Indicted head of Carpenters union head Michael Forde replaced by national labor leaders

BY Brian Kates

The indicted head of the city's carpenters unions and his two top lieutenants were booted from office Wednesday and their posts taken over by national labor leaders, sources told The Daily News.

The firing of District Council of Carpenters boss Michael Forde, Carpenters Local 608 chief John Greaney and the local's business agent, Brian Hayes, came just days after they were indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges.

The International Brotherhood of Carpenters ordered the trio to step down and placed the 25,000 member District Council under emergency supervision.

Frank Spencer, who runs the east coast operations of the national union, will run the organization, made up of 11 union locals, for an indefinite period, Brotherhood president Douglas McCarron said.

McCarron called the indictments "profoundly disturbing."

In 1996, the council was placed under international union supervision amid corruption charges. The oversight was lifted three years later, but the council remained under federal monitoring.

District Council lawyer Gary Rothman declined comment, as did Forde's lawyer, Andrew Lankler.

Forde and his District Council cohorts, along with two purported mobsters and three shop stewards, were charged in a 29-count indictment with stealing millions from the union and its benefit fund.

The scheme involved millions in bribes to union officials to look the other way while corrupt contractors cheated workers out of benefits and wages, according to prosecutors.

The alleged scheme began in 1996, when Forde was head of Local 608, and continued into his tenure as District Council chief -- a position he'd held for a decade.

Forde's resignation was in stark contrast to his refusal to step down when he was indicted on bribery charges in 2000. The union stuck by him even after he was convicted in 2004 and the rank and file continued to pay his legal fees right up to his acquittal after a retrial last year.

This time, the union decided that Forde, Greaney and Hayes can run for reinstatement if they are acquitted, sources said.

Forde, free on $750,000 bond, is one of the most politically powerful labor leaders in the city.

The District Council, which includes 11 union locals, has given out $3 million to politicians since he took the helm in 1999 and his eagerly sought endorsement was better than gold in the campaign chests of Hillary Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg, among others.