130 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
130 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 28
|
|
======================================
|
|
("Quid coniuratio est?")
|
|
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
HOTEL WORKERS' UNION, U.S. REACH OVERSIGHT ACCORD
|
|
=================================================
|
|
Former Governor Thompson On Board
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
(Chicago Tribune, Aug. 29, 1995)
|
|
[CN -- This story provides background for the one to follow.]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nearly 20 years after the government began investigating the
|
|
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, a deal between
|
|
the government and union will give the hotel workers a chance to
|
|
show how clean they are.
|
|
|
|
Union and government officials expect to sign a consent decree
|
|
next week in federal court in Newark, N.J., that will allow a
|
|
federal monitor to oversee union leaders' activities. A three
|
|
person review board will replace the monitor after 18 months.
|
|
|
|
"This is anything but a takeover," insisted Robert Rotatori, the
|
|
Cleveland attorney who handled the union's negotiations with the
|
|
government, which, he said, have been under way for two years.
|
|
|
|
In a letter sent Monday to the rank and file, union leaders
|
|
emphasized that they will remain in power. The deal does not cite
|
|
wrongdoing by current leaders, they told reporters.
|
|
|
|
Under the agreement, the monitor will be able to make
|
|
recommendations on cleaning up the union's ranks to the heads of
|
|
the 330,000-member organization, Rotatori said.
|
|
|
|
The review board, which has already been chosen by the union and
|
|
government, will have the power to oust union leaders, he added.
|
|
|
|
The board's members will be ex-Gov. James R. Thompson; Kurt
|
|
Muellenberg, a former head of the Justice Department's organized
|
|
crime and racketeering division; and Roman Catholic Archbishop
|
|
James Kelleher of Kansas City.
|
|
|
|
The union, under Edward T. Hanley, has heavily supported
|
|
politicians over the years, including Thompson. However, union
|
|
officials said that the former Illinois governor had received
|
|
only about $50,000 in contributions from the union.
|
|
|
|
Herman Benson, head of the Association for Union Democracy, an
|
|
independent union watchdog group in Brooklyn, N.Y., said the
|
|
agreement was "long overdue."
|
|
|
|
The chance of the union ridding itself of mob ties "without
|
|
government intervention is remote," he added.
|
|
|
|
Rather than viewing the deal as a burden, Rotatori described it
|
|
as a "final step" on the union's part to clear years of
|
|
"allegations and perceptions" about corruption.
|
|
|
|
To be sure, the union, which has been led since 1973 by Hanley,
|
|
68, a one-time bartender from Chicago's West Side who rose up in
|
|
union ranks as a local leader in Chicago, has been repeatedly
|
|
cited by federal investigators as one of the nation's more
|
|
corrupt labor organizations.
|
|
|
|
A 1984 report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Committee on
|
|
Investigations raised a number of allegations, among them that
|
|
organized crime had "substantial influence" over the union and
|
|
that the union's payroll was padded with friends, relatives and
|
|
cronies of union leaders and people with mob ties.
|
|
|
|
Appearing before the committee, Hanley refused to answer all of
|
|
its questions, pleading the 5th Amendment 86 times. Hanley has
|
|
steadily denied allegations of mob influence and has never been
|
|
charged with a crime.
|
|
|
|
John Gibson, the union's former secretary-treasurer, was found
|
|
guilty in 1980 of misuse of union funds and served a brief prison
|
|
term.
|
|
|
|
He still receives $83,000 a year from the union, which Monday
|
|
described the sum as retirement pay. Union officials in 1984,
|
|
however, told Senate investigators that Gibson and other former
|
|
union leaders receive lifetime salaries as consultants.
|
|
|
|
A series of articles in the Tribune in 1977 noted that Hanley had
|
|
hiked his salary to the third highest among the nation's union
|
|
leaders, $100,000 at the time, and handed union jobs to
|
|
relatives, alleged mob figures and union leaders with full-time
|
|
jobs.
|
|
|
|
Hanley received $341,262 in salary and expenses in 1994 as
|
|
president of the union and executive director of Local 1 in
|
|
Chicago, according to records on file with the U.S. Labor
|
|
Department.
|
|
|
|
Thomas Hanley, Hanley's son, received $303,182 in salary and
|
|
expenses in 1994 as the union's director of organizing,
|
|
secretary-treasurer of its Joint Board in Chicago and president
|
|
of Local 1, union documents show.
|
|
|
|
In 1991 the government took over the union's 22,000-member local
|
|
in Atlantic City, saying mob figures embezzled $20,000 a month
|
|
from it. The federal control has since been lifted.
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
If you would like "Conspiracy Nation" sent to your e-mail
|
|
address, send a message in the form "subscribe cn-l My Name" to
|
|
listproc@cornell.edu (Note: that is "CN-L" *not* "CN-1")
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
For information on how to receive the new Conspiracy Nation
|
|
Newsletter, send an e-mail message to bigred@shout.net
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
|
|
(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
See also: http://www.europa.com/~johnlf/cn.html
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
See also: ftp.shout.net pub/users/bigred
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
|
|
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
|
|
pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
|
|
|