From the May-June 2006 issue of Union Democracy Review #162
Battling corruption in United Transportation Union

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Two former international presidents of the United Transportation Union were convicted on federal corruption charges in 2004, sentenced to two years in jail, each forced to forfeit $100,000 in racketeering proceeds, and fined $10,000. One is Byron Boyd, Jr., who was removed from office; the other was his immediate predecessor as president, Charles Little. What makes this not a familiar yet dead story but a continuing one is this: Roger Griffeth, a former assistant president and an announced candidate for UTU international president in the 2007 election, has charged that Paul C. Thompson, the incumbent UTU president who replaced Boyd, tried fraudulently to make him eligible for disability benefits under the union pension plan. Thompson had been assistant president under Boyd and served as his defense representative when Boyd was facing disciplinary charges before the executive board.

Boyd and Little had taken advantage of the federal law which permits railroad workers far more generous payments that standard workers compensation laws, making lucrative legal fees available to lawyers. Injured rail workers are referred to lawyers who are enrolled in the union's Designated Legal Counsel Program.

Boyd and Little were charged with extracting at least $477,000 in kickbacks from participating lawyers. The racket paid off so heavily that the Houston Chronicle could report that Boyd admitted that he had promised $100,000 and a new pickup truck to persuade Little to resign as UTU president in 2001 so that Boyd could replace him.

Just before Boyd pleaded guilty on March 11, 2004, the union executive board suspended him and installed Thompson.

Thompson proceeded to do Boyd a remarkable favor. Signing himself as "International President," Thompson wrote a letter to Boyd recording that "you are medically disqualified from your position as President and may no longer perform your duties effective March 10, 2004." No mention that Boyd was facing conviction on corruption charges and had already been suspended for the duration of his term. Thompson recommended that Boyd contact the Railroad Retirement Board about possible benefits under the plan's disability provisions. Within weeks, Boyd was awarded monthly disability annuity payments of $3,250.

But things got stickier and he never got the money. In November 2004, Thompson informed Boyd that his pension benefit would be limited to a single early retirement payout of $423,409 and he would not be entitled to disability benefits. Thompson and Boyd, who were once so close and cooperative, seem to have fallen out. Roger Griffeth says a rift was caused by a pre-sentencing affidavit by Boyd stating that Thompson had been involved in the maneuvering over the kickbacks. Thompson says it was the Pension Administration Committee (made up of Thompson and the other two top UTU officers.) that rejected the disability claim. Boyd is now suing for at least $356,000 under the UTU Pension Plan plus attorney and court fees. In support of his demand he cites the March 2004 letter from Thompson.

In internal charges, Griffeth accused Thompson of violating his fiduciary responsibility to the union by helping Boyd to commit fraud by getting disability benefits he was not entitled to. The UTU Board rejected the charges and refused to order a trial.

NYC schoolbus drivers demand action against indicted officers
By Judith Schneider

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Three hundred New York City school bus, van drivers, and other members of Local 1181, Amalgamated Transit Union, rallied on the steps of NYC's City Hall on June 4th. They demanded that their international hold public hearings on how their local is being run by officers indicted for mob connections. Federal, state, and city legislators spoke in support. One hundred elected officials, including members of Congress and a majority of the NY City Council have written letters urging International President Warren George to act. So far, not only has the international shrugged off all these demands; it has given a PR boost to the suspect officers. In its January/February issue, long after the indictments, the official ATU international magazine, In Transit, featured a laudatory account of L. 1181 leadership. There was no mention of the indictments or the mob.

Last July, the federal government charged that organized crime had infiltrated and influenced the activities of the local. The local's president, secretary-treasurer, and pension fund director were indicted together with "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, acting boss of the Genovese crime family, and some 15 others. Trial is scheduled for September. Members have additional cause for concern. They point to their defense fund which they estimate should have at least $20 million but has less than half that sum and ask where the $10 million went. They say pensions have not increased in 10 years and that the funds are insufficient to support retirees. And they are apprehensive because ongoing contract negotiations remain in the hands of an indicted leadership, one, they say, that is unresponsive and unrepresentative.

The rally was spearheaded by Members for Change, a reform group which last June ran a multi-racial slate challenging the incumbent president and the rest of the local's executive board (entirely white in a local nearly 75 percent non-white.) They got more than 25 percent of the vote in the over 15,000 member local, an impressive first-time achievement in a local and industry which has operated since at least 1991allegedly influenced by mob connected figures.

Among the notables at the rally on June 4 were Congressperson Major Owens, State Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat (Chair of the Assembly's Black and Puerto Rican-Hispanic Legislative Caucus) and NYC Council Member David Weprin (Chair of the Council's Finance Committee.)

Union Corruption Update

From the January-February 2006 issue of Union Democracy Review #160
Amalgamated Transit international refuses to oust Local 1181 officers accused of mob domination

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When members Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 in New York City learned that their top officers had been indicted in federal court charged with being controlled by the Genovese crime family, they appealed for help to their international president, Warren S. George. They asked him to remove the accused officers, put the local under trusteeship, and prepare for a fair election of a new set of leaders. They were jolted to read these words in his reply: "We are, of course, well aware of the recent indictments and are following case developments closely. Notwithstanding those actions, the officers and executive board members and stewards are continuing to effectively carry out their obligations and responsibilities on behalf of the membership they represent." The complaining members were puzzled, too, because they knew of no effort by the international to investigate the facts in the local.

On July 29, last year, after a three-year investigation of ATU Local 1181, 20 individuals were indicted on federal charges of racketeering, extortion, and obstruction of justice. Among them, were Salvatore Battaglia, Local 1181 president; Julius Bernstein, financial secretary; and Ann Chairovano, They were in select company. The 17 other were accused as members and associates of the Genovese crime family, including its alleged boss, Matty, the Horse, Ianniello. Bernstein was accused of associate membership in the Genovese family and of taking orders from the mob on running the union. They are charged with extorting $100,000 from a medical group that provides services to Local 1181 members. A trial is set for September 2006.

Local 1181, with16,000 members, mostly school bus drivers, is the largest in the ATU. Some members speculate that George's failure to act stem from a political reluctance to oppose the leaders of so powerful local and an understandable physical fear of resisting the mob.

The letter to George calling for the trusteeship was signed by six local members as representatives of the caucus, Members for Change.

Earlier in 2005, Members for Change had fielded an opposition slate of 18 candidates in the election of local officers, running Tommy Nero against Battaglia. According to the insurgents, it was the first contested election in many years. When ballots were tallied in June, the opposition was credited with 25% of the votes. It was an encouraging showing in this first effort. It was a breakthrough for democracy in a local that, up to then, had been closely controlled by an unchallenged officialdom which seemed invulnerable. In a changed atmosphere, Members for Change remained organized. The significance of that change became evident just a month later in July when the indictments were announced.

The officers accused of mob domination retain control of the local and its treasury. But they are no longer unchallenged. Members for Change is campaigning within the union to force action by the international. When International President George rebuffed their request, they appealed over his head to all the union's international vice presidents.

The caucus, Members for Change, is represented pro bono by attorney Carl Levine of Levy Ratner.

TRANSPORTATION UNION (UTU)

Superceding Indictment Filed Against Union Bosses in Texas Fed. Court

U.S. Attny. Michael Shelby (D.D. TX) announced on Nov. 14 2003 the return of a superceding indictment adding new charges against Byron Alford Boyd, Jr., Charles Leonard Little, and John Russell Rookard. These present and former union officials, along with Ralph John Dennis, 51 had been previously charged with racketeering conspiracy and two counts of mail fraud. The superceding indictment, returned by a Houston grand jury on the 13th, includes new charges of racketeering against all three defendants and alleges 37 separate racketeering acts, seven counts of union embezzlement against Boyd and Little, three additional counts of union embezzlement against Boyd, and two counts of witness tampering against Boyd.

Ralph John Dennis, the former Director of Insurance for the UTU Insurance Association, pled guilty to racketeering conspiracy on October 3, 2003. Dennis resigned from his position with the Union this past July. The three other defendants are scheduled for a status conference before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake (S.D., TX, Reagan) on Dec. 5, at which time a trial date is expected to be set.

Boyd, currently the International President of the United Trans. Union (UTU), Little, a former UTU president, and Rookard, presently the Special Assistant to UTU President Boyd, now stand charged with conspiring to violate federal mail fraud and wire fraud statutes, commercial state bribery statutes, and a union embezzlement statute by using their positions of authority as officers and employees of the UTU to solicit and collect cash payments and other things of value from attorneys doing business with the union between June 1994 and July 2003.

Byron Boyd, who has held this position as the International President of the UTU since the resignation of former International President Charles Little in February 2001, was elected by the union membership at the UTU convention in August of this year. Little was first elected as union president in 1995 with Boyd serving as Assistant President. Little was re-elected president in 1999.

The indictment alleges that the defendants devised and executed a scheme to defraud and to deprive the membership of the UTU of their honest services by soliciting and receiving over $525,000 in cash from thirty-four attorneys, in Houston and around the United States, performing services for the union membership as designated legal counsel for the UTU. The Designated Legal Counsel (DLC) program for the UTU consists of approximately 50 attorneys throughout different regions of the United States who specialize in representing union rail employees whose injuries on the job result in claims against their employers. The indictment identifies the attorneys from whom bribes were solicited by number only (e.g. Attorney Number One) pursuant to Justice Department policy.

Attorneys appointed by the union president as DLC became dues-paying members of the UTU and were recommended to the union membership as the best suited attorneys to handle claims brought by injured rail employees under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). FELA was enacted into law by Congress in 1908 to specifically address the dangers faced by rail employees and their need to seek compensation for injuries. Unlike state workers' compensation programs, FELA places no restrictions on the types of damages that may be recovered by rail employees and no monetary limits upon the size of recoveries. Consequently, attorneys associated with FELA practices competed for the highly coveted DLC positions.

Little and Boyd had unilateral control over the appointment of attorneys as DLC and could remove attorneys from the DLC list for any reason. The indictment charges that the defendants engaged in acts of fraud, bribery, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering relating to the conduct of the union's DLC program. Specifically, by demanding thousands of dollars in secret cash contributions for Little's and Boyd's presidential campaigns, by soliciting and collecting cash from attorneys in exchange for those attorneys being made DLC of the UTU, by soliciting and collecting cash from DLC attorneys in order for those attorneys to remain as DLC, and by using the United States mail to communicate with the DLC and other union members setting forth rules of conduct governing the DLC, including a prohibition against involvement in union politics and elections.

The new indictment also alleges the embezzlement of approximately $8,000 in union funds used to pay travel expenses incurred by Ralph Dennis related to trips he made to various attorneys for the purpose of soliciting and collecting money from them and in two instances, to warn attorneys to keep quiet about those payments. Boyd is charged with two counts of witness tampering for actions he allegedly took after a Houston grand jury began hearing testimony regarding an investigation of the UTU. Boyd is accused of sending Ralph Dennis in November 2001 to Philadelphia and to Los Angeles to warn two separate DLC to keep quite about making cash payments to Boyd and Little, including $30,000 to become DLC for the UTU. (U.S.A.O., S.D. TX, 11/14/03)

School Bus Driver's Union Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Queens, NY is Under Scrutiny by 90 Politicians

Former union official pleads guilty to labor racketeering
By The Associated Press - ABC Chanel 13 News

Charles Little, 69, of Leander, Texas, faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake on April 9. In addition, he will forfeit $100,000, which the government says he received though illegal activity.

Little and three others were indicted by a grand jury last September on charges of conspiring to violate federal mail and wire fraud statutes and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering through commercial state bribery.

Also indicted were union President Byron Boyd Jr., 57, of Seattle; former union director of insurance Ralph Dennis, 51, of Boone, Iowa; and special assistant to Boyd, John Rookard, 57, of Olalla, Wash.

In October, Dennis also pleaded guilty to labor racketeering.

The FBI and the Labor Department began investigating the Cleveland-based union in 1999.

In court on Friday, Little admitted that while president from 1995 to 2001, he and other union officials at his request took cash payments and other things of value from attorneys doing business with the union. Little said he used the money to fund his campaigns and for his personal use.

"This conviction is a significant step toward seeking justice for the many honest and hard working members of the UTU," Shelby said. "Union officials who abuse their authority through bribery and greed will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Boyd and Rookard are scheduled to go to trial March 22.

Officials with the United Transportation Union could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.

© Copyright 2005 The Usual Suspect.

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