NY Carpenters Can’t Hammer Way Out of Corruption to Save their Lives
December 28, 2007 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, News, Uncategorized, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Village Voice in New York gives us the all too common tale of another corrupt union local this Christmas season. It is filled with union officials who “roam about” their palatial Summer homes instead of reporting to work, and “a mismanaged mess where [business agents] come and go as they please, following few, if any, rules.” We are, of course, completely used to such stories here. After all, it is our well proven contention that corruption and unions are inseparable. But, the amusing thing with this story is that the unions thuggish officials were dismissed three weeks ago and union members STILL don’t have any real answers to what the heck is going on.
Remember, unions are only there to serve the little guys… as long as the little guys don’t get too uppity and ask all sorts of questions, that is!
“Nobody knows what the hell is going on,” griped a veteran carpenter who called this newspaper in a vain attempt to find something out.
Ouch. So much for the membership being an important part of the union, eh?
The first official out the door was William Hanley, 55, the $140,000-a-year president and business manager of Local 157, who resigned his position shortly before Thanksgiving. Hanley’s sudden retirement came after he was confronted with evidence gathered by William Callahan, the union’s court-appointed independent investigator. The evidence was in the form of cell-phone records that suggested the union leader had spent many weekday afternoons roaming Long Island, where his family happens to have a splendid waterfront home, instead of working the streets of Manhattan’s East Side, where his members are employed.
Similar evidence was presented against Hanley’s second-in-command, financial secretary Fred Kennedy, who made the same quick career choice. Local business representative Daniel DeMorato was suspended from his post and reassigned. But another target, local vice president George DiLacio, told his interrogators to get lost. DiLacio refused to give up his elected post at the local but was summarily fired from his $127,000-a-year job as a union representative.
There is a lot more where that came from… not that the union membership knows any of it.
Go to the Voice and read this whole lamentable story. It’s a laugher, to be sure.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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