UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Index No. Plaintiff,   90 Civ. 5722 (CSH)

-against-

DISTRICT COUNCIL OF NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY OF THE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA, et. al.,

Defendants.

   X

THE FOURTH INTERIM REPORT OF
THE INVESTIGATIONS AND REVIEW OFFICER

KENNETH CONBOY

INVESTIGATIONS AND REVIEW OFFICER

LATHAM & WATKINS 885 Third Avenue

New York, New York 10022

(212) 906-1200

Dated:   March 15, 1996

New York, New York

II. THE JOB REFERRAL RULES

A. An Overview

The Consent Decree requires that the constituent local unions of the District Council "shall make all job referrals in accordance with the job referral rules and shall comply with the job referral rules in all respects." Consent Decree ¶ 5. Members may obtain jobs by three different methods under the job referral rules: (1) by referral from the local union or hall; (2) by the request of a contractor for a specific member; and (3) by "shaping" a job, i.e., by finding a job independently of the local union.

1.   Local Union Referrals

Under the rules, an unemployed member seeking a referral from his (or her) local union must register his availability for referral with the local. Job Referral Rules ¶ 4.A. The local is required to compile an out-of-work list consisting of the members who have registered their availability for referral. Id. Members may accomplish subsequent registrations by telephoning the local. Id.   4.E. Members often refer to the registration process as "signing the list." When registering, members also indicate the particular skills that they have. Id. ¶ 4.A.

Members are referred to jobs in the order of their positions on the out-of-work list. They are notified of referrals via telephone by the local.1 The local notes the date

1. Locals which have adopted the modified shape hall option permitted under IRO Decision No. 1 § B, discussed infra, notify (continued...)

and time of the call, the person making the call, the name of the employer, the location of the job, and the start date of the job. Id. ¶ 4.D. Any member who refuses or is unavailable for two consecutive referrals must be moved to the bottom of the out-ofwork list. Id. ¶ 4.E.

When the local union determines that the member who is first on the out-of-work list cannot be referred because of refusal, unavailability, or lack of required skills, the next member on the list who is' willing, available and has the required skills must be referred. Id. ¶ 4.F. If a steward is needed for a particular job, the steward must also be selected from the first qualified member on the out-of-work list.

2.   Contractor Requests

Upon certain conditions, a member may be referred to a job when specifically requested by a contractor, regardless of his position in the out-of-work list. Requests by an employer for specific members employed by the employer within the previous six months must be fulfilled, as required by applicable collective bargaining agreements. Id. ¶ 5.B. Pursuant to IRO Decision No. 3 (attached as Exhibit 3), issued on June 7, 1994, whenever an employer requests a specific individual pursuant to paragraph 5.B. of the job referral rules, the request must be in writing, and must be received by the local union before the requested individual begins the work assignment. The employer must provide either (1) a pay stub reflecting the last date the

1(...continued)

members of referral opportunities by postcard. IRO Decision No. 1 is attached as Exhibit 2.

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individual worked for the employer or (2) provide the date in the letter requesting the individual. The employer's letter must be kept on file by the local union for a period of three years and must be available for inspection or copying by the Investigations and Review Officer on demand. IRO Decision No. 3 § E. Carpenters requested for employment from the out-of-work list are regarded as hall-referred carpenters for the purpose of the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the employer. If a carpenter obtains his (or her) own job and is hired directly by a contractor, he is regarded as a "company man", and the hall is entitled to match that carpenter with a member from the out-of-work list. A carpenter who is not on the out-of-work list who is "requested" and hired by a contractor is really obtaining his own work and should be matched with a carpenter from the hall's out-of-work list.

3.   Shaping

The job referral rules do not prevent members from finding their own jobs. Job Referral Rules ¶ 3. After five days of such employment, a member whose name is on the out-of-work list must advise the local that he is employed and his name must be taken off of the out-of-work list. Id. ¶ 4.C. Pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement between the employer and the union, the union may be entitled to match the employment of such an individual to maintain the balance of the so called "50/50" clause, whereby an equal proportion of "hall" carpenters and "company" carpenters are maintained at the job site.

4.   The Task of Job Referral Reform

As was noted in the First Interim Report, "the goal of achieving comprehensive fairness in job referrals, for tens of thousands of members, in sixteen local unions, covering a large and diverse metropolitan area, involving general and specific skill qualifications, work history, and job duration, and specialized job requirements of hundreds of contractors, is a complex undertaking." First Interim Report of the Investigations and Review Officer at 9. It is of paramount importance that the job referral rules are applied on a fair and equitable basis, and are perceived by the membership to be so applied. Continual inspection of local union records is vitally important to the success of the job referral rules, and my office has, and will, dedicate the resources necessary to monitor compliance with those rules and ensure that the critical records are maintained by the local unions.

While it is important that carpenters who are highly productive and industrious be able to find their own work or be requested by employers, it is also important to recognize that such exceptions to the out-of-work list referral system have the potential to be abused by business agents in ways which are difficult, if not impossible, to detect. Cronyism can still exist, through "off-the-record" referrals, and through the outof-order appointment of shop stewards. For example, a business agent can still dole out favors by informing a member "off-the-record" that a particular job site is hiring and advising the member to "shape" at the job site. Similarly, a business agent

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can pressure a contractor to specifically request certain carpenters, thus avoiding the out-of-work list. The only way to detect such abuse is for someone with inside knowledge to come forward.

In spite of the potential for abuse and the difficulty in detecting such abuse, it can safely be said, given the high volume of carpenters referred from the out-of-work lists, and diminishing number of complaints we receive concerning the referral process, that the average rank and file member has greatly benefitted from the implementation of the job referral rules. Prior to the implementation of the rules, local unions were under no obligation to keep an updated outof-work list or to refer individuals to work from such a list. Favoritism and cronyism were unchecked. Since the adoption of the job referral rules, the vast majority of referrals are made from the out-ofwork list, with preference given to members who have been unemployed the longest.

B.   The Locals

On-site inspection of the local unions is an indispensable tool for enforcement of the rules. During this reporting period, my office visited thirteen of the sixteen local unions at least once, and one, Local 257, a high-turnover construction local in Manhattan with a history of corruption, was inspected six times.2

2. The three locals which were not visited, 1536, 1994 and 2710, are not high-turnover construction locals, and were not the subject of any complaints from the rank and file. It should be noted, however, that Local 2710, the "drapers" union, was unable

(continued...)

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