NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, as follows:
1. The District Council and Peter Thomassen, its president, are adjudge and held in contempt of this court for violating the 1994 Consent Decree by bargaining away the job referral rules.
2. The current Request System, under which contractors have the unfettered right to "request" anyone they want from the out-of-work list, is abolished.
3. Allow the contractor to select particular carpenters for a job up to but not in excess of 67 percent of the total carpenter work force. That percentage is made up of the contractor's 50 percent under the 50/50 Rule, and an additional 17 percent, representing one-third of, and to count against, the Union's 50 percent. The remaining 33 percent of the carpenter work force will be assigned by the Union from the OWL.
4. Restore the six-month provision contained in Job Referral Rule 5(B), so that a contractor cannot request a carpenter and have that carpenter count against the Union's 50 percent unless that carpenter has been employed by that contractor during the previous six months. But under no circumstances may carpenters chosen under Rule 5(B) count against the 33 percent assigned by the Union directly from the OWL.
This resolution is fair and equitable because it recognizes contractors' economic and competitive concerns by allowing them to select most of the carpenter work force on any particular project, while restoring the Out-of-Work List as a meaningful source of employment for carpenters seeking work.
The New York City carpenters union has been in trouble with the law for many decades. Organized-crime has been endemic with the union for a long time and union chief after union chief has gone to jail over the ties and other corruption. Even shop stewards have gotten into the corruption game with four recently convicted on charges of fraud, conspiracy or bribetaking.
It’s so bad that even the rank-and-file member doesn’t trust the union to legally carry out union business. That distrust was seen again recently with a dispute arising between union members and union leadership over a plan to withhold quarterly benefit checks from members that refuse to sign away greater power to union officials who want to fine members that refuse to fall into line.
The union has a convoluted scheme of taking workers’ vacation pay and placing it in a welfare fund to provide life insurance, hospitalization, medial care, pension and vacation benefits to members. Instead of receiving vacation pay upon returning from a vacation, members are disbursed a quarterly vacation fund check each year. It happened that union chiefs wanted members to sign authorization cards to allow the union to fine any members found not paying into the welfare fund by working jobs off the books.
Many union members, however, are refusing to sign the cards giving the union power to take unspecified and vague “fines” out of their pay.
“That card was a threat,” said a carpenter who agreed to be interviewed this month only on condition of anonymity because he said he feared retribution. “It was like signing a blank check to let them take out whatever they want, whenever they want.”
Since many union members were either reluctantly signing or refusing to sign the cards, the union leaders upped the ante by halting benefit payments to any member that wouldn’t sign the card.
The dispute escalated in March, when the union’s welfare fund trustees voted to stop sending vacation-pay disbursements to anyone who had not signed the authorization card, infuriating rank-and-file members.
The legal basis for withholding vacation-fund payments is unclear. The fund’s trustees, comprising five union officials and five employer representatives, voted to stop distributing vacation checks without seeking the consent of the fund’s lawyers, said Stuart GraBois, the welfare fund’s executive director.
Yet, these same leaders that have repeatedly been thrown in jail for cheating the union, stealing union funds, working with the Mob, and any manner of other corrupt practices are claiming the moral standing to fine members for working jobs off the books? It’s these thug union bigwigs that members fear giving the power to begin “fining” members without defined restrictions on what those fines are for. Many members rightly fear that the power once given to the union chiefs will later be misused for any and every reason that those union leaders can imagine.
But, this incident really does show what a union is made of. It proves pretty starkly that union “leaders” don’t care a whit about what the workers want. Even worse, if shows that the workers themselves are afraid of the union itself. These workers are afraid of “retribution” from the leader’s thug armies and from the union’s scorched earth practices.
What sort of “voluntary” organization is it where the members are afraid of the very organization that claims to be speaking for them? Unfortunately, this is the ultimately logical end of any powerful union effort. Eventually, given enough power, all unions end up treating friend and foe alike in an effort to increase its own power.
The union representing New York City carpenters, one of the area’s largest construction trades, continues to be roiled by turmoil after years of investigations into corruption and organized-crime influence and, since 2007, the federal convictions of four shop stewards for fraud, conspiracy or bribetaking.
The latest dispute has pitted many carpenters against the union leadership over a plan to withhold quarterly benefits checks from workers who refuse to grant the trustees of their welfare fund a new power to levy fines against them.
Leaders of the union, the District Council of Carpenters and Joiners, say the fines are necessary to deter carpenters from working off the books. Many carpenters say they are reluctant to give the union additional, and vaguely outlined, authority to fine workers.
The increasingly bitter dispute began last summer, after carpenters, joiners, timber workers and other union members were asked by the welfare fund trustees to sign a deduction-authorization card that would allow fund administrators to levy new but unspecified “fines or penalties” on workers’ accrued vacation pay.
The welfare fund provides life insurance, hospitalization, medical care, pension and vacation benefits to union members.
Vacation pay is contributed by employers. Workers pay taxes on the money, but they authorize the welfare fund to collect and to disburse it to them four times a year.
Union leaders tried to calm the waters in October with a letter explaining that the new fines or penalties were meant to deter “cash hounds” — members who illegally work for cash. Still, many members declined to sign the cards out of distrust of the trustees, a panel that includes employers’ representatives as well as the union’s top elected leadership, carpenters said.
“That card was a threat,” said a carpenter who agreed to be interviewed this month only on condition of anonymity because he said he feared retribution. “It was like signing a blank check to let them take out whatever they want, whenever they want.”
About 1,000 of the union’s 18,000 or so working members have not signed the card, a lawyer for the union said on Thursday. Many others signed it reluctantly, several union members said, because they needed the thousands of dollars that accrue each quarter.
“The average guy in this business has a family; he counts on the income from that vacation fund,” said Michael Power, 37, a carpenter and 19-year union member who has refused to sign. “I talked to a lot of guys who said they feel cornered. They didn’t want to sign the card, but they felt like they had no choice.”
The dispute escalated in March, when the union’s welfare fund trustees voted to stop sending vacation-pay disbursements to anyone who had not signed the authorization card, infuriating rank-and-file members.
The legal basis for withholding vacation-fund payments is unclear. The fund’s trustees, comprising five union officials and five employer representatives, voted to stop distributing vacation checks without seeking the consent of the fund’s lawyers, said Stuart GraBois, the welfare fund’s executive director.
Gary Rothman, a lawyer for the carpenters’ union, said, “Trustees have the authority to make reasonable rules as to the distribution of those benefits.” But Mr. Rothman added that since they voted to withhold the checks, the trustees have asked for a legal opinion, to be given at the next trustees’ meeting, on May 14.
Many union members say they have good cause to resist their leaders. Since October 2007, four union officials have been convicted of either taking illegal payments from union employers or cheating their own union’s benefit funds. The carpenters’ union has operated under federal court supervision since 1994.
Herman Benson, the founder of the Association for Union Democracy, a nonpartisan advocacy group based in Brooklyn, said the union leadership’s idea to withhold vacation pay was troubling.
“There’s something particularly outrageous about it, because the money that they’re withholding is not theirs; it’s the workers’,” Mr. Benson said.
Douglas J.McCarron Carpenters National Headquarters 101 Constitution Avenue NW Washington, DC 20001
Dear Douglas J. McCarron,
I’m writing you today to report unfair labor practices by the NYCDCC and its fund manager. The NYCDCC is withholding monies that belongs to the rank and file members who refuse to sign their blue card (a card that lacks transparency) and agreeing to assessments/or fines or penalties as designated, or as hereafter designated by the NYCDCC and their Local Unions.
The NYCDCC grossly violated their fiduciary responsibilities toward its members when they resulted to extortion to get us to accept an unpopular policy that they imposed on us from their board of trustees. Also our title I (Landrum – Griffin Act) rights may have been violated as well.
This is why a dictatorship within our Union does not work for the Carpenters best interest. It doesn’t work for our own federal government (we have the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial) and it doesn’t work for our Union as well. Our forefathers set up the way that we are governed to keep our government honest; therefore they created a system of checks and balances. Our leadership is not greater than that of our country, therefore the NYCDCC should not be allowed to rule with an iron fist to impose policy on its membership without first giving us the opportunity to accept or reject whatever they are purposing.
We the rank and file members of the NYCDCC have a right to a democratic union and a right to have a leadership to work for our best interest according to the Union bill of rights under title I of the LMRDA. I purpose, that a letter be sent to every member of the NYCDCC in good standing, to inform them of a secret ballot vote to see if they want the right to vote on rates of dues, fees and assessments, as well as the right to accept or reject collective bargaining agreements that are negotiated by the board of trustees. Mr. McCarron, our trustees simply cannot be allowed to impose policy on its membership without conferring with its membership for approval. This fiduciary malfeasance has got to stop now.
Peter J. McGuire, a man whom the UBC models itself after, sums it up best when he said: “We organize to assist each other to secure employment for mutual aid in case of sickness or disability, to protect each other’s rights and redress our wrongs, to obtain adequate legislation that will secure our wages from the unscrupulous sharks that infest our trade…”
We the rank and file members of the NYCDCC are not mindless drones Mr. President, we want a voice in our union and a change in the way we are governed; I’m sure a man of your position will champion our cause and right our wrongs. Please Google and monitor this online petition: “Carpenters unite against unfair labor practices by the NYCDCC.”
This ongoing petition represents the rank and file members who want change in the way that we are governed, and a true democratic union amongst other things. Thank you in advance for your consideration and what I hope to be a satisfactory support in rectifying this matter.
Respectfully,
Sheldon Johnson
CC: NLRB OLMS United States Department of Justice New York State Attorney General New York City District Attorney Office U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Rep. Jerrold Nadler Assembly member, Deborah J. Glick Assembly member, Richard N. Gottfried Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Governor David A. Paterson Rank & File Members of the NYCDCC Various Media Outlets Board of trustees of the NYCDCC
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.
