Updated September 23, 2009 FROM: FRANK SPENCER, SUPERVISOR
TO: ALL DISTRICT COUNCIL EMPLOYEES AND SHOP STEWARDS
RE: POLICY ON SOLICITATION FOR NON-COUNCIL RELATED FUNCTIONS ON WORKTIME
DATE: SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 _________________________________________________
It has been reported that District Council employees and/or shop stewards have distributed literature at District Council sanctioned and supported picket lines and on job sites advertising a fundraiser for two former Council employees. Be advised this fundraiser is not a District Council sanctioned or supported event.
All District Council employees and shop stewards are hereby advised they may not advertise or otherwise solicit support or opposition for any organization, person(s), function or cause of any kind not directly related to your District Council job function, by distributing printed materials or other things, in any form, or by verbally soliciting such support or opposition, during your work hours, without the prior written permission from my office. Nor may you use any property of the District Council or a Local Union, whether or not on work time including, but not limited to, its computers, office supplies and equipment, cellular phones, signs, emblems, insignia, or other property, to support any non-District Council endorsed organization, person(s), function or cause without prior written permission from my office.
I appreciate there are many worthy causes and organizations deserving of your support, but your support for such causes must be strictly limited to non-working time and non-Council property. In addition, you scrupulously avoid creating even the impression of support or opposition by the District Council, of any cause not expressly within out mission statement.
Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions about this policy or its specific application to any matter you are involved with.
District Council employees who fail to abide by this policy will be subject to discipline up to and including discharge. Shop stewards who fail to abide by this policy will have their shop steward credentials subject to suspension or removal.
I am writing to you in response to your letter to the membership dated August 25, 2009. You wrote, as supervisor of the “emergency supervision” your “first and only concern is the membership”, and you have “every confidence in the members of the district council”.
Specifically I am troubled by your highly questionable action of naming Peter Thomassen as your assistant supervisor of the district council and naming Martin Deveraux, business manager of Local 608.
As supervisor you could have used your authority and named an individual from outside the district council and/or local union untouched by scandal and corruption. Maybe some other business manager or business agent could have brought a fresh perspective and new direction to both council and local operations. Instead by naming Mr. Thomassen who has become embroiled in so many disgraceful scandals that he has proved himself entirely unworthy of membership trust or authority you have signaled to the membership you are not serious in cleaning up the District Council and its “business as usual”.
In contrast to your predecessor, (with no arrest or indictment of any council officer) Banes removed the entire elected administration from office, including the president, first vice president, second vice president, secretary-treasurer, and trustees to the benefit funds.
At the time GP McCarron stated, that the administration among other things “had mismanaged the district council's funds, hired unnecessary employees to administer the council, leased luxury cars and run up excessive legal bills”.
In December 1999 as the council emerged from UBC supervision, Mike Forde campaigning for EST promised the membership that this would be “the most ethical and corruption free administration ever”. He picked Thomassen as his right hand man for the most important and powerful intersection between the membership and the district council, president and chairman of the delegate body.
Contrast the actions of 1996, with your actions of only removing Forde as EST, after being arrested and charged with a 29-count indictment on August 5, 2009 for corruption, racketeering, bribery and perjury, in a conspiracy that stretches over a decade, involving six contractors, business agents, business manager, benefit fund trustees, shop stewards, associates, council employees and testing positive for cocaine use, is startling to say the least.
A poll on local157.blogspot.com shows 83% do not trust you to supervise the district council’s affairs honestly and support the federal government being brought in to jointly administer the supervision.
Peter Thomassen along with Dennis Sheil was part of Mike Forde's “Unity Team”. Both were and are his biggest supporters, defenders and enablers of the “culture of corruption” that exist at the district council.
From 2003 thru 2005 Mr. Mack uncovered nests of job site corruption, where shop stewards routinely falsified reports and accepted bribes to allow certain contractors to routinely operate large “cash jobs” on major construction sites without detection from the district council.
Mack’s detailed reports show not only that corruption continues to infiltrate the union, but also that District Council officers and business agents have done an “inadequate job of weeding it out and have been either complicit in corruption or, at a minimum, not doing their jobs”.
On June 3, 2005 Mack filed a report on Tri-Built Construction, a corrupt drywall contractor that operated in New York City and Long Island. In the report, among other things, Mack wrote “unfortunately, I have been stymied in my attempts to explore how and with whose assistance a corrupt employee would be able to remove shop steward reports from the District Council’s offices. At the current stage of the investigation, it is impossible to know how many other contractors were able to cheat the District Council and the Benefit Funds with this crude but effective methodology, but I am certain that others exist”.
It is well documented that the district council knew of Tri-Built’s corruption as early as April 2004, most likely even earlier, and did nothing to stop it. No job shut downs, no audits, no business agents informed, no shop stewards removed, nothing.
In November of 2004 Thomassen obstructed Mack's investigation of Tri-built and hired Kroll to take over the investigation from Mack. Thomassen never informed or reported to the delegate body Mack's detailed reports, investigations of corruption, the blocking of Mack's investigation and the hiring of Kroll. To date the findings of the Kroll investigation are unknown.
In December 2004 the District Council, led by Thomassen, gave notice to Mack by letter, of its intent to fire him; the termination letter cites no reason or cause for terminating Mack.
Thomassen informed the delegates of this action, after the fact on May 11, 2005 at a regular schedule delegate body meeting. Thomassen said the council was unhappy with the “run away cost and the abuse” from Mack. “You don’t know what we went through; It’s been a rough two years of abuse to our members and business agents.” Thomassen also chastised the frivolous anonymous callers to the Hotline Mack operated saying, “if a member has corruption to report he should leave his name”. In the two years that Walter Mack has been investigating Thomassen said, Mack “did not find one business agent doing anything wrong".
Supporters of Mack believe he was fired because of the corruption he was uncovering (which Forde and others have been indicted) and the lack of will by the District Council Officers to combat it.
Mack also reported that the Districts Councils “anti-corruption program” lacked any truly independent investigator responsible for looking into allegations of corruption and found that the District Council was guilty of “at the very least negligence” and has been compromised and questioned the council’s commitment to combat corruption.
It should be noted that while Forde was distracted with his prior indictments and alleged drug use, twice he would be tried, the first he would be convicted and acquitted on appeal; the second he would be acquitted at trial, Thomassen was running the day-to-day council operations (Forde said as much during the 2008 elections).
In June 2001, in violation of the UBC constitution, 1994 Consent Decree and more importantly the trust of the membership, Thomassen along with Forde secretly bargained away the job referral rules, without notifying or seeking the approval of the 15-member negotiating team, the 88-member elected delegate body, the rank-and-file and the federal government who has oversight supervision.
On November 5, 2004 Mack filed a report on the 50/50 Rule and Request System. Mack concluded that bargaining away the job referral rules and the “current request system reduces the out-of-work-list into a paperwork dance with little value to anyone but the contractors who can select the Carpenters they want to work for them.” All the while, the district council encouraged out-of-work carpenters to use the out-of-work list as their source of employment.
Once again Thomassen never informed the delegates about Mack’s report or the devastating effects of the “request system”.
According to Thomassen's sworn testimony on April 12, 2005, the council negotiated the 2001 contract change with Joe Olivieri, (also indicted with Forde) a benefit fund trustee and director of the Association of Wall and Ceiling and Carpentry. According to Thomassen in exchange for “the best contract we have ever negotiated”, he “sold” the job referral rules to the association, and gave them what they wanted, the ability to request and hire 100% of the carpenter work force.
That contract change which Forde and/or Thomassen never reported to the delegates or membership, eviscerated the job referral rules, effectively rendered the 50/50 rule a nullity, left carpenters vulnerable to corruption, reduce the out-of-work list into a meaningless “paperwork dance”, violated the 1994 Consent Decree, led to a guilty of contempt charge on February 20, 2007 by the United States Court of Appeals, cost millions of dollars in litigation, left carpenters to languish on a phony out-of-work list without knowledge that their was little hope of getting a job, deprived the union of having at the job site carpenters whose primary loyalty is to the union rather than the contractor and led us to where we are today!
Thomassen deceived everyone, from the delegate body, to the membership to the federal government. For that act alone Pete Thomassen should be brought up on charges for defrauding the union and egregious breach of fiduciary responsibility.
Mr. Thomassen has never acknowledged any wrong doing on his part and has stated, everything he did “was with the knowledge of the delegate body”. Minutes of the delegate body meeting and current indictment however do not support that claim.
Thomassen also has never ever presented to the delegate body (which he has a duty to do so) a detailed budget of the district council for approval by the delegates. Since the “Unity Teams” election in 1999 District Council spending has skyrocketed from $19 million to over $50 million in 2008!
In June of 2003, Thomassen and the benefit fund trustees created a new benefit fund know as the “Supplemental Pension Fund”. Thomassen at the time told the delegates “our welfare fund was doing so well that the trustees have decided beginning July 1, 2003 to reduced the hourly contributions in the welfare fund by $1 per hour and reallocate the $1 per hour into this new fund”.
Thomassen also stated “this reallocation of $1 per hour from the welfare fund to the “supplemental pension fund” is seamless to the membership and only a temporary measure as a way to infuse some extra money into the pension fund to help build up the pension fund assets” and "the trustees will monitor the funds closely and move the $1 per hour back to the welfare fund should it become necessary."
Fast forward present day: this $1 dollar per hour “Supplemental Pension Fund” has now grown to over 100 million dollars where members see no pension benefit credit. Members have had a portion of their yearly hourly raises directed into the welfare fund and yet this “temporary supplemental pension fund”, which we never had before, still exists! It begs the question, why?
In all these action’s, Mr. Thomassen has failed to inform and has deceived the delegate body and the membership of this union that pays his salary. Time and time again Mr. Thomassen has mislead and lied to the membership and delegate body.
As president, Thomassen not only has demonstrated his moral failings, but his unwillingness to detect corruption and/or drug use taking place foot steps from his office. Instead he has enabled it, protected it, covered it up and watched it flourish on his watch.
Your appointment of Thomassen does not surprise me; this is not the first time you appointed an individual who finds himself at the center of corruption.
Your letter also states, “We will conduct a thorough internal investigation of all council operations and conduct a financial audit of council and trust funds”.
Who is “we”? The same individuals who have betrayed the carpenters and who have been running this criminal enterprise known as the district council? Anything less than a fully independent review and audit of the council and trust funds will show that your actions are phony, an attempt to cover-up and defender of the “status quo”.
If this were a real supervision you would have brought in a fully independent team from the outside to assist you in your efforts of rooting out corruption.
If this were a real supervision you would have used your granted authority and remove all Forde appointed trustees to our benefit funds and all individuals in council leadership position.
If this were a real supervision you would have immediately began drug testing all district council employees.
If this were a real supervision you would have visited each local and answered member’s questions directly and keep the membership updated on your progress, if this were a real supervision...
I look forward to you reporting back to the membership the findings of your through investigation. (below is the original letter sent to Supervisor, Frank Spencer)
In this country, you are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Overwhelming evidence is not enough to assume guilt. I will wait (and wait) for that Day of Judgment to reserve my opinion on Forde, Greaney, and Hayes.
But make no mistake.... all their "good" work went to shit when NO ONE stood up to Forde about his severe coke issue. How could they? When they are doing it themselves. 608 leadership has severe character and moral flaws. I mean they exemplify what a good all boys club is all about. They act like a bunch of frat boys in their 40's, 50's, and 60's. It’s disgusting!
All them boys knew how fucked Forde was; you don't have to be a drug expert to know he was high as kite all the time. How events had to revolved around his condition. Greaney and Hayes at best might have been great "union men", but their greed to stay in positions of power made them turn the other way.
I being an apprentice look at all the B.A.s sitting high and mighty (except for Martin...he was nervous as hell) and I know that some are simply dirty rats that haven't been caught yet. In my short time in this union, I have gone from a supporter to a doubter to a cynic. I know why people sway away from the spirit of the union and then only care about themselves. The union hurts when the leadership is selfish, greedy, uneducated, power hungry, abusive, and unchanging.
Why should anyone expect anything different from the membership?
I didn't care that Greaney and Hayes where at the meeting, like I said before; they are innocent until proven guilty. I wasn't surprise by the amount of ass kissing, seems like 608 members have perfected that skill. However, what I was shock by was how short and unimportant the meeting was. You would think that there would be questions, comments, something!!! Especially since the person that led the last meeting was accused of some serious violations. Perhaps maybe cause our ex EST is in rehab and accused of some even worse shit.
Not one single question from a pack gym. Not a single sack of balls in that room. I question staying in this local. I'm just sick of the antics, culture, structure, leadership, drunkies, druggies, and (above all) fellow members. I think I'll transfer my dues to another drama club...you know, change of scenery.
At least we got a t-shirt out of it!! The shirt says in huge white letters, “Proud to be Union”… after another scandal. Ironic!
What I advocate is that anyone who participated or knew that Forde had a huge drug problem; and never objected or brought up concerns about how that would affect his decisions in the union….they should be fired! Because they did not do what was in the interest of the union and its members.
Labor Day is different from the other holidays of the year. Most holidays are to some degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation or another. Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead; no sect, race or nation. - Samuel Gompers
Peter J. McGuire, a young carpenter, stood before the New York Central Labor Union on May 12, 1882, to suggest an idea of setting aside one day a year to honor labor. His idea was simple. The day should "be celebrated by a street parade which would publicly show the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations."
The trade unionists, enthusiastic about the idea, quickly established a committee to plan the event. The committee chose the first Monday in September because, "it would come at the most pleasant season of the year, nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving and would fill a wide gap in the chronology of legal holidays."
McGuire was born into a poor family on July 6, 1852 in a lower east side tenement in New York City. His working career began at the age of 13. He held many different jobs and was quoted as saying,"I have been everything but a sword swallower... and sometimes I was so hungry, a sword--with mustard, of course--would have tasted fine."
Its been 27 days since the arrest of Mike Forde and others and the majority of the membership is still completely in the dark about what is going on with the imposed "emergency supervision".
Here's something I find amusing, Mr. Spencer ends his letter saying "I have every confidence in the members of this council, and I believe that we can work together to build the kind of operation you deserve and a union of which you can be proud of".
The picture to the right is a snapshot of the district councils website after you click the link "contact us", showing a message "Under Construction"... Are you feeling proud yet?
Update: As of September 1, 2009 no member has received any mailed letters regarding the arrest of Mike Forde and others, corruption or the supervision.
He and nine other defendants pleaded not guilty to various charges following a lengthy federal and city joint probe. It's not the first time that officials of the mob-connected union have been accused of selling out rank and file for personal gain.
The District Council of Carpenters is a major force in New York City-area organized labor. Consisting of 11 local affiliates representing more than 20,000 members, the union has provided labor for numerous construction projects.
It's also provided backing to incumbent political candidates seeking re-election, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. The union also has a past. Back in 1990, state prosecutors brought forth a civil racketeering suit against the council, a case that led to a consent decree in 1994 and a court-appointed overseer in 2002. Both arrangements are still in place.
Then in September 2000, Forde, also a vice president of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Local 608, was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office along with 10 other union bosses and more than two dozen other persons on various bribery, bid-rigging and racketeering charges.
The district council and its local affiliates, said prosecutors, had diverted millions of dollars to the Lucchese crime family and associates, or what amounted to a 5 percent "mob tax."
But the indictments also produced guilty pleas, most significantly, from acting Lucchese crime boss Steven Crea.
At the time of the latest indictment's unsealing, Forde, a resident of Woodside, N.Y., had been attending a union conference in Nova Scotia.
Upon his return to New York, he surrendered to FBI and Labor Department agents. Prosecutors say that Forde over the years received about $1 million in contractor bribes in return for allowing the builders to pay union members below-union wages without benefits; hire nonunion workers, including illegal aliens; and skip contributions to union pension, health care and other benefit funds as mandated by collective bargaining agreements.
Though the indictment does not cite the crime syndicate as wielding influence, law enforcement officials say their investigation is continuing.
Prosecutors sound confident. "Instead of protecting the financial interests of union members and their families, corrupt union officials and the contractors who bribe them are charged with betraying the carpenters' union and its benefit funds to enrich themselves," said Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin.
Gary Rothman, a lawyer for the district council, says the evidence doesn't warrant a conclusion. "We understand that the charges are serious, but we also believe in the presumption of innocence and we will have a further statement as the situation becomes clearer," he said.
If Forde does beat the rap on corruption charges, he's got something else to worry about. Upon his arrival in New York, he tested positive for cocaine and marijuana. The man is living on a tightrope.
By Wall Street standard’s, it was barely lunch money. Only one million bucks or so changed hands, the feds say.
What did the money buy?
It allegedly bought handshakes from a bunch of New York City carpenters union officials (pictured: Peter Thomassen, Mike Forde and Dennis Sheil) for deals that benefited contractors and cheated their members.
Officials at the union, the full name of which is New York District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America, allegedly allowed contractors to undercut union pay rates and to avoid contributing toward members’ benefits. They let them hire undocumented workers and others who do not belong to the union for jobs where the workers were supposedly union members.
And then they allegedly kept the scam going by warning the contractors about visits by union investigators, by handing out union cards to non-union members, and by destroying documents.
They got to save millions in union salaries and benefits, the government says. Indeed, it was a boost that helped one of them became “one of the largest union drywall subcontractors in New York City,” according to the government.
Like I was saying a minute ago, it wasn’t much by Wall Street standards.
From outright thievery to more subdued white-collar banditry, mortgage brokers, bankers and Wall Street brokers have filched billions from unsuspecting Americans.
But when union officials allegedly steal from their own it is different. The wound is deeper. It lingers on and gains mythic proportions because labor’s foes seize on each morsel of corruption to condemn organized labor as a whole.
And at a moment when labor should be climbing back on its feet, it’s stuck fighting nasty attacks on its character. Which is another reason I wonder whether it makes sense to repeat the bad news here.
Richard Hurd, a labor expert at Cornell University, agrees that news of union corruption becomes a plague without a vaccine in the hands of organized labor’s opponents.
But there is also something unions can do besides dealing with bad news, he says. They can set ethical standards and police them, which is something, he says, that some unions don’t do enough of.
What happened after the feds announced their charges against the heads of the Carpenters Union District Council, seven other union officials, a contractor and a contractor’s representative?
Ironically, the latest charges came almost a year after a federal judge refused a union bid to lift federal supervision of the District Council. In 1994, the union had agreed to court-ordered supervision after federal prosecutors said that mobsters had a strangle-hold on the District Council.
So years later, a local union is pulled in again by the government on corruption charges that do not seem to have changed over the years. It’s not good for labor. That's why I wince even talking about it.
But is it better to play deaf and dumb? What do you do?
Tired of hearing about Lies and Corruption? Then do something. In order to bring about reform in our union you need to GET MAD, ORGANIZED and EDUCATED! We need to make our voices heard to avoid catastrophic consequences to our union. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up ― ― and send a LOUD and CLEAR message to the leadership of this union.
I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
I made up two flyers so you can print and post them on your job sites (off hours). Please feel free to share these flyers with others. Post them on community bulletin boards, take them to rallies or picket lines, leave them in stores, bars, restrooms, subways... anywhere where union brothers and sisters will see them.
This action is the first step in what will be a massive mobilization of our members to lead a rank and file movement to confront and rid our union of corrupt self-serving leaders.Trusteeship Flyer
The feds are seeking to disqualify the lawyer for an allegedly mobbed-up contractors' representative accused of paying bribes in a massive labor-racketeering scheme.
The scheme led to the ouster of carpenters boss Michael Forde and two other union leaders.
Joseph Olivieri's attorney has a "non-waiveable" conflict of interest because she's a "fact witness" regarding a perjury charge against him, prosecutor Lisa Zornberg said in court yesterday.
Zornberg said lawyer Michele Bonsignore represented Olivieri, a reputed Genovese family associate, when he denied under oath having any business dealings with drywall contractor James Murray, who is under indictment.
Olivieri was named last week in a sweeping, 29-count Manhattan federal court indictm
Ithas been well documented at the UBC Hearings, both Pete Thomassen (salary $268,827) and Dennis Sheil, (salary $253,500) among other things, turned a blind eye to contractor corruption and failed to protect our financial interest. Dennis Sheil retired on December 31, 2009 and is rumored to collect a yearly pension over $200,000. Pete Thomassen, the last remaining member of the disgraced "Unity Team" suddenly resigned on Thursday May 6, 2010
It took UBC leadership 269 Days, 11 Hours, 33 minutes, 42 seconds, to start firing those who have betrayed us!
Tired of hearing about Lies and Corruption? Then do something about it! We need to make our voices heard to avoid catastrophic consequences to our union. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up ― ― and send a LOUD and CLEAR message to Mr. Frank Spencer who has assumed supervision over our District Council.
I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
Note: All messages will be sent to Mr. Spencer and his reply will be posted.
An Irish contractor is due in federal court tomorrow to face corruption charges related to a bribery scheme involving New York City’s carpenters union.
Finbar O'Neill, 44, from County Tyrone, surrendered to the FBI at Newark International Airport on Wednesday after returning from Ireland.
O'Neill, 44, who was released on $500,000 bail, has been charged with acting as a so-called bagman, ferrying thousands of dollars in cash to the Irish American head of the New York Carpenters' Union, Michael Forde.
O'Neill, who has been linked to the mobbed-up Luchese family, has been charged with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy, wire fraud and deprivation of honest services and unlawful acceptance of payment by a labor representative.
Another Irish contractor, James Murray from County Meath, is expected to testify in the massive case.
Murray, who owned On Par Contracting, was indicted on federal fraud and embezzlement charges in 2006 and was believed to have fled to Ireland.
However, sources in New York say he has returned to the U.S. and is involved in the case against Forde.
Court records obtained by the Daily News show he was freed on $8 million bond in November and began plea bargain negotiations with US Attorneys who are prosecuting Forde.
In his absence, federal official seized and sold millions of dollars worth of property belonging to Murray including sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, and nearby Mount Vernon. They also seized and disposed of a 200-acre estate with its own pond and creek, and a Cape-style home in leafy Millbrook; a town which counts Liam Neeson amongst its residents.
Prosecutors say Murray made about $10 million in the scam which saw contractors paying workers off the books, hiring non-union labor and pretending they were union and then claiming they were hiring all-union labor.
Prosecutors have accused Forde and other union officials of accepting substantial bribes from contractors who then paid workers below the union rate, hired non-union labor at union-only job sites, and abandoned payments to the unions’ benefits funds.
The union official put in charge of the city's troubled carpenters' union was once convicted of taking bribes from mobsters - though he was later acquitted in a retrial.
Martin Devereaux has been named to lead Carpenters Local 608 after it and 10 other unions were put under emergency supervision last week after District Council of Carpenters boss Michael Forde was indicted on federal bribery charges.
Last summer, Devereraux and Forde beat a the rap in a case charging they took bribes from a man linked to the DeCavalcante crime family, the mob that inspired the hit HBO series "The Sopranos."
The two were convicted in that case in 2004, but a Manhattan Supreme Court justice tossed the conviction because some jurors had read news accounts of the case. The pair was acquitted after a second trial in June 2008.
On Wednesday, the feds charged Forde and nine others, including two mob associates, with taking bribes to let contractors cheat workers of wages and benefits.
Devereaux, vice-president of Local 608, was named acting president late Wednesday to replace John Greaney, who is one of the defendants in the federal indictment.
Devereaux has served for years with Greaney as a district council delegate.
The move follows union bylaws, which promote the vice-president to the top slot if the president cannot serve.
The action was approved by Frank Spencer, chief of the eastern district of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters, a spokesman said.
Spencer was brought in by the International Brotherhood to supervise the district council in the wake of Forde's indictment.
Also in the shakeup, District Council president Pete Thomassen was named special assistant to Spencer in running the the tainted organization, the spokesman said.
Forde and his co-conspirators which also included contractor Finbar O’Neill, 44, union shop stewards Michael Brennan, 53 Brian Carson, 49, Joseph Ruocco, 49, John Stamberger, 52, and Michael Vivenzo, 61 and Mr. Olivieri, 54, a benefits fund trustee and the executive director of the Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York were charged in a 29-count indictment with stealing millions from the union and its benefit fund.
In exchange for bribes, prosecutors say, union officials falsified reports and turned a blind eye as contractors paid workers below the union rate, hired non-union labor at union only job sites, and skipped out on payments to the unions’ benefits funds, according to prosecutors.
Forde tested positive for cocaine and marijuana use after his arrest, Lisa Zornberg, the assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, said at his arraignment.
No official communication of the emergency supervision has been shared with the membership. You'd think that in the age of computers and smart phones the details of this firing and coup would have already been posted on the councils website, instead members get a UBC logo and a message stating "Under Construction".
Sources say VP Frank Spencer will address the councils delegates this afternoon at a regular schedule meeting and explain the Internationals actions.
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the labor organization that represents the nation’s carpenters, placed its New York chapter under emergency trusteeship Wednesday and ousted the chapter head and two other leaders who are targets of racketeering charges unsealed last week by federal authorities.
The firings and emergency supervision were in stark contrast to the action taken nearly a decade ago by the parent union when the head of the chapter, the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Joiners, Michael J. Forde, was last indicted, on bribery charges. At that time, the president of the parent union, Douglas J. McCarron, kept Mr. Forde in his union post.
Mr. Forde was tried twice on those earlier charges, in 2004 and 2008; the first case ended in a conviction that was later overturned and the second ended in acquittal. Mr. McCarron let him stay in office during both trials.
The actions by the parent union, which is based in Washington, and the district council’s future were the focus of a meeting of the district council’s delegates on Wednesday afternoon.
Fired along with Mr. Forde, 54, who had led the district council since 2000, were John Greaney, 49, a business manager and the president of Local 608, and Brian Hayes, 38, a business agent and officer of Local 608.
Mr. McCarron, in a statement released by the parent union, called the charges in the 29-count federal racketeering and bribery indictment “profoundly disturbing.” They include accusations that Mr. Forde and other union officials let members work “off the books” in exchange for bribes from half a dozen contractors. The statement did not say who would replace the fired officials, and the precise parameters, impact and duration of the trusteeship remained unclear.
But Mr. McCarron said the parent union’s eastern district vice president, Frank Spencer, would supervise the district council and, along with other international officials and staff, would conduct an internal investigation.
Mr. McCarron will appoint officials from outside the New York City area to hold hearings on the district council at which members can air their grievances. A lawyer for the district council, Gary P. Rothman, said he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
On Tuesday, it appeared that Mr. Forde might still seek to maintain his position in the union. People briefed on the matter said he would go on disability to seek court-ordered drug treatment and step down from his position as trustee with the union’s benefit funds.
He tested positive for cocaine and marijuana use after his arrest, Lisa Zornberg, the assistant United States attorney who is prosecuting the case, said at his arraignment last week.
Mr. Forde’s lawyer, Andrew M. Lankler, declined to comment on the firings, as did Mr. Greaney’s lawyer, Marc Weinstein.
James R. Froccaro, who represents Mr. Hayes, said he believed his client would be exonerated at trial, adding of the parent union, “Apparently they don’t believe in the presumption of innocence.”
Also on Wednesday, the 10th and last defendant, a contractor, Finbar O’Neill, surrendered at Newark Liberty International Airport after returning from Ireland. He was expected to be arraigned later in the afternoon.
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.
Cambridge Mews, a four-square brick apartment building just off the commercial corridor of busy Riverdale Avenue, doesn’t exactly look suspicious.
The structure, which occupies about half of the block between Riverdale Avenue and Cambridge Avenue along West 236th Street, was completed last year. It sits in a neighborhood that’s been sprinkled with similar complexes in the last decade, their brick-and-mortar facades emulating older townhouses and co-ops.
But the quiet building on a quiet street plays a cameo role in a federal court indictment unsealed on Aug. 5 that alleges the head of the Carpenters Union District Council in New York City, Michael Forde, and nine others were involved in a scheme in which $1 million in bribes and gifts changed hands.
It’s not the first time on this stage for the building at 3536 Cambridge Ave. The chief financier of the building, James Murray, is already under indictment for allegedly skipping out on payments he was required to make to the union. Mr. Murray is also locally infamous for leaving the skeletal tower on Tulfan Terrace unfinished.
In exchange for bribes, prosecutors say, union officials falsified reports and turned a blind eye as contractors paid workers below the union rate, hired non-union labor at uniononly job sites, and skipped out on payments to the unions’ benefits funds.
The benefit funds provide insurance as well as money for retirement for union members.
Accused of perjuryJoseph Olivieri, a trustee of the District Council’s benefits funds and the head of a contractors’ trade group, is accused of perjuring himself when he described under oath how his own company won excavation work at the Riverdale site.
“I had met a gentleman who was doing the projects in the area,” Mr. Olivieri said under oath, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say he lied when he said he couldn’t recall the gentleman’s name.
Prosecutors also say Mr. Olivieri is associated with Louis Moscatiello, described in the indictment as a soldier in the Genovese crime family who has already pleaded guilty to being involved with racketeering in the construction trades.
Mr. Murray, the financier, is head of On Par Contracting Corp. He was indicted on fraud and embezzlement charges in 2006 for failing to make benefits payments as well as structuring his finances to hide it.
He was believed to have fled to Ireland after the indictment came, sources have said, but is now back in the United States and out on bail, with $8 million in government-seized property as his bond.
The federal government is seeking $15 million from him, alleging that money and his stake in several real estate projects — including Tulfan Terrace and Cambridge Mews — are forfeit because they are ill-gotten gains.
Court documents show Mr. Murray’s lawyer is discussing “a possible disposition” of his case with federal prosecutors.
No comment The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Mr. Murray’s lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.
It’s unclear if Mr. Murray is one of the contractors — unnamed in the indictment — who allegedly gave bribes to union figures. But, among other coincidences, the charges filed against Mr. Murray in 2006 stem from how he allegedly operated On Par, a drywall business. “Contractor #1” in the indictment from last week was a drywall contractor.
Michael Brennan, a District Council shop steward, is accused of lying about how he came to be assigned by the union to “Contractor #1” work sites on West 34th Street and another project in Times Square.
According to transcripts of earlier court depositions, On Par operated both those job sites. If true, the alleged bribery might explain how Mr. Murray was able to build in Riverdale so quickly and cheaply, said Joseph Gordon, an engineering consultant who keeps tabs on Riverdale real estate development.
“There has to have been something, shenanigans going on between the developers and the carpenter’s union,” Mr. Gordon said of Cambridge Mews. “Because they didn’t get struck and they were using non-union labor.”
Mr. Gordon explained that the union carpenters, under normal circumstances, would have protested in front of Cambridge Mews until the construction site hired only union workers.
Low bidder And Mr. Murray frequently under-bid other contractors on Riverdale-area projects, Mr. Gordon said, by as much as 20 percent.
His work was technically solid, said Mr. Gordon. But the word in the industry was, “there was something crazy going on with Murray.”
Indicted Aug. 5 were Mr. Forde, the head of the Carpenters Union District Council in New York City; John Greaney, business manager and president of Carpenters Local 608; Brian Hayes, a business agent and Local 608 officer; Mr. Brennan, Brian Carson, Joseph Ruocco, John Stamberger, and Michael Vivenzo, shop stewards; and Mr. Olivieri, a benefits fund trustee and the executive director of the Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York, a trade group representing unionized contractors.
Prosecutors also accused contractor Finbar O’Neill of helping to deliver cash to Mr. Forde.
Update1: Sources say District Council EST Michael Forde, Business Manager/Local 608 President John Greaney and Local 608 Business agent Brian Hayes have been fired and resigned their elected position...story developing.
This just in…informed sources are telling me that the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Joiners of America and Local Union 608 have been places under emergency supervision today by Douglas McCarron, the president of the parent union in Washington. In a story still developing sources say Eastern District vice president, Frank Spencer has arrived at the district council this morning, to temporarily oversee the council. Stay tuned story developing.
The head of the union that represents carpenters in the New York City area refused to relinquish his position during two previous corruption trials, but he is planning to step down, at least temporarily, in the face of new federal criminal charges filed against him last week, several people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.
The leader, Michael J. Forde, is expected to enter a 28-day drug treatment program soon, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his plans.
Mr. Forde tested positive for cocaine and marijuana after his arrest, Lisa Zornberg, an assistant United States attorney, said at his arraignment last week. At the time, a magistrate judge ordered Mr. Forde and several of his nine co-defendants to undergo drug treatment.
Mr. Rothman said the union’s delegates will meet on Wednesday to discuss how to respond to the indictment. The delegates can vote to reassign or fire Mr. Forde and the other two officials, or change or limit their duties.
The 29-count racketeering and bribery indictment against the union officials and contractors says that, together, they stole millions of dollars from the union and its benefit funds. In exchange for bribes, the union officials allowed contractors to pay union members cash wages below union scale with no benefits, hire illegal aliens and nonunion workers and forgo benefit funds contributions, it said. A lawyer for Mr. Forde, Andrew M. Lankler, declined comment.
In an earlier case, Mr. Forde went to trial twice on bribery charges; the first ended in a conviction that was later overturned, and the second in acquittal.
My work has been appropriately concluded. I am largely satisfied with the condition of the District Council, even more so with that of the Benefit Funds. I have endeavored to assist both in the pursuit of a prosperous future for their constituents. That is their solemn responsibility.
Let the bells ring. Though there is much good news, there are those for whom my departure is reason enough for celebration. But I hope that there are also those who reflect on what has been wrought, and on the simple question: what now?
To those who will continue to accept the imperative of working hard and meeting the challenges facing the Union with courage, energy and intellect, but most of all with honor, I will say well done.
New York City Union Carpenters rank and file members staged a rally at union headquarters in Manhattan April 12 protesting corruption within council leadership and proposed changes to wages and mobility rules.
Local157.blogspot.com is providing you with one click, free access to the latest financial reports filed by the New York District Council of Carpenters.
Local157.blogspot.com is providing you with exclusive, one click free access to the monthly delegate summary reports filed by the New York District Council of Carpenters.
John Greaney and Local 608 Business agent Brian Hayes have been fired and resigned their elected position...story developing.
