Article from page 5 of Union Democracy Review (UDR) January/February 2006 Edition #160
| Life as it actually is in a Laborers local |
| Daryl Fulton
insisted on demanding financial reports at union meetings and questioned
some of the actions of his union leaders. Here is what he says happened
in the union hall right after a meeting of his Local 435 in Rochester,
NY: The business manager rushed at him. jabbed his finger at him,
forcing him back and said, "You motherfucker, you keep this shit up and
you're going to get your ass kicked!"
Events like this are not extraordinary in the construction trades, hardly deserve reporting as news. not worth even a footnote in academic studies of the economics and sociology of the construction industry. Years ago. one delegate, an AUDer, was beaten right on the convention floor when lie tried to nominate an insurgent candidate for international president. On this scale. Fulton's experience - falls short. Nevertheless, it does merit attention because the
Laborers Union still faces a measure of federal government scrutiny, and
it is a federal criminal offense to deprive a union member of his LMRDA
rights by threats of violence. The union maintains an
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ferret out
crime and other offenses: an appeals officer hears appeals. Over it all
Robert Luskin. a special attorney. has the responsibility of seeing that
it all works out. And Luskin is an important man: he also represents
Karl Rove, President Bush's embattled political advisor. Up at the top of LIUNA is international president Terrence O'Sullivan who got the job after the mob was pried loose from the union's international office and who presumably has undertaken to lead it in a whole new direction. He is one of the top leaders of the Change to Win Coalition. the group of unions that proposes to refurbish the whole labor movement in America. He. too, is an important man: he was chosen to head the Union Labor Life Insurance Company after its former head was ousted for financial manipulation. Big time stuff. All this is way up there at the summit. Down on earth
at the local, there is Daryl Fulton. A local committee dismissed his
charge against the business manager. (One explanatory reason it gave was
that the event occurred after the local meeting had ended.) Douglas Gow,
the inspector general, and Robert Luskin. the attorney, have Fulton's
complaint to Neil Eggleston. the appeals officer
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