locomotive train The reign of Edward Rodzwicz was brief. And members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) might be feeling a certain relief. On November 13, Rodzwicz resigned as president of the Cleveland-based, Teamsters-affiliated union, one month after his arrest by federal agents on a pair of bribery charges. He is scheduled to stand trial in St. Louis starting January 4. This makes the second BLET president to step down in as many years. The union in the meantime has named an interim replacement.

Railroad Union National Chieftain Arrested for Accepting Bribes

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 20:09

Scandal has a way of following the leadership of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) lately. In March 2008, Don Hahs, president of the Cleveland-based International Brotherhood of Teamsters-affiliated labor organization, was removed from his post by the Teamsters for embezzling around $58,000 in BLET funds. Now his replacement, Edward Rodzwicz, is in hot water of his own. On Tuesday, October 13, federal agents arrested Rodzwicz at his Avon, Ohio home on bribery charges. The previous week, prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against him in St. Louis federal court.

Financial Secretary of SE Ohio Local Pleads Guilty to Thefts

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 01:00

Crime didn’t pay for Stephen Snyder. On January 22, Snyder, financial secretary of Local 5724 of the United Steelworkers of America, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of embezzlement from his union. Prosecutors had alleged that during February 2005-August 2006 he diverted $78,893.47 from the Clarington, Ohio local’s strike benefit fund to his personal bank account. Snyder, a resident of the Wheeling, W.V. area, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The guilty plea follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. (WOWK-TV, 1/28/09; Associated Press, 1/28/09).

Teamsters Oust Hahs; Await Response from Oversight Board

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 00:00

It may have been inevitable, but Don Hahs’ career as president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has all but ended. And it was Teamster General President James P. Hoffa, under the watchful eye of the feds, who performed the act of ending it. On March 20, Hoffa removed Hahs from office on charges that he’d misspent tens of thousands of dollars in union funds, replacing him with Edward W. Rodzwicz, the BLE’s first vice president. The Teamsters also fined Hahs nearly $45,000, and imposed a one-year suspension from union membership and contact with members of either the BLE or the Teamsters. A Teamsters internal panel heard the charges and recommended the sanctions. The case now will be submitted for approval by the Independent Review Board (IRB), the three-person entity created in the wake of the Teamsters-Justice Department 1989 civil RICO settlement.

National Boss Steps Aside in Face of Scandal; Will Repay Funds

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 12/31/2007 - 01:00

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Membership has its disadvantages as well as advantages, most of all, subjection to the jurisdiction of the Teamsters’ federal receiver, the Independent Review Board (IRB). Don Hahs, the Locomotive Engineers’ president, more than anyone else, knows the downside. He’d been facing charges that he embezzled nearly $60,000 from the Cleveland-based union, mainly to secure NBA basketball tickets. Under pressure from the IRB, the Teamsters announced a month ago it had reached a settlement. Though Hahs will be allowed to remain a union member, he will step aside from his post for six months and repay all funds.

IRB Declines to Hear Case against Ohio Union Chieftain

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 11/05/2007 - 01:00

Don Hahs may be a thief, but he’s neither high-level nor mob-connected. That’s why the Independent Review Board (IRB) recently informed International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James P. Hoffa that the ball is in his court in determining whether Hahs is guilty and, if so, what sanctions should be taken. Hahs is national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a Teamsters-affiliated union based in Cleveland. Months ago, the IRB, the three-member board set up to monitor Teamster operations following the union’s 1989 civil RICO settlement with the government, conducted an investigation, concluding that Hahs had embezzled more than $58,000 in union funds for his personal use, most of it going for Cleveland Cavaliers NBA tickets.

Panel Seeks Theft Charges against Cleveland Locomotive Boss

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 10/08/2007 - 00:00

As far as corrupt Teamster bosses from Cleveland go, Don Hahs isn’t remotely in the same league as the union’s general president during the mid to late 80s, the late Jackie Presser, a kept man of the Mob. But the discovery that Hahs likely embezzled funds has raised concerns of a federally-appointed oversight body. In a September 13 letter to International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa, the Independent Review Board (IRB) recommended that Hoffa bring embezzlement charges against Hahs, who heads the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLE). Hahs, the three-member board charged, diverted more than $58,000 in BLE funds to cover personal expenses. It’s an internal matter – at least for now. But the IRB has a track record of limited patience.

Ohio Dissents Halt Union Merge

Submitted by Michael Nelson on Mon, 10/08/2001 - 00:00

U.S. Dist. Judge Ann Aldrich (N.D. Ohio, Carter) recently halted the long-running merger campaign between the Bhd. of Locomotive Eng'rs and United Transp. Union. Aldrich impounded the merger ballots after finding violations of the Labor Mgmt. Reporting & Disclosure Act, popularly known as the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, in the way the a referendum on the merger was conducted. Aldrich agreed with three BLE members who contended that BLE's failure to provide adequate information before the balloting and separate counts of Canadian and U.S. members' ballots
violated LMRDA.

Reportedly, newly elected BLE president Don Hahs reported to the union's Cleveland headquarters on Oct. 3, beginning his term with the question of the merger high on his agenda. Hahs was elected Sept. 28 during BLE's convention in Miami Beach.