It’s happening in the Teamsters Union

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At the IRB

Local 82, Boston

In its first report for 2011, the Independent Review Board was preoccupied with Teamster Local 82, the 620-member trade show and moving local in Boston. In  this midget local, an army of defendants is carrying a truck load of charges. Any wannabe thief or malefactor could find some handy how-to-do-it ideas just by studying these and earlier charges against the local.

In September last year, after being prodded by the IRB, International President James Hoffa imposed a trusteeship over the local. Since then, IRB investigators have levied a multi-set of charges against members, officers, and one former member accusing them, in combination, of a long litany of offenses.  In accordance with standard IRB procedures, the charges were referred to President Hoffa, whose appointed trial committee ended with decisions that match the list of defendants and charges in variety and length. 

Joseph Burhoe was expelled and barred permanently from serving the IBT, or any affiliated, in any capacity whatsoever.  From the trial board description, he might have served as a poster boy for Local 82.  Although he had been recently convicted and jailed for armed bank robbery, the board found that he had illegally served as a Local 82 representative. He "diverted" work to his family, friends, and allies. He referred work to a non-union contractor at substandard wage rates.    

The board was gentle with  Leif Thornton, Cheryl Milisi, Francis Dizoglio, John Logan, and Nicholas Murphy, all identified as officers. They were found guilty of authorizing major expenditures without the required membership approval and barred from holding any union office for three years. But the trial committee boards, describing them as minor offenders who apparently just went along with the customary  flow without benefiting personally, did not suspend their union membership.

Patrick Geary, Local 82 president, was found guilty of falsifying a contract referendum. But the board dismissed IRB charges against three other local reps, finding no evidence against them. P

The IRB routinely reviews the findings in cases like this which it has referred to the union for trial to determine whether the verdict and penalty (if any) are "adequate." Two puzzling decisions in this case are bound to come for IRB review.

James Deamicis had accepted a referral from Joseph Burhoe to a non-union job at non-union wages. The board convicted Burhoe, but it dismissed the charge against Deamicis on the ground that, at the time, he was suspended from IBT membership and therefore not subject to its discipline.

The case of Lawrence Maguire is bound to be more disquieting to Local 82 members. According to the trial board, he "has an extensive criminal record which includes convictions for assault, armed robbery, and a number of drug-related offenses."    Convicted of armed robbery along with his son, Burhoe,  he emerged from prison in 2005 to rejoin Local 82 as a member.  In 2007, Maguire  was charged with "committing the crimes of intimidating a witness and assaulting a police officer while a member of the IBT...."  The union trial board dismissed the IRB charge against Maguire on the ground that the crime was not union-related and did not contribute to an air of intimidation in the local.  It will be interesting to see how the IRB handles that one.      

In a separate charge, Bernard Piscopo, a former Local 82 member, is accused of "committing the felony of manslaughter while an IBT member."  But in this case. Hoffa has turned it back to the IRB for trial before the board  itself.  Presumably the evidence against the accused person is possessed by the FBI or other law enforcement agency which will not present it to a civilian organization like the IBT but will make it available to the IRB, which is an agency appointed by federal court and subject to its jurisdiction.

Earlier, according to Teamsters for a Democratic Union, Eddie Flaherty, a Local 82 member, was beaten so badly by a local staff employee that he had to be hospitalized; John Perry, then CEO as local secretary treasurer, faced trial in state court on charges of assaulting a local member. Perry apparently has resolved his own IRB charges by stepping down.  With a more finely calibrated micro meter, the trial board may have been able to sense  radioactive elements of intimidation here.    

Local 282, Lake Success, NY

John Castelle,  stands accused by IRB investigators of associating with the Luchese crime family while he was a member of Local 282.  As he did for Piscopo in Local 82, Hoffa referred the case back to the IRB for trial.

The Teamsters convention

International officers are elected by direct vote of the whole membership. The international convention, where candidates will be nominated, is scheduled to open in Las Vegas, June 27. 

However, in the pre-convention period,  any candidate for international office can become "accredited" by presenting petitions signed by at least 2.5% of the members in his/her constituency. Accredited candidates get space in the union magazine and access to the voting membership list and the list of convention delegates.

Hoffa and his allies, because they are running together as a slate, get 12 pages in the January/February Teamster magazine, Sandy Pope, running for president against Hoffa without a slate, gets only a single page. Fred Gegare, an incumbent member of the IBT international executive board who broke with Hoffa to run  as a third candidate for president, failed to gather the necessary 34,000 signature petitions to win accreditation. But he gets a half page in the Teamster because an accredited candidate for a secondary post yielded space to him.