When Unions Investigate Themselves
Posted on August 27, 2007 at 5:10 am by WTH
How bad is the corruption in a Union Local when even the national Union itself finds itself investigating the Local? Of course, expecting the national to investigate a Local is asking the Fox to guard the hen house, but, it’s gotta be bad if even the national organization can’t turn the other way!
Naturally, Local 331 is in the land of “The Sopranos” in New Jersey. Of course, I’m sure everyone just wants to get to the bottom of things and make it all right.
Yeah… riiiight.
Teamsters will continue oversight of Local 331
PLEASANTVILLE - What Teamsters Local 331 members say they long anticipated is now official: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has decided to continue its trusteeship over the local in order to root out alleged financial malfeasance and corruption.
The international union’s decision follows an emergency temporary trusteeship imposed in June, based upon findings by its officials and a corporate fraud investigation company earlier this year. A private hearing July 19 that was to help determine whether the trusteeship would remain played out like a court trial, bringing to the stand ousted President Joseph Yeoman, a panel of IBT officials and members of the local.
As he vowed to do from the beginning, Yeoman denied charges that the local was fiscally irresponsible and had possibly fraudulent ties. It was not enough to sway the hearing panel. The recommendation was unanimous.
In a letter to members, IBT General President James Hoffa wrote that based on the panel’s recommendations, “I have determined that the trusteeship should be continued in order to correct financial malpractice and corruption; assure the full performance of the local’s duties as bargaining representative for its members; restore democratic procedures; and to assure that the local is operated for the benefit of its members and in accordance with applicable law, the international constitution and the local union bylaws.”
Temporary trustee Tony Frasco had “received numerous complaints about the lack of diligent and effective representation by Local 331’s former officers” and found the local’s affairs in a disorganized state, Hoffa wrote.
Reports from IBT officials and the corporate fraud investigation firm “indicated that gross mismanagement of the local’s finances, including the finances of its benefit funds and the absence of or failure of financial accountability mechanisms, has left the Local’s finances in dire condition,” the letter said.
This is the third time in two decades that the international union has taken over Local 331 to correct mismanagement. In an odd twist for a man who has just seen his 15-year presidency abruptly shuttered by international officials, it was Yeoman who stepped in as an IBT assistant trustee during the last takeover. He became president when the trusteeship was lifted in 1992.
Local 331 is one of the area’s most prominent unions, representing about 1,700 members who set up trade shows at the Atlantic City Convention Center and work in county and municipal government and the construction and transportation industries, among others.
“I do know that as far as I’m concerned, we done a good job in bringing our local from where it was before into a good-running local, and I still disagree with what they’re saying,” said Yeoman, who was not aware of the decision when contacted for a phone interview.
When asked whether the decision was in members’ best interest, Yeoman said he didn’t think so, “but it’s done, so I have no control over that.”
International officials have not been in touch with him since the hearing, Yeoman said.
A message left at Local 331’s Pleasantville office for Frasco, the international trustee, was not returned.
Many members have said previously that once the temporary 30-day trusteeship was imposed, they expected IBT officials to extend it.
“Trusteeship is almost a better thing,” said member John Devlin, who does trade show work, referring to the sentiment among some members that the union was run poorly for so long that the IBT’s intervention was a blessing.
Still, the swirl of scuttlebutt, upheaval and confusion surrounding Local 331 during the past few months has left some members with the sense that too many unanswered questions remain.
“It’s like we’re in limbo,” member Greg Brown said. At last week’s meeting, he said, “we were hoping a lot of the decisions would be made by now, and without decisions being made yet, it leaves a lot of the questions … a lot of the mistakes that Yeoman made, it still leaves them unanswered because there hasn’t been no resolution to them. It’s like you’re being left in the dark.”
“We want a solid answer at a reasonable time on the financial state of our union here in Pleasantville,” Brown said. “We want an answer to whether our union hall will be sold or whether we can keep it. We want an answer as to what’s being done and … how much new work that we’re going to have.”
