Union Corruption Update

The Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police, angered that the Marion County Democratic Party has accused it of
corruption and cronyism, is demanding an apology. A defiant party chairman Steve Laudig has refused to apologize. And, no apology, means no recommendations of endorsements for Democratic City-County Council candidates says FOP boss Dave Young. The brouhaha began when FOP voted to endorse Republican Sue Anne Gilroy for mayor over Democrat Bart Peterson.

Democrats immediately raised questions about how the vote was conducted. The decision was by a voice vote at a firefighters' union hall rather than at their own lodge, with at least some members mistakenly told the vote would be taken over three hours. The Democrats issued a media release sent by e-mail by Laudig on Jun. 14: "Thirty years of cronyism, corruption and incompetence were underlined by the questionable FOP endorsement of the Republican mayoral candidate," Laudig wrote. The release also questions the fairness of the FOP endorsement and suggests that the bosses are racist.

U.S. Dist. Judge Stewart Dalzell in Philadelphia approved Jun. 9 an $80,000 settlement of firefighters' claims that the City and Int'l Ass'n of Fire Fighters Local 22 illegally deducted nonmember agency fees without providing notice or the opportunity to challenge the amount. Class representatives John Hunter and David Casper contended that the city and the union violated nonmembers' rights under the 1st and 14th Amendments by failing to comply with the procedural safeguards mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 v. Hudson. Hudson held that employees who are not union members can be required to contribute to a union's expenses for acting as the exclusive bargaining representative but not expenses related to political and ideological activities.

IBT imposed a trusteeship Jun. 18 on Local 19 in Grapevine, Tex. J.D. Potter headed Local 19 who was disqualified from holding office for campaign finance violations and was a running mate of IBT boss James P. Hoffa. The justification for the takeover was the local leadership's failure to adequately serve the members. Louisville, Ky., Local 2727 boss, Joe Darmento was named trustee and Local 19 business manager Mike Ellison, deputy trustee. IBT spokesman Bret Caldwell said the decision to move against a former campaign slate member shows that the Hoffa administration is prepared to take action regardless of the local leadership. "This is not politics," he said. "We're here for the members." Potter also faces pending IRB charges of lying to election officials and IRB investigators about his campaign contributions. [BNA 6/22/99]

On Jun. 15, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau indicted nine more bosses of the Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees Dist. Council 37 on union corruption charges, bringing to the number of bosses indicted in the recent scandal to a shocking 27.

Albert A. Diop, ex-Local 1549 president, was accused of directing an elaborate fraud resulting in the ratification of DC37's 1996 contract with N.Y.C. Martin Lubin, DC37 ex-associate director, was also indicted in the voting scheme.  Diop also allegedly stole $1.6 million via various scams: He allegedly spent $270,000 in personal expenses on the union's credit card. He allegedly had the union spend over $500,000 for his penthouse. He allegedly took $817,000 in wrongful "hospitality money." He allegedly used $4,300 in unauthorized union funds for listening devices in DC37 offices after Morgenthau began his probe last year.

A state Ethics Commission probe into Frank E. Corrente -- senior aide to Providence, R.I., Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. -- suspiciously came to an end just a few days before he announced his retirement Jun. 9. The probe was into Corrente's business dealings with the Laborers' Int'l Union of No. Am. Corrente had faced a $25,000 fine.

The three-year probe looked into whether a conflict-of-interest existed when a Corrente partnership sold an building to a subsidiary of LIUNA's legal fund for $2.3 million in 1994. At the time of the sale, Corrente was the City's chief negotiator with LIUNA Local 1033. He was actively working on a new contract that included the City's payment into LIUNA's legal fund.

One of Corrente's partners in the real estate venture was his long-time friend --  LIUNA top boss Arthur A. Coia.  Additionally, Corrente's son, Darren Corrente, is a member of Coia's law firm, Coia & Lepore, which received income from the same LIUNA legal fund.

AFL-CIO's nine-month "emergency monitorship" over the Ky. AFL-CIO will reportedly end next month after the state federation holds a rescheduled convention. But, the Ky. State Police and the FBI are still investigating a Sep. 4, 1998 arson that destroyed records at the federation's Frankfort office and an Aug. 10 burglary of records, as well as hundreds of thousands of missing dollars. The convention was originally scheduled for Oct. 1998, but delayed by the scandal.

Ky. AFL-CIO bosses Bobby Curtis, Bobby Barnett and Ron Cyrus were suspended in Oct. 1998 and taken off the payroll in Dec. 1998. The day after the monitorship was imposed, Ky. AFL-CIO bookkeeper Donna Bayless disappeared. Her stepson found her body four days later on a remote piece of family property. In Mar. 1999, a Ky. jury unanimously ruled the death a suicide. Federation records show that its check-writing machine was used to pay Bayless and her husband, ex-Ky. AFL-CIO political dir. Morgan Bayless, about $285,000 more than their salaries since 1995. AFL-CIO has sued Morgan Bayless and Donna Bayless' estate to recover the missing funds. [Lexington Herald-Leader 6/9/99]

Timothy Smith, a Cumberland County Jail correctional officer at the Cumberland County Jail and a high-ranking official of an unidentified union, was accused of vandalizing property and then lying about it in an attempted cover-up and was fired Jun. 4 by Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion. Smith also faces misdemeanor charges for criminal mischief and criminal conspiracy to file false public reports. Smith's union was reportedly upset when told about the firing, especially since Smith was the jail's union steward.

According to jail officials, an investigation began last fall after a feud among members of a fantasy baseball league exploded into alleged criminal behavior. Smith's league broke down in acrimony because of, among other things, a disputed trade between teams within the league, as well as a controversial ruling by the league's "commissioner." Smith allegedly vandalized the car of Johnny Booker, a league member, and allegedly sprayed graffiti and damaged the league's office, which was rented in Booker's name.

Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees' Dist. Council 37 suffered two more guilty pleas from Local 1549 bosses Robert F. Myers, on May 26, and James Edey, on Jun. 2. Now six AFSCME bosses have pled guilty to union corruption and nine have been indicted.

Myers pled guilty to using the union's credit card for personal expenditures that he never repaid and stole over $50,000 in personal "hospitality money." Myers made nearly $200,000 for being the treasurer of Local 1549 and DC37 and is the highest ranking DC37 boss to plead guilty to date. He was a close associate of the indicted and expelled top boss Albert A. Diop. Edey pled guilty to similar charges. Both were ousted from AFSCME in Apr. after the union's judicial panel found that Myers received $134,100 in unexplained "hospitality expenses." The panel also found that Edey received $63,925 and charged $143,819 on the local's credit card including $17,363 for clothing. [N.Y. Times, Newsday 5/27 & 6/3/99, N.Y. Post 5/27/99]

Laborers Int'l Union of No. Am. Local 2 in Chicago was placed under an "emergency" trusteeship May 24 by the union's "internal reform effort" and its ethically challenged "in-house prosecutor" Robert D. Luskin. The action means that LIUNA will replace the local's elected leaders with hand-picked successors. A cited reason for the impatient action was the May 12 expulsion of Local 2 boss John Matassa for alleged mob ties. Local 2 and Matassa became Luskin latest cause célèbre on Apr. 23 when he began the slower process of filing for a nonemergency trusteeship. Curiously, despite the rush to justice, Matassa wasn't cited in the Dep't of Justice's 1994 draft racketeering complaint against LIUNA even though Matassa ran Local 2 since the mid-1980s.