Union Corruption Update

Skimming contributions long has been a favored method of theft by union embezzlers. But the odds of getting caught eventually catch up. Just ask Grace Rathke. On January 3, Rathke, formerly office manager for Laborers Union of North America Local 32, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to stealing more than $190,000 in funds from the Rockford union. She had been indicted in August 2011 on 10 counts of embezzlement following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.

On January 2, Linda Weed, former office secretary for Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Union Local 534, was charged in the Trial Court of Massachusetts, BMC Department, with one count of larceny from the Boston-based union in the amount of $7,294.73. The charge follows a probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On December 19, Wanda Jackson, former secretary-treasurer of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 4065, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to 18 months of incarceration and three years of supervised release for embezzling $41,246.95 in funds from the Plano, Tex.-based union. She also was ordered to pay full restitution plus a $100 assessment. Jackson had been found guilty last March and indicted in July 2011. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On December 18, James Kiser, former directing business representative for International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 165, was charged in Stearns County Court of Minnesota with four counts of theft of $5,919 from the St. Cloud, Minn.-based union during January 2010-February 2012. The charges follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

The National Labor Relations Board may be inoperative at present. Yet one of its rulings last month, unless undone, will curtail a longstanding right of employers and individual workers. On December 12, in WKYC-TV Inc., the NLRB ruled 3-1 that an employer must continue to collect dues from union members via automatic "checkoff" even after the collective bargaining agreement expires. The ruling effectively overturns the board's Bethlehem Steel decision of 1962, which ruled against forced dues check-offs following contract expiration. It's another case of President Obama's appointees to the normally five-member body favoring forced unionism.

On December 17, Mark Morgan, former secretary-treasurer of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 2584, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana to three years of probation, including eight months of home detention, for embezzling funds from the formerly Fremont, Ind.-based union. He also was ordered to pay $17,616.70 in restitution and a $100 special assessment. Morgan had been charged in May, and pleaded guilty in August. The actions follow a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

When is a presidential recess appointment less than an appointment? It would seem when Congress isn't in recess. This Friday morning, January 25, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously invalidated President Obama's three appointments - Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn - to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of January 4, 2012. The Obama administration is expected to appeal the case, known as Noel Canning v. NLRB, to the U.S. Supreme Court. As Flynn stepped down last summer and another member left in December, the normally five-member NLRB now has only one legitimate member, Mark Pearce.

On December 14, Gloria Dickinson, former secretary-treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees Local 421, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 30 days of home confinement, five years of probation and 40 hours of community service for making false financial statements. She also was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $21,713.32. Dickinson had been charged early last September and pleaded guilty about a week later. The local is based in Washington, D.C. The actions follow a probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

The ruling might not have eased tension in a state that by now is all too used to it. But it went a long way in clarifying the situation. Last Friday, on January 18, a federal appeals court in Chicago, by a 2-1 margin, upheld the entirety of a Wisconsin law passed in 2011 that repealed most collective bargaining for state and local government employees. In overturning a lower court decision of last March, the three-judge panel concluded the legislation, Act 10, did not violate public-sector unions' constitutional right to free speech or equal protection. The ruling thus removes a major obstacle to Republican Governor Scott Walker's program to improve his state's fiscal condition.