THE COURT: So first off, congratulations to the new
EST. Is he here?
MR. GEIGER: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Congratulations.
MR. GEIGER: Thank you.
THE COURT: And how was the vote? What was the
process? Did you win by.
MR. GEIGER: It was slightly more than a two-to-one
margin. The vote was held Friday, and the votes were tallied
on Friday.
THE COURT: Nice to have you here.
MR. GEIGER: Thank you.
THE COURT: So I received a letter from Judge Jones
yesterday evening or so, and it's very helpful. What I would
like to do today is deal with these -- the following issues in
the following order.
First, in Judge Jones' letter she raises at the end of
the letter this issue about international agreements, and
frankly, I would like to hear about that first. I'm curious as
to know what that's about and where that's leading us. So
perhaps on that issue I might hear from Mr. Walsh and also then
the district council and anybody else that wants to add
anything to that. So that would be the first thing I would
like to hear about.
The second I would like to talk about the two pending
CBAs. I'm aware that they had -- you are too, that they had
been earlier submitted but never acted upon by me, and that is
because of my concern that they contain provisions that -- this
may be too strong, but on their face are not being complied
with. That's the whole point of the other discussion that
we're having here is that the so-called anti-fraud provisions
in all the CBAs do not appear to be -- well, that may be too
strong, but you understand my point about that. It's kind of
odd to go forward and approve an agreement, which I probably
would not have done incidentally historically had I known at
the time that the provisions that are mandatory in the
agreements, they use the word "shall," were not or could not or
were not adequately being complied with. That would be the
second issue.
Then I would like to talk about the proposed new
amendment of the stipulation and order, what that's about, why
people feel that's important and necessary, then to talk about
the status of electronic reporting. I did note that one of the
consultant, I don't know if that's what it's called, that
District Council retained, one of its early recommendations was
that there be in-house IT capability. That's something that I
have been thinking about and talking about for several months
now, and frankly I have been surprised that that issue hadn't
been taken care of a long time ago.But anyway, I'm all for that. And then we can talk more about electronic reporting,
where that stands.
And then there's an issue about Mr. Walsh. Is he here
today?
Not the RO Walsh, but -- well, maybe that issue will
not be pursued, but we'll see.
So yeah, with that in mind, then of course we can hear
about if anybody has any other issues that they want to
discuss.
So let's hear about this, Mr. Walsh, if we might, this
international agreements issue. It's somewhat of a concern to
me because it suggests, at least from Judge Jones' letter
that -- maybe this is too strong, but somebody is trying to
evade the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining
agreement, at least in spirit, and that is a problem, in my
opinion.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Transcript from January 28, 2014 Court Conference
13 comments:
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ReplyDelete24 THE COURT: I don't really get it. 25 MR. MURPHY: What I think he was saying is that by SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
ReplyDelete12 E1STUNIC 1 agreeing to the new agreement between the District Council and 2 the Wall Ceiling Association, there would be no need for Wall 3 Ceiling Association members to invoke an international 4 agreement. 5 In the past, one- and two-man jobs were not covered 6 under the District Council's agreement of Wall Ceiling, so this 7 was one of the concessions they made with the one-to-one 8 matching, which effectively meant you always would have on a 9 two-person job two District Council members, because no 10 contractor is going to have to do the matching of four people 11 on a two-person job. 12 The deal was done on August 22nd, 2012. As your 13 Honor, I think in retrospect correctly, pointed out that the 14 best practices were to going to be to reduce the deal to a 15 collective bargaining agreement, that was done in March of 16 2013, was submitted to the Court, the Court allowed for an open 17 comment period and then issued an order on May 8, 2013 18 approving the collective bargaining agreement, including the 19 electronic reporting and anti-corruption compliance procedures. 20 It wasn't until August of 2013 that the Wall Ceiling 21 and the UBC executed this agreement, and then recently during 22 the fall has had New York City Wall Ceiling Association members 23 attempting to use the agreement. 24 The District Council's position is this subverts the 25 economics of the New York City District Council/Wall Ceiling SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
13 E1STUNIC 1 agreement, and also subverts the anti-corruption compliance 2 because on these jobs with the international there will not be 3 District Council members, it will be people from out of town 4 and from other UBC locals. That's our position. 5 THE COURT: Strikes me, unless I'm missing something, 6 there's two different issues. One is you're suggesting there's 7 a conflict between the basic CBAs and these international 8 agreements as an economic matter, the other is the issue raised 9 by Judge Jones whether the provisions of the CBAs apply to 10 those international situations. Am I getting that right? 11 MR. MURPHY: Yes, sir.
20 It wasn't until August of 2013 that the Wall Ceiling
ReplyDelete21 and the UBC executed this agreement, and then recently during
22 the fall has had New York City Wall Ceiling Association members
23 attempting to use the agreement.
24 The District Council's position is this subverts the
25 economics of the New York City District Council/Wall Ceiling
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
13 E1STUNIC
1 agreement, and also subverts the anti-corruption compliance
2 because on these jobs with the international there will not be
3 District Council members, it will be people from out of town
4 and from other UBC locals. That's our position.
FACT:
1) Wall & Ceiling Contractor Association signatories and convicted Trustee Joe Oliveri were the primary racketeers skimming money off the top by failing to make the required Benefit Trust Fund payments; costing the funds and the members to be defrauded of $20M an change, so it most certainly is an economic issue and concern when the very same Contractor Association again evades the contractual terms & conditions of the so called bargain for 100% Full Mobility by usurping & evading the agreement by any means including the UBCJA's International Agreement.
2) It's an economic issue to the Dues paying members who are denied work and the opportunity to make a living in their own Council while Doug McCarron & corrupt WCA contrator end run the Consent Decree, the Stip & Order and the mandatory electroninc compliance and reporting of hours and they violate the Contract (WC&C CBA) by failing to match members as agreed.
Mincing words solves nothing. The corruption and evasion continue and the proffered excuse is that the hours coming in are de-minimus, so, it's only a little fraud & deception and non-compliance and not part of the larger picture of capturing th emillion or million & a half M-H from this Contractor Association or the other one.
What a crock of shit, in plain English. Ya see, that is how the corruption and complacency and theft start - with the smaller issue that WC & C and McCarron & the International try to ignore here. No amount of spin, deceit or direct lies to the Judge will change these facts.
Moroever, the traveling Rat show, the carpetbaggers McCarron allows to work under his IA work like non-union dogs, typically arrive with sneakers, no hard hats, lax safety and overall do poor quality work therein devaluing the NYCDCC brand.
Every Man-Hour of work paid to members as wages and benefits are equal in terms of the value to the D.C. and as a legal matter for compliance to CBA's, the Consent Decree & Stip & Order and none should take a back seat in import to the USAO, the RO or the Court given their known history of the DC & UBC International when racketeering is in play.
12 THE COURT: So Mr. Rosen is saying as to the latter,
ReplyDelete13 no problem, right? They do apply, we'll work it out,
14 anti-corruption provisions, and how they apply we'll work it
15 out. But the broader issue that you're raising is -- I'm not
16 sure how that gets resolved, but it doesn't appear to be the
17 issue that is presented to me.
18 MR. MURPHY: We understand the Court's order from
19 May 8 was approving the entire collective bargaining agreement
20 with Wall Ceiling as that also included the anti-corruption
21 compliance.
22 THE COURT: There's no question about that.
23 MR. MURPHY: And that we don't believe that Wall
24 Ceiling can then essentially a year later pick and choose what
25 provisions that it's going to use, whether it implicates the
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
14 E1STUNIC
1 economics of it, and we think it also implicates the
2 anti-corruption compliance. We have no idea with these
3 international agreements how the anti-corruption compliance and
4 the electronic reporting would be done.
Wall, Ceiling & Carpentry and the UBCJA International, particulalry Doug McCarron certainly think they're above it all, the laws, the Consent Decree, the Stipulation & Order as do the Benefit Trust Funds by their obstinate refusal to acknowledge their part in the 2009 racketeerig, indictments, trials, convictions & sentencing; by refusing to be bound by any of it.
Why, they're God's afterall. They do no wrong, they mean no harm, they do not steal, cheat or lie in Court as it suits their corrupt aims no do they?
The Court and the parties with standing seem to ignore one common denominator in the near 25-year Criminal RICO Racketeering - McCarron & Frank Spencer.
Perhaps somedayt soon, before the 25th Anniversary party, the Fed's (USAO & FBI, DOJ, DOL, EBSA, NLRB etc.) will wake up and realize where the very source of the corruption, fraud, conversion of funds and crminal racketeering iver state lines starts & stops; and perhaps someday they will grow a set of balls and take these clowns down and put them in a Federal Penitentary where every knows they both belong - unless of course all of these federal agancies somehow benefit from looking the other way and pretending it does not exist and that McCarron & Spencer can do no harm. St. Doug & St. Frank, yeah Ok, nothing to see here, nothing corrupt going on your Honor - Scouts Honor, you Honor (wink-wink).
Judge Berman should be embarassed to continually allow these lying thieves to make a mockery of his Court.
17 THE COURT: Very clearly it sounds like Mr. Rosen is
ReplyDelete18 saying that, A, they apply, and B, he's willing to work it out.
19 MS. JONES: They have conceded they applied, so we
20 need to work something out.
21 With respect to whether or not there's -- using these
22 internationals violates the CBA itself, we didn't want to end
23 up in an arbitration without advising your Honor that that was
24 coming.
25 THE COURT: So how does that -- that plays out in
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
15 E1STUNIC
1 arbitration?
2 MS. JONES: It will. We expect to be in arbitration
3 with Wall Ceiling, from our discussions with them, on this very
4 issue.
5 THE COURT: And that is provided for where?
6 MR. MURPHY: It's in the District Council/Wall Ceiling
7 collective bargaining agreement if there's any disputes between
8 the parties.
9 THE COURT: I got it.
Wall, Ceiling & Carpentry & the International should not get a second bite at the apple to abscond from following prior Court Orders approving 100% Full Mobility in exchange for 100% Electronic Compliance, not 72-hours later, rather, in real time when the men receive their pay-check as mandated by the Contract(s).
This is not a "reporting" requirement, rather, it is a "collections" requirement for accounts receivable (A/R). The Benefits are due and payable every week with the members pay-check. Any amount paid after the rank & file member receives their pay are thus delinquent Benefit Trust Fund contributions subject to collection costs, including interest and attorney fees as provided for under each respective Contract (CBA). Enough with the continual lying in open Court. Speak the truth for once. Perjury is a crime.
The entire premise of the tit for tat, quid-pro-quo exchange awarding Contractor Association signatories 100% Full Mobility in violation of NLRB Sec.14(b) and allowing out of council/state members, travelers etc to displace the NYCDCC dues paying Carpenter was that all of them would comply with the Electronic Compliance component in real time.
Submitting half-assed reports to the Court on a 2nd grade level spread sheet with a rough head count of who they might think was or was not a particular project 72-hours after the fact (in many instances 2, 3 & 4 weeks later) does absolutely nothing to ensure that the member benefits were paid timely. This is an accounting issue and concern. The members and their Funds are losing money and interest on a daily basis. Based on current pracices and the estimated 18-19 million Man-Hours for the current fiscal year, delayed Benefit Trust Fund contributions will cost the members millions of dollars.
Prior to allowing 'arbitration' Judge Berman first needs to issue a contempt order and sanction & fine the parties for their less than stellar enorcement of the contracts.
The D.C. & Funds need to boilerplate and simplify every contract. They then need to hire competent software engineers (not in-house I.T. personnel who simply fix bugs & quirks in the antiquated software now in use) from Micrsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc who can write a proprietary software program which includes the payroll for every signatory contractor and once entered and payroll checks are cut, the wages & benefits, taxes, insurance etc are reported in real time and stored in the D.C. & Funds server with the appropriate back-up system in place.
ReplyDeleteOnce the basic requirements are complete, competent software engineers can write code which will break out the hours & the monies coming in under each contract and also show what is 'current', what is 'delinquent' and how many days 'outstanding' every Contractor is along with their interest and penalties and attorney fees due under collection procedures.
This is the 21st Century. None of this is Rocket Science. All of it is doable provided we all cut to the chase and the Court & the Government get serious and force the District Council and Benefit Funds to purge the incompetent and fire them and bring in people with the brainpower to get it done in a timely and cost efficient manner.
The Court has allowed the DC & UBCJA International and the Contractor Association members and their legal counsel to play this game of dumbing it all down for 25-years. It hasn't worked now - has it? The simple fact is, try this bullshit in the private sector and 90% of them would be summarily fired. Ah what the hell, it's easy money right? On all sides, half assed effort gets rewarded with fat pay checks for producing nothing tangible or of lasting value. Were this not true, this Consent Decree and all of concerns being addressed would have been resolved in 2-years or less, but given the D.C. runs like the government and accountability is not required, here we are 18-years later still having the same old conversations.
What a joke!
17 THE COURT: So now if we could turn to two pending
ReplyDelete18 CBAs, Mr. Walsh. And first, if you would, what is your view
19 about -- and I intentionally did not go forward because we were
20 waiting to make more progress with respect to the compliance
21 with the electronic reporting, so I don't exactly know how that
22 fits with these two outstanding CBAs.
23 MR. WALSH: Judge, it seems to me that we are
24 unavoidably stuck with a certain reality that the District
25 Council has developed a system which has been described in the
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
17 E1STUNIC
1 various 30-day reports to address what are technological
2 deficiencies. I had many discussions with counsel for the
3 union, with the government, three-way discussions, and it seems
4 to me -- and I have articulated this position, these 30-day
5 reports have become too complicated. They are too much of an
6 exercise in advocacy, that simply what we all need to know is
7 how many hours have been worked in a given period, and within
8 72 hours from the completion of that work, how much of that
9 time has been entered into a system that's reliable.
10 THE COURT: Well, and when you say "reliable," you
11 also mean accessible by individual. We had this whole
12 discussion about the one big aspect of this system was so that
13 they would be able to independently check and see hours
14 reflected.
cont - from above:
ReplyDelete15 MR. WALSH: And that feature is the sole basis why my
16 office and the government signed off, and I assume the Court,
17 that if they can do this, if the rank and file can log on and
18 see the time, it is a singular advancement in anti-racketeering
19 and anti-fraud.
20 THE COURT: What you're saying is accurate, that was
21 very important in my determination whether or not to approve
22 those changes.
23 MR. WALSH: So when the District Council concludes in
24 its most recent report and in Judge Jones' letter of yesterday
25 they're at 98 percent, I'm not quite sure what that means.
____________________
The members are sure.
FACT:
The 100% Full Mobility quid-pro-quo for 100% Full Electronic Compliance was not a trade off so the rank & file member could go play on Operation Watchdog (seriously, woof-woof, this is kindergarten level now) and check to see what hours were allegedly reported on their behalf, whether 72-hours afte rthe fact or whether they were submitted, 2, 3, 4 weeks or someother timeframe later.
It is not a member problem nor is it acceptable to go into a Federal District Court and dumb this Electronic Compliance component down to this level, when all concerned fully know that it is a matter of the DC, Funds and Contractor Associations joint failure to pay benefits owed in a timely manner with the rank & file members pay-check - period, no more, no less.
The Benefits owed are due and payable with the Members Pay-Check! Any amount received after the member receives his or her pay-check is thus delinquent and requiring collection activity, costs, interest and attorney fees as per the contract requirements.
How the hell do you people sleep at night when all of you and even the Judge play this game of lies and continual deceit and ignoring the obvious factual content of what is required by the approval of the contracts (CBA) wit 100% Full Mobility.
The DC, Funds & Contractor Associations are not paying 98% of the member benefits timely as noted above, notwithstanding Judge Jones statements to the contrary wherein she spins it to something other than what it is - a bald face lie! Get it?
All parties need to be held in contempt of Court, sanctioned and appropriately fined, say $5k per day until the Associations and Contractors are fully compliant.
A purging of the inept and incompetent fools at the D.C & Funds should be Geigers first order of business. We'll soon find out how fit to lead this McCarron hack is.
There isn't a $5 Billion dollar corporation around that doesn't know what its A/R & A/P's are on a daily, weekly & monthly basis, or so it would seem. And then, there's the NYCDCC & its Benefit Trust Funds.
6 MS. JONES: Judge, we think that we are complying with
ReplyDelete7 reporting within 72 hours at 98 percent. When we first took a
8 look at the numbers that were provided to the Court in the
9 first couple of months, there were obvious issues. Jobs that
10 appeared to be open -- and this is what you heard before --
11 were actually jobs that had been closed. And so it looked as
12 though we were not reporting hours for jobs when in fact there
13 were no hours being worked.
14 We have finally a job closed box, because one of the
15 biggest problems, as I just mentioned, in getting accurate
16 hours is to know that jobs have closed. That is going to go
17 live. Standard Data did the work on it. It's to go through
18 live on February 15th. This Wednesday and Thursday the shop
19 stewards are all being trained on how to use this box.
20 Once the shop stewards are able to electronically
21 close these jobs, that will reduce the number of unreported
22 hours dramatically. And I want to say that it's complicated to
23 figure out which jobs are still open or closed, which jobs may
24 have been carried even though they hadn't begun yet, and a
25 number of other factors. But in order to try to give your
SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300
22 E1STUNIC
1 Honor as close to an accurate percentage of compliance as
2 possible -- and for that reason we had to use our person power
3 as opposed to our system, because our system simply cannot tell
4 us what is happening on any given day. We have used it, and we
5 stand by our numbers, and we think going forward we can achieve
6 the same compliance with the contracts before your Honor now.
7 THE COURT: I get all that. But as Mr. Walsh said, at
8 least in my mind, at the time of approval of these so-called
9 anti-corruption technology provisions, was the promise that any
10 individual worker, carpenter, could go online and double-check.
11 That was the transparency issue and that was something that I
12 thought was very appealing and very important.
13 And I don't know -- I don't think your 98 percent says
14 that 98 percent of all carpenters can do that with reliability.
15 That's the missing factor, or if it's not missing, I just don't
16 understand where that stands, and that is what I'm interested
17 in seeing.
________________
Judge Jones......"because our system simply cannot tell 4 us what is happening on any given day".
The first kernel of truth in 8-months.
All the rest is a bunch of bullshit and everyone knows it. The other thing noticeable within this transcript, it appears that Judge Berman either just woke up from a nap or that he is slipping as many of his remarks were almost incoherent & nonsensical. Either get more rest or time to retire and bring in a no nonsense Judge who will cut to the chase and deal with the corrupt elements for what they are - racketeers and mobsters scamming & gaming the system.
It's unacceptable for the USAO & RO to ditto all they do, say all is well and never take any hard action. It is much too slow of a pace even at the warp speed which the government thinks its moving. C'mon ladies, 24-1/2 years and what have you accomplished?
20-years on the Decree and Racketeering has not been eliminated and Democracy has not been restored and those are the facts, all lying aside.
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