CUF: Union Members Pick Up $70,000 Tribute Tab
Posted on April 20, 2006 at 9:08 pm by Chuck Muth
From the April 14, 2006 “Union Facts” e-newsletter…
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: What happens to a union president who leaves his post amid allegations of recklessly investing members’ pension money? He gets a golden parachute and a “tribute” dinner worth tens of thousands more of members’ money. Unfortunately, this isn’t a joke.
Last week, the Center for Union Facts reported on the golden parachutes paid to former Plumbers international union officials. According to the union’s 2005 financial filings with the Department of Labor, the Plumbers handed out golden parachutes to former General President Martin Maddaloni ($1.3 million in total compensation) and Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Patchell (almost $900,000 in total compensation). The two resigned in November 2004 after an apparently unsuccessful investment of members’ pension funds in a Florida hotel. According to the Association for Union Democracy, the buyout agreement included “salaries and benefits plus free use of cars and other perks through the end of 2006.”
But this week, we found something even stranger. Unions paid a combined $70,500 toward a tribute dinner to former Plumbers president Martin Maddaloni, including one entry listed as a payment to Maddaloni himself:
* The Plumbers national headquarters paid $31,500 for tickets to the “Martin J Maddaloni Tribute”
* Plumbers Local 420 paid $5,000 – paid to “Martin Maddaloni” — for a “retirement dinner for Martin Maddaloni”
* Plumbers Local 130 spent $6,000 on a Maddaloni retirement dinner advertisement
* A Plumbers state association paid $7,500 for a “Martin J Maddaloni Tribute” — as a “representational” activity
* The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department paid $7,500 for a “Martin J Maddaloni Tribute Dinner” out of its “Contributions, Gifts and Grants”
* The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) national headquarters paid $7,500 for “MARTIN J MADDALONI TRIBUTE”
* Plumbers Local 68 paid $5,500 in total expenses related to the “MARTIN J. MADDALONI TRIBUTE”
In September 2002, Knight Ridder reported on the original Department of Labor lawsuit seeking to remove Maddaloni and Patchell from control of the members’ pensions:
The leaders of a union pension fund built the $800 million Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa without any real financial plan, doling out sweetheart deals to unqualified companies with close family connections to a union official, the U.S. Department of Labor alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Fort Lauderdale…
The civil suit follows a two-year investigation into the construction of the Diplomat, which opened more than 18 months late and 100 percent over its original budget of $400 million. It is the most expensive hotel project ever built in South Florida, and its problems have generated concerns among union members that their retirement money is being squandered.
The Diplomat incident isn’t Maddaloni’s only tie to questionable pension issues. In 2003, former Illinois Governor James Thompson published a report on financial self-dealing by union presidents who ran a company managing pension funds. Thompson recommended that Maddaloni return $234,680 earned in questionable dealings.
SOURCE: Center for Union Facts
