NLPC: A Real Criminal Enterprise
Posted on April 17, 2006 at 2:21 pm by Chuck Muth
From the April 10th “Union Corruption Update” published by the National Legal & Policy Center…
* Ron Saathoff, the longtime president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 145 is facing federal and state criminal charges in connection with a secret deal he allegedly worked out with San Diego officials. Saathoff, prosecutors say, secured a 40 percent increase in his retirement income in exchange for a City agreement to underfund the union pension.
* As a teacher to special-needs students, Ava Marlene Shaw had a helping hand. But as president of the San Gabriel Teachers Association she seemed a lot more interested in helping herself. On March 22, police arrested Shaw, 50, for embezzling about $83,000 in union funds.
* The good times rolled. And now, unfortunately, so might Danny Iverson and Debra Timko. On March 21, a federal grand jury issued a 33-count indictment against the pair, each a former president of Service Employees International Union Local 150. They were charged with mail and wire fraud in the theft of more than $50,000 from the Milwaukee-based union, part of a scheme to embezzle more than $90,000 to pay for personal expenses.
* Janett Humphries isn’t like her former ally, Martin Ludlow: She thinks she can beat the rap. For her sake, she’d better be right. She’s facing a maximum of five years in federal prison on each of 18 counts. On Monday, March 20, Ms. Humphries, formerly president of SEIU Local 99, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles to embezzling $36,000 in 2003 to help Ludlow get elected to the Los Angeles City Council; she allegedly also used union funds on travel expenses for relatives and a friend.
* On March 9, Jerry LeBlanc, ex-president of Local 2250 of the American Federation of Government Employees, pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma for embezzling $46,151.51 in union funds.
* On March 14, Tina Buracker, formerly president of Local 82174 of the Communications Workers of America, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of embezzling union funds. Back in October she had been indicted for embezzling $54,679.38 from the Shenandoah, Va.-based local.
* On March 24, Rebecca Bandt, former president of Local 717 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to six months in prison followed by three months in a community treatment center and three years probation. Bandt had pleaded guilty (to embezzlement) in January.
* On March 13, Richard Lammers, former business agent-financial secretary for Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 99-G, based in Wichita, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of embezzling nearly $5,000 in union funds during January-July 2005.
* On March 15, Edward Johnson, a former treasurer for National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 704, was indicted by a federal grand jury for embezzling union funds. Johnson, 53, the indictment alleges, stole $4,790 from the Sierra Vista, Ariz.-based local while serving as its treasurer.
* On March 8, William Skursky, former secretary-treasurer of Local 2-672 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania to two years probation with six months electronic monitoring for making false entries in union records. The purpose of his actions was to conceal thefts of more than $6,000 in union funds.
* On March 3, Linda Hosleton, former recording secretary for Local 282 of the United Auto Workers, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to one count of embezzling $1,444.50 in union funds.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Unionism seldom, if ever, uses such power as it has to insure better work; almost always it devotes a large part of that power to safeguarding bad work.”
- H.L. Mencken
