AFL-CIO crackup
Breakaway
Unions ‘Among
America’s Most Corrupt’
National Legal and Policy
Center
“The
biggest problem facing organized labor today,”
says Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and
Policy Center, “is not a disagreement over strategy. It
is declining membership. Workers do not believe union
bosses represent their interests. Corruption remains a
huge problem in unions like the Teamsters, Laborers,
SEIU and UNITE-HERE. Ironically, it is the most corrupt
unions that are among the dissidents. It would be
inaccurate to call them reformers.”
“The reason for the split may be more mundane than
expressed in the media so far,” continued Boehm. “To be
sure, there are differences over the future of organized
labor, but the real dispute is over who gets the spoils
of dues monies. Unions that leave the AFL-CIO don’t have
to pay their dues, including millions in back dues.”
Boehm pointed to the corruption problems in the dissident
unions:
Teamsters
- The Teamsters continue under Justice Department oversight,
with no end in sight. Last year, former federal prosecutor
Edwin Stier, who had been hired by the Teamsters to clean up
the union, resigned. Stier charged that Teamsters President
James Hoffa had “backed away” and “inexplicably retreated”
from anticorruption efforts. Earlier this year, a top aide to
Hoffa by the name of Carlow Scalf, whom Stier had accused of
protecting mob interests in the Teamsters, was suspended from
the union for allegedly embezzling
nearly $70,000, in the form of a fake housing allowance.
Laborers
- In 1994, the Justice Department alleged in a draft Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Complaint, “LIUNA
union officers and employees at all levels, including the
general presidency, have been chosen, subject to the approval
of, and have been controlled by, various members and
associates of organized crime.” The Clinton administration
agreed to an “internal reform” program in lieu of filing the
racketeering suit. Internal reform has proven a failure.
UNITE-HERE
- Co-president John Wilhelm is a long-time associate, defender
and successor to Ed Hanley, HERE boss from 1973-98. A 1977
Justice Department report said Hanley was named HERE president
by Chicago crime boss Joey Aiuppa. During 1984 Senate
testimony, Hanley took the Fifth Amendment 36 times. In 1995,
a court-appointed monitor removed Hanley, accusing him of a
wide range of corruption, including operating a “ghost” local
in Rhinelander, Wisconsin where Hanley had a vacation home.
Wilhelm was asked in 1999 whether Hanley was corrupt on NBC’s
Dateline. He replied “not in my view” and asserted his belief
that everything Hanley did was “entirely legal.”
SEIU
- SEIU President Andrew Stern was implicated but never charged
in the 1996 Teamsters money-laundering scandal. One of the
most well-publicized scandals in recent years concerned SEIU
local 32B-32J in New York City. Its president, Gus Benova, was
forced out in the wake of allegations of a lavish lifestyle,
authoritarian rule and possible mob ties.
The National Legal and Policy Center sponsors the Organized
Labor Accountability Project, and publishes Union Corruption
Update every two weeks. Information on corruption in these and
other unions is archived on NLPC’s website (www.nlpc.org).
