Union Fund Embezzlements 'Epidemic,' Analyst Says

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNSNews

By Pete Winn CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer

Eleven union officials were indicted and eight were convicted in August on charges of embezzling union pension funds, following probes launched by federal auditors and investigators at the U.S. Department of Labor.

According to a report released Monday by the department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), 84 indictments for corruption have been issued thus far in 2007, leading to the conviction of 108 union officials.

All told, nearly 800 convictions have been obtained since 2001, with court-ordered restitution exceeding $101 million, said Deputy Assistant Labor Secretary Don Todd, who announced the report's release.

In the largest enforcement effort, Jorge Aponte-Figueroa, the former president of the International Longshoreman's Association Local 1740 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for embezzling $1.9 million in union funds. He also was found guilty of falsifying records and money laundering.

Read more: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200709/POL20070919a.html

---

Please read the full story. One of the bad sides of a few make us all look bad. Hundreds of millions of dollars is not trivial Please ask your Senator to RESTORE OLMS funding that was reduced by the house this year.

OS

[acmavm]

1. Unions do have to fight the bad reputations of a few of its leaders. The

worst thing that ever happened to the unions was Jimmy Hoffa. And not this looks like all union pension funds are just being used by union officials to feather their own nests.

Too bad. Because most people (at least most of the one's I know) see a story about something like this and use it as justification for keeping unions out of somewhere or union busting.

[pattmarty]

8. Your uninformed post

Why don't you read a little about unions before you stick your foot in your mouth? We need more unions in this country and laws that are already on the books to be enforced so people can join without being intimidated. Also, try to at least LOOK at the reference (CNS News.com) before posting tripe. Oh, and why you may ask how I might seem to know just a little more than you regarding unions? Because I belonged to a union for more than 30 yrs and retired at the age of 54 at 3200.00 per month. So if you are truly a Liberal/Progressive which I doubt, do a little fact checking before you shoot off your fucking mouth!

[acmavm]

9. Listen you idiot. I said that these were the things that gave the perception

that unions were a bad thing. THE PERCEPTION. NOT THAT THEY ARE. That they have had to live down what a few bad apples pull, that you don't hear what good unions do.

Maybe your friggin' union has a remedial reading class that you can attend. You sorely need to brush up on your reading skills. And a little help in the critical thinking area wouldn't hurt one damn bit either.

[pattmarty]

11. Maybe you need a brain transplant.

Maybe you are the one in need of "remedial reading". Better take the orig piece next door and have your neighbor read it to you. IT'S A RIGHT WING SITE, fucking moron. If you want to spout right wing rhetoric at least be honest about it instead of playing a back door troll.

[acmavm]

13. Yeah, Mr. 20 Posts, I'm a back door troll. And you're still an idiot.

[pattmarty]

15. Yeah, thank you. At least I'm a LIBERAL LABOR LOVING idiot.

[Uben]

2. Thieves always think they won't get caught.......

....but eventually, they alays do. Stupidity, arrogance, whatever, it always does them in. I have been a member of both a good local and a bad local, both USW. While the local officers weren't embezelling money per se, they would make up reasons to go off the company clock and onto the union's until all the funds were exhausted.......every month! That is, until I became their supervisor and demanded they show proof of their need to go off the company clock. When I explained to the members of the local what they were doing, and why they never had any money, all hell broke loose! No criminal charges were filed, but I was successful in firing the union president and the others were replaced by new officers.

All unions are not corrupt, and many are necessary to insure fair working conditions and practices. I think unions with honorable officers are a good thing, while those who are led by crooks suck. I hate seeing them sponge money from their fellow workers on the sly. To me, it's criminal.

These officers caught embezzling should have to run a gauntlet of the workers they ripped off, and should get the ever-lovin shit kicked out of them.....before they are sent off to prison.

[bemildred]

3. Oh good.

:popcorn::popcorn:

This does not appear to LBN, by the way.

[Turbineguy]

4. I think I know

another indictment coming down the pike...

[aquart]

5. Ah. How are the corporate pension funds doing?

Is there a dime still in them?

[pattmarty]

6. JESUS CHRIST!!!!!! We need more unions, this is just a bullshit smokescreen.

Sure, SOME union execs steal, but I would be willing to bet that big business, politicians, Wall street, have a lot more of this shit going on as a percentage than Union execs. Let's not take our eye off the ball, and continue to hammer away at these right wing wackos that are sleazy greedy and power hungry.

[Trajan]

12. You going after the wrong guys .....

Omaha Steve is a tireless supporter of Unions here at DU ..... He is just providing some balance for what people already know: SOME union leadership is corrupt and steals from their own membership ....

While I despise THAT website, and hate that ANYONE would ever post the likes of that here, we have to acknowledge the BAD things about Unions in order to fix the problems, and remove the negative associations citizens have of unions ....

BTW: I was a member of 2 Bargaining Units for 28 years ..... and will continue to argue FOR unions .....

But honestly: your expletive-laced posts against Omaha Steve seem a little misplaced here .... you obviously havent been around here much, or you would know of the THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of PRO-Union articles he has posted here .....

Unions are making a comeback, NOT because shrill and profane supporters go about yelling at union supporters, but because workers can easily see how they have been left out in the cold by management, and they are coming to grips with the fact that unions are necessary ....

[pattmarty]

7. Who the fuck posted this story? This is a RIGHT WING NEWS SITE.

[0rganism]

10. 800 union fund embezzlement convictions since 2001...

That's a fairly powerful record, considering their "progress" on damn near every other front.

How many terrorists have the bushies convicted in that time? Three?

Nice to see they've got the War On Organized Labor functioning smoothly, eh? :sarcasm:

[Gman]

14. That's why jail cells were built with 2 bunks

one for the president and one for the secretary-treasurer.

[saigon68]

16. Wow I feel the love in this thread