Union Corruption Update

The National Labor Relations Board ought to be about the last place to find anyone with a history of union corruption. But Richard Griffin (see photo), an NLRB member and former general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), may be the exception. Griffin last October was named as a defendant in a federal racketeering suit filed by 10 members of IUOE Local 501 in Los Angeles. The complaint alleges Griffin, during his tenure representing the international union, was complicit in a "scheme to defraud [the local] out of revenue, cost savings and membership." Dozens of union members, the suit charges, engaged in kickbacks, bribery, threats and extortion.

On December 5, Clarence Howard, former secretary-treasurer of United Steelworkers Local 789, was indicted in Hamilton County Criminal Court for the State of Tennessee on one count of theft in an amount of over $1,000 from the Chattanooga-based union. The indictment follows a probe by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On November 26, Randy Paulson, former secretary-treasurer of Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Sub-Lodge 1125, a Teamsters affiliate, pleaded no contest in Adams County, Wisconsin Circuit Court to one count of theft from the Adams, Wisc.-based union. He then was ordered to pay $264 in restitution, a $486 fine and $37.50 restitution surcharge by January 25, 2013. Paulson previously had paid $2,245 in restitution prior to sentencing. The actions follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

Sandra Jungbluth may have done her boyfriend's bidding, but she now has to pay the price. Last June 8, Jungbluth, an accountant for a consulting firm that handles benefits for a Wisconsin affiliate of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), was sentenced in a state court to three years of probation for embezzling more than $450,000 in union funds over nearly a decade and forging the signature of a company vice president. As a condition for probation, she must serve eight months in jail. Jungbluth had been charged in February 2011 and pleaded guilty in December of that year. She also will have to make restitution in the amount of $459,000.

Kevin Clor may have had a difficult domestic situation, but that didn't win him much sympathy from the judge. On August 8, Clor, formerly general counsel for New York Thruway Employees Local 72, a Teamsters affiliate, was sentenced in Manhattan state court to at least two years and eight months, and up to eight years, in prison for defrauding the union of $184,000. The actual take had been somewhat higher. He had been indicted in January, and eventually pleaded guilty in June to 34 counts of grand larceny, possession of forged documents, and falsification of records. In a brief statement to Acting State Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman, Clor accepted responsibility for his actions and vowed to fully compensate the union. As of August, he had paid around $30,000.

Ava Ramey at one time was a courtroom security officer. Now she knows what it feels like to be escorted to the door by one. Yesterday, on January 8, Ramey, an ex-trustee of United Government Security Officers of America (UGSOA) Local 21, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to two years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for embezzling nearly $380,000 from the Bowie, Md.-based union over a nearly four-year period. She also will have to make full restitution. She had been charged in June, and pleaded guilty later that month. The actions follow a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

On November 21, Patricia Race, former president of United Auto Workers Local 959, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division, with one count of failing to disclose a material fact in the Fremont, Ohio (near Sandusky) union's annual financial report. The charge follows a probe by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards.

Whatever else might be said of the International Longshoremen's Association, this is one union that knows how to drive a hard bargain. On December 27, a federal mediator announced the ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance had reached a tentative contract agreement, thus heading off a potentially crippling strike at 14 Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. The key obstacle to a settlement - whether or not to scrap cargo container royalties amounting to over $15,000 per worker a year - has been removed. Port owners had argued the practice is needless and costly; the union had insisted it is fair compensation for jobs lost to automation.

Money collected by a political action committee presumably goes for political campaigns. Cora Carper apparently had ideas of her own. And as fate would have it, so do federal prosecutors. On November 14, Carper, former fund manager for a PAC sponsored by the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, was indicted on six counts by a Greenbelt, Maryland federal grand jury for embezzling more than $500,000 from a PAC sponsored by the Lanham, Md.-based union, which represents more than 20,000 insulation industry workers in the U.S. and Canada. Carper faces up to five years in prison plus forfeiture of all stolen money. No initial court appearance has been scheduled yet.