1989 Duke L.J. 903, *
Copyright (c) 1989 Duke Law Journal
Duke Law Journal
September, 1989
1989 Duke L.J. 903
LENGTH: 70789 words
ARTICLE:
CLEANING LABOR'S HOUSE: INSTITUTIONAL REFORM LITIGATION IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT.
MICHAEL J. GOLDBERG *
* Professor, Widener
University School of Law. A.B. 1971, Cornell University; J.D. 1975, Harvard Law
School; LL. M. 1977, Georgetown University Law Center. The author would like to
thank Florian Bartosic, Herman Benson, G. Robert Blakey, Arthur L. Fox, Paul
Alan Levy, Cornelius J. Peck, and Clyde W. Summers for their helpful comments on
earlier drafts. Many thanks also to Sharon Rau, Anthony Sanchez, and Susan
McMarlin Vater for their invaluable research assistance.
In 1980-81, the
author served as counsel to Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a national
organization of rank-and-file Teamsters seeking to reform their union. From time
to time since then, he has served as a consultant to TDU on a pro bono basis.
The views expressed in this Article, however, are those of the author alone and
do not necessarily reflect those of TDU or any other organization.
SUMMARY:
... At the
same time, Hoffa and his associates were the targets of relentless governmental
investigations and prosecutions for corruption and racketeering, which led to
the IBT's expulsion from the AFL-CIO, passage of the Landrum-Griffin Act (the
first comprehensive legislation regulating the internal affairs of unions), and
eventually Hoffa's own conviction and imprisonment for jury ... In the interim
years, title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 served as an important
substantive basis for the courts, often with the assistance of masters and
receivers, to supervise the reform and day-to-day affairs of unions and related
institutions, such as hiring halls and apprenticeship programs. ... Indeed, the
same conditions that made Local 560 a good candidate for a RICO trusteeship at
the start -- deeply rooted corruption, the absence of a democratic tradition,
and a membership too intimidated to do much about it -- meant that no
remedy was likely to be an instant or total success. ... Schmidt was primarily a
management labor lawyer, and he continued to represent some trucking companies
in their dealings with several Teamster locals after becoming a monitor. ... It
sought 1) the removal of any IBT General Executive Board members, including the
General President, found to have committed RICO violations, 2) the appointment
of a trustee empowered to discharge the GEB's duties, other than those related
to collective bargaining or Teamster political activities, and 3) new elections
of International officers in a manner that would protect against intimidation or
other improper influences. ...
TEXT:
[*904] I. INTRODUCTION
Jimmy Hoffa is probably
laughing in his landfill, 1 amused by the fact that the more
things change in his union, the more they stay the same. When Hoffa ascended to
the presidency of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in 1958, that
union was not only the largest and strongest in the American labor movement, but
also the most corrupt. Unfortunately, after three decades of effort by both
rank-and-file reformers and federal law enforcement officials to clean up the
1.6 million member union, that characterization of the IBT remains as accurate
today as it was in Hoffa's day.
Hoffa became president of the Teamsters
union following the decision of his predecessor, Dave Beck, not to run for
reelection in the face of [*905] subsequently
proven charges of embezzlement and tax evasion. 2 Hoffa's election, the product of a
rigged convention, was surrounded by controversy and was challenged in court,
with surprising success, by rank-and-file reformers who managed to obtain the
judicial appointment of a Board of Monitors to oversee what was to have been a
major clean up of the union. 3 At the same time, Hoffa and his
associates were the targets of relentless governmental investigations and
prosecutions for corruption and racketeering, 4 which led to the IBT's expulsion from
the AFL-CIO, 5 passage of the Landrum-Griffin Act
(the first comprehensive legislation regulating the internal affairs of unions),
6 and eventually Hoffa's own conviction
and imprisonment for jury
It is now 1989, and not much has changed in
the Teamsters union. Jimmy Hoffa is gone, to be sure, but the controversies
surrounding his union remain remarkably similar. Jackie Presser, the late
Teamsters president who recently died of cancer, gained that office only after
his predecessor, Roy Williams, was convicted on federal charges of attempting to
bribe a U.S. Senator. 8 And just as Hoffa helped clear a path
for his own advancement by leaking information about Beck to the McClellan
Committee, 9 Presser apparently did the same by
serving as an informant for the FBI and giving information on Williams. 10 Moreover, evidence introduced in a
marathon criminal trial of Genovese crime family bosses in New York, and
statements obtained from both Williams and Presser, support Justice Department
allegations that a Mafia conspiracy [*906]
engineered Presser's selection. 11 Shortly after his own federal
indictment for embezzling some $ 700,000 from his home local in Cleveland, 12 Presser won election as President in
his own right by convention delegates selected through procedures violating the
spirit, and arguably the letter, of the Landrum-Griffin Act. 13
Nor do the parallels stop
there. As the McClellan Committee had done a generation before, the President's
Commission on Organized Crime recently identified the IBT as the national union
"most controlled" by organized crime. 14 In response, the federal government
has again launched a campaign to clean up the union. In an action based on the
civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
(RICO), 15 the Department of Justice sought to
place the entire Teamsters union under the temporary control of a court
appointed trustee. 16 That litigation resulted in a consent
decree creating a remedy substantially more radical than the monitorship imposed
during the Hoffa period. 17
One major difference between
the 1950s and 1980s, however, is the complete turnabout in stature that the IBT
has experienced within the larger American labor movement. Unlike the 1950s,
when the union was an outcast, the IBT's recent reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO
marks the end of a thirty-year exile and a return to the mainstream for the
Teamsters, a development that raises serious questions about the nature of the
AFL-CIO's commitment to eliminate corrupt elements from its ranks. 18
The vast majority of American
unions, of course, are untainted by corruption or organized crime. 19 But a little racketeering can go a
long way. As the President's Commission on Organized Crime explained, [*907] "[M]any infiltrated unions are major locals
embracing thousands of members, and they operate in strategic commercial sectors
and large urban and metropolitan centers. Influence over these locals enables
organized crime to dominate the international unions and acquire a foothold in
the marketplace." 20 Just as little has changed in the
Teamsters union, similar patterns of racketeering remain entrenched in several
other major unions that the investigations of the 1950s exposed as corrupt,
viz., the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, the Laborers
International, and the International Longshoremen's Association. 21
For decades, then, the battle
against organized crime's infiltration of important unions, like the Teamsters,
has been a losing effort. There have been many victories against individual
racketeers, and over the years, hundreds of corrupt union officials have been
jailed. But as often as not, successors cut from the same cloth replaced deposed
officials and continued the systematic exploitation of their unions'
memberships. The names of the players sometimes change, but their game remains
the same.
A dramatic new weapon has recently emerged on this legal
battlefield, however, and it has the potential to tip the balance decidedly in
favor of those seeking a permanent housecleaning of the Teamsters and other
racketeer-ridden unions. Through the civil RICO structural injunction, courts
can impose structural reforms and even trusteeships in order to clean up corrupt
unions. In United States v. Local 560, International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, 22 for example, the Third Circuit upheld
a RICO injunction that removed from office the entire executive board of a
racketeer-controlled union local and replaced it with a court-appointed trustee
until fair elections could be held. 23 On a much larger scale, in the
[*908] most ambitious union clean-up campaign
ever attempted, the Justice Department has recent obtained a RICO remedy against
the entire 1.6 million member Teamsters International. 24
These RICO remedies are
controversial experiments in institutional reform litigation in the context of
labor unions; they represent an attempt to use civil litigation to clean up
corrupt unions by relying on the courts' active, extensive, and ongoing
oversight, intervention, or direct control over internal union affairs until
such time as the desired reforms are in place. Institutional reform litigation,
well known in such contexts as school desegregation and the reform of prisons
and mental institutions, 25 has until recently been rarely
attempted in the labor movement.
This Article examines the current trend
toward institutional reform litigation within unions and evaluates its
propriety, legal foundation, and prospects for success. This requires an
understanding of the problems union reform litigation is intended to redress,
and the alternative approaches such litigation supplements or replaces. To gain
this understanding, the Article begins with an overview of the nature and extent
of corruption within the labor movement, and proceeds to a discussion of the
less drastic alternatives that must be pursued before institutional reform
litigation should commence. The Article next examines the common law and
statutory precedents for the judicially supervised reform of labor unions; this
leads to an exploration of the civil RICO structural injunction and its relation
to both federal labor policy and the associational rights of unions and their
members. The Article then evaluates the leading examples of union reform
litigation over the years, with a particular focus on the Teamsters Board of
Monitors from the Hoffa period, the more recent RICO trusteeship over Teamsters
Local 560, and the RICO reforms recently imposed on the Teamsters International.
Finally, in the form of proposed civil RICO "sentencing" guidelines, the Article
suggests means to develop remedies in union reform litigation that will tend to
maximize their effectiveness but, at the same time, minimize their
intrusiveness.
[*909] II. THE NATURE
AND SCOPE OF UNION CORRUPTION AND LABOR RACKETEERING
During 1981, Tony
Provenzano collected an officer's salary of $ 28,000 from his Teamsters Local
560 in Union City, New Jersey. In amount, Provenzano's salary was quite
reasonable. 26 Less reasonable was the fact that
when he collected it, Provenzano was three years into the life sentence he was
serving for ordering the murder of a political rival within his local. 27 While union corruption and labor
racketeering can take many forms, it seldom appears in all forms within a single
local. Unfortunately, Local 560 had it all.
Labor racketeering is "the
use of union office or power for personal profit." 28 One of the most obvious abuses of
union power is for officers simply to siphon money from their union treasuries.
The $ 28,000 payment to Provenzano was only the tip of the iceberg in Local 560.
Provenzano had received similar payments in 1979 and 1980, 29 and during an earlier period, again
while holding no union office (and, in fact, [*910] while disqualified from holding office due to
prior labor racketeering convictions), 30 he illegally received almost $
200,000 in payments from his local. 31
Stealing the membership's
dues, of course, is an old fashioned, rather crude form of union corruption, and
ambitious racketeers often search for deeper pockets to pick: the employers. As
one commentator observed, "The firm is the efficient side of racketeering
activity. . . . It should be quite clear that the expropriation can never be as
high from workers as from employers." 32
Labor racketeering directed
at employers usually takes two related forms: "strike insurance" and
"sweetheart" contracts. In both cases, the corrupt union leader accepts
under-the-table payoffs in return for compromising the membership's interests in
organizing, bargaining with management, or enforcing a contract. 33 The two forms of corruption differ in
that whereas strike insurance is forced upon unwilling employers as a variation
of the old protection racket, sweetheart deals are often welcomed and initiated
by corrupt employers who benefit from such arrangements as much as the union
officials. A $ 10,000 payoff to a corrupt union official, for example, might
result in a sweetheart contract saving the employer $ 100,000 in labor costs.
The union official and the employer come out ahead; the losers are the workers
and the employer's more honest competitors. 34 Sweetheart deals also victimize the
labor [*911] movement more generally by
reducing wages and worsening working conditions; by presenting the public image
of a labor movement plagued by corruption and ridden with racketeers; and by
functioning as legal bars to the efforts of honest unions to win from corrupt
ones the right to represent the victimized workers. 35
Payoffs from employers were
everyday events in Tony Provenzano's Local 560. Consider only those payoffs for
which Provenzano or his associates were convicted: payments for "labor peace"
from the Dorn Transportation Company between 1952 and 1959; attempted extortion
of "labor peace" payoffs from the Braun Company in 1961; payments from Seatrain
Lines and its in-house trucking companies between 1969 and 1977, which allowed
them to avoid unionization and to pay Local 560 members low wages and no
benefits; and payments from four trucking companies between 1971 and 1980, which
allowed the trucking companies to avoid contractual obligations to hire Local
560 "city men" upon entering the local's jurisdiction. 36
Collectively bargained
pension and health and welfare funds 37 provide labor racketeers with another
pot of money through which "the savings of working men and women are pilfered,
embezzled, parlayed, mismanaged and outright stolen." 38 One form of pension fund abuse common
in Local 560 was the receipt of kickbacks for arranging questionable pension
fund loans. 39 Another was the accrual of
unreasonably high administrative costs by, for example, retaining an
unscrupulous [*912] fund accountant even after
his indictment for systematically overbilling the fund. 40
Pension fund abuse proves to
be a particularly pernicious form of labor racketeering because its effects on
plan participants may remain hidden for years. Such effects may take two forms.
First, financial losses to the fund may cause recipients' benefits to decrease
or to increase at a slower pace than they otherwise would; in extreme cases, the
fund may become insolvent altogether. Second, and more subtlely, the losses
resulting from fund mismanagement may create an incentive for plan
administrators trying to hide those losses to tighten eligibility requirements.
As a result, fewer plan participants qualify for benefits, and those that do
qualify receive smaller benefits than expected. 41 When the union member finally feels
the effect -- for example, when a worker about to retire learns that she is
eligible for only half the expected pension because of a short interruption in
employment years before -- it may be too late either to remedy the abuses or to
make alternative financial arrangements for retirement. 42
Union corruption also can
facilitate other illicit activities, such as gambling, loansharking, and
pilferage. 43 Local 560 scores at least two out of
three here, with members of the Provenzano group having been convicted of both
loansharking and theft of property from employers' loading docks. 44
Finally, extensive union
corruption usually leads to economic or physical retaliation directed at union
members who are bold enough to challenge their corrupt officers' conduct or
continued tenure in office. 45 During the early 1960s, the
Provenzano group consolidated its control over Local 560 by murdering two union
rivals. 46 In the ensuing years, the high level
of intimidation in the local virtually precluded any further [*913] rank-and-file opposition to the outrageous
conduct of Provenzano and his associates. 47
Local 560, of course, has no
monopoly on corruption, and neither does the Teamsters International.
Occasionally, even a United Auto Workers official gets caught with his hand in
the till, 48 and sweetheart contracts and strike
insurance rackets are rampant throughout the construction industry and on the
docks. 49 Similarly, other unions besides the
Teamsters, such as the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and the Laborers
International, have well-deserved reputations for pension and benefit fund
abuse. 50 Finally, dozens of union locals in
the construction trades have permitted their hiring halls to dispatch workers to
jobs on the basis of such illegitimate factors as race and sex discrimination,
51 cronyism, 52 and under-the-table payoffs. 53
Of course, none of this is
new. The problem of union corruption has plagued some segments of the labor
movement almost since its inception. 54 Over the years, a number of
interesting patterns have emerged. For example, corruption is generally more of
a problem in the older, craft unions of the pre-merger AFL than in the newer,
industrial unions organized by the CIO during the 1930s. 55 Some commentators have suggested that
the conservative "business unionism" typical of the AFL was [*914] simply more susceptible to abuse than the more
idealistic, politically progressive "social unionism" of the CIO. 56
Other explanations focus on
the common characteristics of the construction, garment, longshore, service, and
trucking industries, where labor racketeering is most prevalent:
All of
these industries are notable in some degree for small business units, high
proportional labor costs, small profit margins, intensive competition, and a
considerable rate of business failures. At least in the past the battle for
survival was severe, with ethics an early casualty. Wages were a natural point
of attack by employers who, alone or in concert, sought cheapness and stability
by whatever means were available -- coercion, bribery, or collaboration. Union
officials used their economic power to private advantage against employers
especially vulnerable to the strike. 57
The relatively small scale
corruption of amateur crooks -- the "trade unionists with a flaw" that probably
can be found in any union -- should be distinguished from the more extensive
operations of professional labor racketeers -- "the proconsuls of the American
underworld" who have had their greatest success infiltrating such unions as the
Teamsters, Laborers, Hotel and Restaurant Employees, and east coast
Longshoremen. 58 The often chaotic conditions in the
industries served by these unions can create tempting opportunities for "the
professional and violent stabilizer." 59
[*915] Although certain segments of the labor movement
suffer from corruption and the infiltration of organized crime, the entire labor
movement is certainly no worse in this regard than other segments of society. 60 Indeed, employers often set the tone
for labor racketeering. Consider the construction industry, for example:
Certainly the desire to eliminate competitive bidding initially must
have come from the employer; and employers accustomed to giving kickbacks and
rebates, to paying inspectors for systematically violating building codes . . .
are not going to be reluctant to use the same methods in their labor relations.
Where systematized racketeering exists, it will usually be found embodied in the
entire system of carrying on a business or industry. 61
But labor racketeering
deserves our attention for reasons beyond consideration of its anticompetitive
impact on the economy. 62 Since federal law is a major source
of union power, 63 the public has a strong interest in a
clean labor movement and in democratic unionism. 64 At their best, unions use that power
to bring to the workplace not only improved wages and working conditions but
also a level of industrial democracy and human dignity that is impossible to
measure in dollars and cents. [*916] Equally
important, unions provide a vital, collective voice for workers in the political
arena. 65 These functions of unionism are
incompatible with labor racketeering, and a labor movement plagued with
corruption is one which the public may not tolerate indefinitely. 66
III. KEEPING ITS OWN
HOUSE CLEAN: THE LABOR MOVEMENT'S INTERNAL REMEDIES
The frustrations of
trying to win a seemingly endless legal war against labor racketeering have
generated an infautation with RICO trusteeships in law enforcement circles. But
even their strongest proponents agree that RICO trusteeships should be used only
as a last resort. This view is in keeping with a central tenet of federal labor
policy: unions and their members should have ample opportunities to resolve
their problems internally before the courts interfere. 67 The justifications for this policy
are threefold: first, to prevent unnecessary governmental interference with the
affairs of private organizations; second, to promote responsible union
self-government by providing union officials of higher authority the opportunity
to oversee, and where necessary to correct, the conduct of lower level union
officials; and finally, to conserve judicial resources, since disputes resolved
internally need not be brought to [*917] court.
68 Before focusing on structural
remedies such as trusteeships, therefore, an examination of the nature and
effectiveness of the labor movement's own remedies for union corruption is
appropriate. 69
A. Discipline of
Corrupt Officers and Members and Damage Actions for the Recovery of Embezzled
Union Funds
Once corruption is detected, the union itself, if its
officers and membership are willing, can remedy isolated or small scale
instances of corruption. 70 For example, a union can bring
charges of violating the union's constitution against an official who embezzles
from the union treasury. If a union tribunal finds the official guilty, it can
remove her from office and suspend or expel her from the union's membership. 71 [*918] The union also can use its disciplinary
proceedings to obtain restitution of the embezzled funds by imposing a fine on
the guilty party equal to the amount stolen. 72
Alternatively, a union might
seek damages from corrupt officers through a common law tort action or, in
appropriate cases, treble damages and attorneys' fees through the civil
provisions of the RICO statute. 73 These court actions are particularly
appropriate when union officials have taken payoffs from corrupt employers,
because the employers involved are equally guilty and also should be held
accountable. However, determining an appropriate measure of damages in such
cases can be complicated. A natural starting point would be the dollar amount of
the illegal payoffs, since that sum represents the cost to the employer of
buying off union representation that properly belonged to the union's
membership. But since payoffs typically cost employers less than an honest labor
relations policy would (why else make the payoffs?), actual losses to the union,
in terms of a reduced reputation for effectiveness, and to the union's
membership, in terms of lost grievances and smaller wage and benefit packages,
generally exceed the payoffs. Therefore, that starting figure should be subject
to a reasonable multiplier appropriate to the facts of any given case.
In situations in which union officials refuse to authorize such lawsuits
against their corrupt colleagues, union members can initiate the litigation
themselves, on their union's behalf, in the union equivalent of shareholder
derivative actions, pursuant to title V of the Landrum-Griffin Act. 74 Whether a treble damages claim under
civil RICO can be piggybacked onto a title V action against a union officer for
breach of his fiduciary duties is as yet unanswered. The doctrine of in pari
materia, that two statutes addressing a common problem should be
interpreted in [*919] a manner that furthers
the effectiveness of both, 75 suggests that courts should recognize
such a "hybrid RICO/section 501 action." 76
B. Voting the
Rascals Out
When members of the public hear tales about Teamsters
leaders such as Jimmy Hoffa, Jackie Presser, and Tony Provenzano, they often ask
why the members don't simply vote the rascals out. After all, that is just what
rank-and-file miners did to the corrupt Tony Boyle regime in the United Mine
Workers (UMW) seventeen years ago. 77 The failure of the membership to take
such action in the Teamsters, Laborers, and other unions is sometimes viewed as
a sign that the rank-and-file like things just the way they are in their unions,
corruption and all.
At times, that assumption may hold a grain of truth.
Hoffa, for example, participated in the looting of union treasuries and pension
funds, but he was also a genuinely effective and charismatic labor leader who
delivered substantially improved wages, benefits, and working conditions to the
bulk of his membership. 78 Jackie Presser, on the other hand,
presided over a shrinking union membership with diminishing wages and
deteriorating working conditions, 79 and his difficulty in obtaining
rank-and-file approval of the contracts he negotiated suggests that he probably
would not have fared as well as Hoffa in a membership referendum. 80
Unfortunately, we will never
know, for the Teamsters' membership has never had a chance to vote for Hoffa or
for any of the men who succeeded him -- Frank Fitzsimmons, Roy Williams, Jackie
Presser, or William McCarthy. Instead, convention delegates -- most of whom are
already part of the union power structure -- elect the national officers of the
Teamsters and many other national unions. Entrenched national administrations
can manipulate some of these electoral systems, like the [*920] Teamsters', to drastically reduce, if not
eliminate, the prospects for successful challenges to incumbent officers at the
national level. 81
Incumbents also have a
powerful advantage in direct membership elections of national officers. 82 The victory of the Miners for
Democracy reform slate in the UMW election of 1972 is the great counter-example,
of course, but even that victory came only in a U.S. Department of Labor
supervised election that was virtually compelled by the brutal murders of an
earlier reform candidate and his family on the orders of then-UMW president Tony
Boyle. 83 In too many other cases, either the
cumbersome enforcement procedures of the Landrum-Griffin Act's election
provisions, or the Labor Department's passive approach to enforcement, stymies
reform challengers who seek Labor Department help in assuring fair elections. 84
Union reformers traditionally
have had much greater success at the local level than at the national. There,
the democratic reforms imposed by the Landrum-Griffin Act have been most
effective in furthering one of the statute's principal purposes: empowering the
rank-and-file to clean up corrupt unions themselves. 85 But as the Local 560 case
illustrates, labor racketeers can sometimes nip opposition threats in the bud by
retaliating economically, and if necessary physically, against rank-and-file
dissidents. 86 The right to run for office and the
right to obtain Labor Department assistance in assuring a fair election are of
little help when potential reform candidates and their supporters are too
intimidated even to mount a campaign.
C. Intra-Union
Trusteeships
When the levels of corruption and racketeering in a
union local make reform by a local's own members unlikely, the parent
international can intervene with a very powerful and effective device for
cleaning [*921] house in the local: 87 the intra-union trusteeship.
Typically, the international will remove all local officers from their posts and
will appoint its own trustee to run the local's affairs until the problems
necessitating the trusteeship have been resolved. The union will then hold new
elections of local officers and the governance of the local will be returned to
its members.
Thus, if the local's officers have been abusing the union's
treasury, the trustee can impose more responsible fiscal policies; if the
officers have been taking payoffs from employers to ignore contract violations,
the trustee can begin handling grievances more aggressively; if dispatchers in a
local's hiring hall have been taking bribes to allocate work assignments, the
trustee can implement a firm "first in, first out" dispatch policy; if the
local's officers have been negotiating sweetheart contracts with employers, the
trustee can notify those employers that negotiations for future contracts will
be legitimate and at arm's length. Indeed, if the trustee can prove that
existing contracts are the product of fraud, bribery, or other illegal conduct,
she may be able to have them nullified so that legitimate collective bargaining
can commence earlier than would otherwise be possible. 88 Further, on behalf of the local, the
trustee can initiate litigation pursuant to the Landrum-Griffin Act, RICO, and
common law causes of action in order to recover damages for the harm suffered by
the local and its members at the hands of the local's former officers and their
corrupt management counterparts.
The effectiveness of trusteeships as a
remedy for union corruption and labor racketeering, however, depends on the
willingness of the labor movement's national leaders to impose them. Most
national unions, which are basically untainted by corruption and determined to
stay that way, have leadership that is committed to eradicating corrupt
practices. Unfortunately, and not coincidentally, those national unions with the
greatest need to resort to trusteeships to expunge racketeer influences at the
local level often have been infiltrated at the national level as well. [*922] For example, eight years before federal
prosecutors succeeded in obtaining a judicially-imposed RICO trusteeship over
Tony Provenzano's thoroughly corrupt Teamsters Local 560, rank-and-file
Teamsters formally petitioned the Teamsters International to impose a
trusteeship of its own. Their request fell on deaf ears. 89
D. Other
Intra-Union Controls Over Local Unions
Short of an outright
takeover through trusteeship, national unions typically have a myriad of subtle
and not so subtle ways to influence their locals. These might include veto power
over proposed amendments to the local's bylaws, authority to resolve
jurisdictional disputes between sister locals, the ability to grant or withhold
strike authorization or strike benefits, and the authority to control the higher
levels of contractual grievance procedures. 90 Through these devices, a national
union sometimes can undermine membership support for a corrupt but politically
entrenched local leader by reducing his effectiveness in collective bargaining
or contract enforcement. 91
A national union also might
order the merger of a corrupt local into one or more of its sister locals, in an
effort to dilute and eventually eliminate the local's problems. On the other
hand, if the international believes that the prospects for cleaning up one of
its locals is particularly hopeless, it might revoke the local's charter. The
international could then charter a new local to assume the old local's
jurisdiction; alternatively, it could simply write off the lost members as a
sacrifice necessary to prevent the corruption that plagues the expelled local
from infecting other parts of the union. The expelled local would probably
dissolve, but it could try [*923] to survive as
an independent local, or it might obtain a charter from a different national
union more tolerant of corruption. 92
E. Public Review
Boards
A fundamental problem with all of the internal union
remedies discussed thus far is that they usually operate in the context of union
governments that have not institutionalized the checks and balances associated
with the separation of powers. 93 A union's legislative functions are,
at least in theory, performed by its conventions at the national level and
membership meetings at the local level, and the union's executive functions are
carried out by its elected and appointed officers and staff. 94 But in most unions, no third branch
of government exists: the judicial functions are generally handled at the
"trial" level by ad hoc hearing tribunals comprised of officers or
members, and at the "appellate" level they are reviewed by the union's executive
board or national convention. 95
As a consequence, the
executive officers of the union, particularly the international hierarchy, have
the power not only to execute the law of the union but also to interpret it,
thus disregarding the notion that in a democratic government "[t]he executive
must rule not only by law . . . . [I]t must rule under law."
96 Because internal appellate review is
usually [*924] available before any of the
union remedies discussed in this section are given final effect, the absence of
a separate union judiciary means that those remedies will only be as effective
as the union's top leadership will allow them to be. 97
In response to this dilemma,
the United Auto Workers (UAW) and a handful of other unions have created
semi-independent "Public Review Boards" (PRB) to serve as their "supreme courts"
for intra-union grievances. 98 The most successful of these,
established by the UAW in 1957, contains seven impartial members appointed from
positions outside the union by the International President. Except for its
funding, the PRB maintains complete independence from the union hierarchy; it
has its own staff, and its offices are located in a building separate from other
union offices. 99
The UAW's PRB has broad
authority to hear appeals from individual union members or from subordinate
bodies within the union dealing with internal union matters other than the
union's collective bargaining policies. 100 While most PRB rulings have affirmed
executive board decisions, the PRB has overruled the executive board to void
fraudulent elections of local officers, has overturned questionable
trusteeships, and has [*925] ordered
reconsideration of improperly adopted local bylaw amendments. 101 More frequently, the PRB has
reversed unfair or retaliatory disciplinary proceedings brought against
dissident members, and has upheld the right of rank-and-file members to file
charges against their officers. 102 The PRB has been successful not only
as a union court of last resort, but also "as a combination complaint
department, inspector general, and conciliation service," and its existence has,
at the very least, encouraged the union hierarchy "to pay scrupulous attention
to the requirements of procedure in a given situation." 103
In spite of this success --
or perhaps because of it -- the public review board concept has not met wide
acceptance. This is its greatest failure. 104
F. The
Federation's Role
A fundamental principle of the old AFL was that
each national union had complete sovereignty over its internal affairs. As one
union leader critical of that approach stated, "Autonomy was so sacred that the
worst crooks could wrap themselves into a union charter and use it as a license
for industrial piracy." 105 The merger of the AFL and the CIO in
1955 did not affect this autonomy principle, and a common assumption is that the
AFL-CIO may simply be too loose a federation to play a significant role in
cleaning up corrupt affiliates.
However, as the AFL and the CIO
demonstrated separately and together during the 1950s, the AFL-CIO can take some
steps when it has [*926] the will to act. The
Federation's most important source of leverage over its affiliates is its power
to suspend or expel them from membership, and that power has been quite
effective against some unions. For example, in 1949 and 1950, the CIO expelled
eleven unions for alleged Communist domination; soon after, nine of the eleven
had either gone under or had been absorbed by rival unions. 106 Corruption replaced communism on
center stage a few years later, and the AFL-CIO successfully expelled the
corrupt Bakery and Confectionary Workers International Union in 1957, chartering
a new American Bakery and Confectionary Workers Union which assumed control over
many of the expelled union's locals and members. Eventually, the remnants of the
older union cleansed its ranks, and the two unions merged. 107
On the other hand,
expulsions of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the
Teamsters were total failures, demonstrating that exile from the house of labor
is not necessarily an effective remedy against labor racketeering. In 1953,
following dramatic revelations by the New York State Crime Commission of
corruption reaching the highest levels of the ILA, the AFL expelled the ILA and,
with no lasting success, attempted to organize a rival International Brotherhood
of Longshoremen (IBL) to displace the ILA from the New York waterfront. 108 The ILA defeated the IBL in a series
of bitterly contested National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections, and by
late 1959 the AFL-CIO invited the ILA to reaffiliate. 109 Similarly, the Teamsters union seems
to have suffered few ill effects from its thirty-year exile from the Federation,
which began after Hoffa's election in 1957 and ended anticlimactically in 1987.
110
These failures, however, do
not mean that the AFL-CIO is totally powerless to combat corruption in its
affiliates. Many affiliates, particularly the smaller ones, do not relish the
prospect of survival on their own. [*927] For
example, during the same period in which the ILA and IBT expulsions were
failing, the fear of expulsion and its consequences led the Distillery Workers,
and the Jewelry Workers to accept something resembling Federation
"trusteeships": each union was placed on probationary status, during which time
the Federation appointed "monitors" to supervise the affairs of the unions and
assist in the elimination of corruption. 111
The AFL-CIO also might fight
corruption both in its affiliates and in unaffiliated unions by considering
comparative levels of corruption in competing unions when resolving
jurisdictional disputes, by providing financial or technical support for
reformers in corrupt unions, or by refusing to honor the picket lines or
otherwise lend support to the activities of certain "outlaw" unions that could
be placed on a "boycott" list. These approaches, however, would constitute major
departures from longstanding AFL-CIO practice, and -- given the political
realities in a Federation that recently welcomed back the Teamsters without even
a word about Teamster corruption -- they are unlikely to be tried anytime soon.
Indeed, the AFL-CIO's current indifference to the problem of corruption
within its ranks is typified by the fact that its ethical practice codes,
adopted with great fanfare in the 1950s, are now out of print within the
Federation. The ethical practices committee established to enforce them has been
dormant for decades. 112
IV. LEGAL AUTHORITY
FOR THE JUDICIALLY SUPERVISED REFORM OF LABOR UNIONS
Internal union
remedies have proven inadequate to eliminate the corruption and racketeering
that has plagued some segments of the labor movement for decades. Countless
criminal prosecutions and civil suits for routine injunctive relief 113 or damages against corrupt union
officials and their management counterparts also have proved ineffective. Such
[*928] cases often succeed in jailing an
offender here or halting an abuse there, but as the sordid history of Tony
Provenzano's Teamsters Local 560 illustrates, they fail to root out deeply
entrenched patterns of labor racketeering. 114
The failure of traditional
remedies to eliminate corruption from unions like the Teamsters has led growing
numbers of law enforcement officials, and some union reformers, to embrace the
much more controversial and drastic remedy of court-imposed trusteeships as a
means of remedying the most severe instances of labor racketeering. 115 Frustration with the inadequacy of
less drastic measures alone, though, cannot provide the legal authority for such
trusteeships, or for any other similarly intrusive efforts by the courts to
supervise a union's internal affairs. Nor does adequate discussion of the
sources of that authority appear in the emerging line of cases, beginning with
Local 560 itself, in which courts have actually imposed such remedies.
116
This section and the next,
therefore, endeavor to provide some of that missing analysis. First, a review of
the emergence over the last several decades of institutional reform litigation
in other substantive areas provides a context for the discussion. The next four
subsections examine the more direct precedents for union reform litigation, many
involving the use of such traditional equitable devices as masters and receivers
in a variety of union settings. The Article then analyzes the structural
injunctions available under the RICO statute, which provides the basis for five
recent or ongoing union trusteeships, monitorships, and decreeships.
A. Traditional Equitable Remedies and the Emergence of Institutional
Reform Litigation
Equity, it has long been said, will not suffer a
wrong without a remedy. 117 Accordingly, "equity has been
characterized by a practical flexibility in shaping its remedies." 118 That flexibility has been stretched
to [*929] dramatic new limits in the last
twenty-five years, first in school desegregation and later in such areas as the
reform of prisons and mental institutions, as the courts have responded to the
development of new substantive rights by entering "squarely in[to] the business
of reforming bureaucracies." 119
Because of the inherently
difficult and protracted nature of reforming complex social institutions,
particularly when reform is forced upon resistant bureaucracies from the
outside, institutional reform litigation has been accompanied, perhaps
inevitably, by a transformation of traditionally equitable remedies into new and
sometimes controversial forms. The injunction, for example, one of equity's most
basic remedies, assumed a new look as a result of the legal revolution brought
about by the civil rights movement. 120 The notion that injunctive relief is
"extraordinary" has all but disappeared. 121 The injunction is no longer a
"one-shot method" of reform. In institutional reform cases, "a series of
interventions" are inevitable, and the injunction represents the initiation of a
"relationship between the judge and the institution" -- a declaration that the
judge will henceforth manage "the reorganization of an ongoing social
institution." 122
Judges soon learned,
however, that supervising institutional reform without outside help was often
impossible. Therefore, relying on their "inherent power to provide themselves
with appropriate instruments required for the performance of their duties," 123 they created new roles for such
traditional ancillaries of the equity courts as masters and receivers. The
master, for example, evolved from the traditional pre-disposition factfinder to
the post-liability formulator, monitor, and enforcer of remedial decrees. 124 Similarly, receivers were no longer
limited to their traditional function of holding, managing, or liquidating a
defendant's [*930] property in order to protect
a plaintiff's interest in that property. 125 For two decades, courts facing
unusually fierce resistance in institutional reform cases have appointed
receivers to assume the day-to-day administration of complex social institutions
in order to protect such intangible constitutional rights as the right to an
integrated public school education, or the right to be free from cruel and
unusual punishment in a state prison system. 126
Nothing in the court's
"inherent equitable powers" should limit these adaptations of traditional
equitable remedies to cases involving constitutional rights or public agencies.
127 True, when reforming private
organizations such as unions, 128 courts must take special care to
accommodate the first amendment's freedom of association, 129 a concern less often present in the
reform of public bureaucracies. But on the other hand, two of the strongest
arguments against the use of intrusive, structural remedies in the public sector
-- that they violate fundamental principles of federalism and the separation of
powers 130 -- are much less relevant to
institutional reform litigation in the private sector.
This conclusion
is consistent with the view that it is not the nature of the remedies involved
as much as the emergence of the new substantive rights underlying those remedies
that has made the judicially supervised reform of public institutions so
controversial. 131 Indeed, even apart from the
trusteeships routinely established in bankruptcy cases, courts have utilized
receiverships regularly, and without great controversy, to enforce substantive
rights in the private sector since long before the first [*931] school desegregation receivership. For example,
in the corporate law area, courts have frequently appointed receivers to take
charge of defendant corporations in order to enforce compliance with the
securities laws. 132 Antitrust law recognized the
availability of corporate receivers to enforce compliance as long ago as 1911.
133
This pattern also holds true
in the context of labor unions. Both state and federal courts have, for over
fifty years, regularly relied upon their inherent equitable powers to appoint
masters and receivers to remedy violations of the substantive laws regulating
internal union affairs.
B. Common Law Union Receiverships,
Before Landrum-Griffin . . . and After
The first suggestion that
receivers could play a role in resolving internal union disputes appears in a
1932 New York case, Kaplan v. Elliot. 134 A corrupt New York local which
represented motion picture projectionists had been placed in an intra-union
trusteeship by its international. The ousted local president challenged the
trusteeship, alleging breaches of the union's constitution, and sought
reinstatement pendente lite. The court denied the injunction but
ordererd the international to conduct an election of temporary officers. It also
indicated that, had the parties requested, it would "have been pleased to
appoint" an impartial official of the American Federation of Labor "to act as
receiver of the funds of the local," pending a final decision on the merits. 135
When the international
subsequently complained that conditions in the local made fair elections
impossible, the court on its own motion appointed three receivers to hold and
preserve the local's property and "to [*932]
supervise the rights of individual members in their relation to the union and in
the preservation of their contractual rights." 136 Although an appellate court later
overturned the receivership, 137 it did so without opinion.
Commentators at the time generally supported the availability of union
receiverships under appropriate circumstances and speculated that the
Kaplan reversal was less a rejection of union receiverships per
se than a ratification of the international's intra-union trusteeship in
the particular case. 138
Whatever Kaplan's
meaning, a line of New Jersey cases that developed only a few months later left
no ambiguity. The first involved a "paper" Teamsters local established for the
sole purpose of extorting dues payments from members who in fact received no
union representation. 139 When, pursuant to allegations of
fraud and breach of trust, the court appointed a custodial "receiver-trustee" to
manage the local's funds pendente lite, it stressed that its "inherent
jurisdiction" to make such an appointment "is beyond question [and] does not
depend upon or require statutory authority therefor." 140
Subsequent union
receiverships provide more ambitious efforts at institutional reform. The second
New Jersey case, for example, Local 11, International Association of Bridge,
Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers v. McKee, 141 involved a local which was not
merely a dues collecting scam but instead was a legitimate union incapacitated
by corruption, autocratic leadership, and a two-and-a-half year suspension of
membership meetings. In an action based on fraud and violations of the union's
constitution, the plaintiffs requested the appointment of a receiver endowed
with "all of the powers, duties, and functions" of union officers, specifically
including the power to conduct membership meetings and, when the court deemed
appropriate, new elections of officers. 142 [*933] Again relying on its "general equity powers" and
its "inherent jurisdiction," the court obliged by appointing a receiver not only
to preserve the union's assets, but also to "operate its business in a legal
manner, free of oppression by interlopers such as the International officers"
until the election of new officers. 143
Another New Jersey case was
apparently the first in which a receiver himself petitioned the court for
assistance in overcoming the defendant union's resistance to the receivership's
operation. 144 In that case, the court expressly
endorsed an activist role for receivers, noting that sometimes "the status
quo is a condition not of rest but of action," 145 and under such circumstances, "[t]he
receiver cannot remain quiescent. . . . Inactivity by him would jeopardize the
existence of the local . . . ." 146 The dearth of precedent in the area
did not faze the court: "If there be no precedent in this state to fit the
instant case, then one will be established. Where there is a wrong, there is a
remedy." 147
Courts eventually ordered
the use of receivers or special masters in union corruption and union democracy
litigation not only in New York and New Jersey, 148 but in Alabama, 149 Illinois, 150 Indiana, 151 Missouri, 152 Oregon, 153 and Pennsylvania 154 as well. Courts sometimes used the
threat of receiverships as a means of compelling structural reforms in [*934] unions, 155 and some defendants accepted
receiverships voluntarily. 156 Even when courts were reluctant to
appoint receivers, they sometimes achieved a similar effect by issuing extremely
detailed, mandatory injunctions. 157
By the late 1950s, then, the
court-imposed union receivership had a twenty-five year track record in union
reform litigation. While it was considered a harsh remedy, most commentators
nevertheless understood the receivership to be available in extreme cases. 158 And since few would deny that the
corruption and racketeering in the Teamsters union in the late 1950s was
extreme, 159 it was not all that surprising when
a bold group of union reformers sought to place an entire union international
into receivership following Jimmy Hoffa's election to the Teamsters' presidency
in 1957. 160 Although the Cunningham v.
English litigation resulted in a consent decree establishing a court
appointed "Board of Monitors," rather than a receivership, to oversee major
reforms in the Teamsters union, 161 that case was undoubtedly the
high-water mark of union reform litigation in the pre-Landrum-Griffin Act era.
It remains one of the most ambitious efforts at judicially supervised union
reform ever undertaken. 162
But in the end, the Board of
Monitors was widely viewed as a failure. The common law union receivership
subsequently fell into disuse, in [*935] large
part because of the passage in 1959 of the Landrum-Griffin Act. 163 The Act was a direct response to the
corrupt and undemocratic union practices exposed by the McClellan Committee, and
it provided alternative remedies to many of the abuses that the common law
receiverships had been designed to remedy. 164 Indeed, many of those receiverships
had been ordered in response to abuses in the elections of union officers, and
the comprehensive election remedies available under Landrum-Griffin's title IV
would now preempt suits to overturn such elections. 165
Nevertheless, apart from the
statute's express limit on post-election remedies to those made available to the
Secretary of Labor pursuant to title IV, 166 nothing in the Landrum-Griffin Act
preempts otherwise available state or federal remedies for union corruption or
undemocratic practices. 167 On the contrary, three separate
provisions of the Act expressly provide for the retention of rights under other
sources of law. 168 According to the only court which
has addressed the question, "One of the rights preserved [by those provisions]
is the right [of a union member] to seek the imposition of a state court
receivership over his local union to insure the financial stability of his union
and to assure its proper operation as a labor organization." 169 Indeed, the common law remedies for
union corruption -- including court-appointed receiverships -- may be more
readily available today than they were thirty or forty years ago, [*936] since old questions about a union's capacity to
be sued 170 and a federal court's jurisdiction
to entertain suits to enforce a union's constitution have since been settled in
favor of plaintiffs. 171
The common law doctrinal
foundations of the union receivership, which have lain dormant for nearly thirty
years, may seem quaint and obsolete in light of the statutory causes of action
available under the Landrum-Griffin Act and civil RICO. Nevertheless, just as a
resurgence of interest in state constitutional law has emerged in response to
the shifting tides of federal constitutional analysis, 172 resort to the old common law
doctrines may ultimately provide an attractive alternative to their more modern
statutory counterparts in the context of union reform litigation.
In any
event, the receivership remedy remains available under the Landrum-Griffin Act.
173 Congress created three causes of
action in the Act which authorize in broad language the courts to grant any
"relief (including injunctions) as may be appropriate" to enforce title I's
"Bill of Rights of Members of Labor Organizations," title II's reporting and
disclosure requirements, and title III's protections against improper intraunion
trusteeships. 174 Similarly, title V's provision
authorizing members to bring suit on their union's behalf against corrupt union
officers for breach of their fiduciary duties provides not only for damages or
an accounting and attorneys' fees but also for any "other appropriate relief."
175
[*937] Only in the limited context of post-election
enforcement of title IV's fair election provisions did Congress expressly
consider and reject specific equitable remedies, such as receiverships for the
purpose of administering a union's affairs while an election challenge is
pending. 176 But even there, the Act permits
receiverships of a more limited nature, since it authorizes a court "to take
such action as it deems proper to preserve the assets of the labor
organization." 177 At least one court has appointed a
trustee for such purposes in a title IV proceeding. 178
Thus, with the exception of
post-election enforcement of title IV's fair election provisions, there is no
reason to believe that Congress intended to deny courts their traditional
equitable powers in remedying violations of the Landrum-Griffin Act. Congress
used broad, open-ended language in describing the remedies available under the
Act, and it was undoubtedly aware that as a remedial statute, Landrum-Griffin
would be liberally construed. 179 As the Supreme Court has repeatedly
held, "Unless a statute in so many words, or by a necessary and inescapable
inference, restricts the court's jurisdiction in equity, the full scope of that
jurisdiction is to be recognized and applied." 180
[*938] True, in enacting Landrum-Griffin, Congress was
guided by the general principle that a "union should be left free to 'operate
their own affairs, as far as possible;'" that union members "'are fully
competent to regulate union affairs'" 181 with only "minimum interference by
Government." 182 But to the extent that view counsels
against the use of intrusive equitable remedies, the fact that it appears in the
legislative history before the addition on the Senate floor of the
union members' bill of rights undercuts its force. Indeed, that view was put
forward for the purpose of justifying the controversial omission from the bill,
as reported out of committee, of a union members' bill of rights. 183 As finally enacted, Landrum-Griffin
contemplates substantially more judicial interference with internal union
affairs than the earlier versions described in the Senate reports. In any event,
that courts should allow unions to run their own affairs "as far as possible"
does not necessarily mean that the courts can never impose intrusive
remedies such as receiverships; it may mean simply that they should use such
drastic remedies only as a last resort.
C. Title VII and the
Integration of Unions, Apprenticeship Programs, and Hiring Halls
Whether permanent or temporary, the demise of the common law union
receivership a generation ago did not mean the end of union institutional reform
litigation. In this decade, civil RICO has emerged as a modern, statutory basis
for similar remedies. In the interim years, title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 184 served as an important substantive
basis for the courts, often with the assistance of masters and receivers, to
supervise the reform and day-to-day affairs of unions and related institutions,
such as hiring halls and apprenticeship programs.
Until the passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, labor unions had no legal obligation to admit
minority or female members into their [*939]
ranks. 185 Many unions had formal prohibitions
against black membership, and many others relegated black members to auxiliary
or segregated locals. Unions without formal restrictions were able to exclude
blacks or other minority group members by less formal means, such as requiring
new members to be sponsored by present members, allowing proposed members to be
blackballed by the votes of only a handful of incumbent members, or giving
preference to the relatives of present members. These exclusionary practices
were most prevalent among the craft unions, particularly in the building trades,
where unions frequently controlled access to work. These unions could easily bar
"undesirables" by excluding them from apprenticeship programs, by rigging
journeyman examinations so that minority craftsmen would fail, or by simply
refusing to dispatch minority workers from union-run hiring halls. 186
All of these practices
became unlawful with the passage of title VII, but of course, they did not end
overnight. As with school desegregation, the courts discovered that simple
injunctions ordering the end of discriminatory practices were often
insufficient, and that more intrusive forms of equitable relief were necessary.
For example, when previously segregated union locals were ordered merged, some
courts imposed transitional structural reforms that assured outnumbered blacks
an effective voice in the newly merged locals by allocating a set number of
executive board seats and convention delegate positions to the members of each
of the old locals. 187
In the unionized sectors of
industries such as construction, where union-run hiring halls generally
distribute jobs 188 and union-dominated apprenticeship
programs limit access to skills training, 189 title VII [*940] decrees have compelled fundamental changes in the
day-to-day operations of those institutions. For example, court orders have
changed admissions criteria, 190 the length and content of
apprenticeship programs, 191 and have eliminated or modified
journeyman examinations; 192 courts have ordered numerical goals
and quotas for admission to apprenticeship programs and dispatch from hiring
halls; 193 and courts have imposed new dispatch
procedures, as well as detailed recordkeeping requirements, on hiring halls. 194 One court even ordered the creation
of an entirely new apprenticeship program for minority trainees. 195
In many of these cases, the
courts have appointed masters or advisory committees to assist in the
formulation and implementation of those remedies. 196 In Local 28, Sheet Metal Workers
v. EEOC, the Supreme Court expressly held that such appointments were
within the remedial powers of the district courts. 197 In reaching that conclusion, the
Court rejected the union's argument that the appointment of an administrator
with "broad powers" to supervise the union's compliance with the court's
remedial decrees constituted "an unjustifiable interference" with the union's
"statutory right to self-governance": "While the administrator may substantially
interfere with petitioners' membership operations, such interference' is
necessary to put such 'interference' is necessary to put an end to petitioners'
discriminatory ways." 198
[*941] In some hiring hall and apprenticeship cases, the
courts have given their appointees responsibilities closely approaching those of
receivers. For example, after experiencing five years of the defendant union's
failure to comply with a less drastic decree, the court in Pennsylvania v.
Local 542, Operating Engineers appointed a "Hiring Hall Monitor" with "full
authority to operate and oversee all features of the hiring halls." 199 In another case, an administrator
was appointed for a five-year term and was given extensive powers that included
the authority to "approve or reject the disposition of all applications for
entry into the Unions or their programs," to conduct a study of the union's
hiring hall procedures, and to "revise or change" such procedures in any manner
necessary to achieve the decree's objectives. 200
D. State
Regulation of Unions in the Longshore and Casino Industries
Other
statutes also have provided the substantive basis for the judicially supervised
reform of internal union affairs. For example, traditional receiverships have
been imposed upon insolvent unions pursuant to the federal bankruptcy laws. 201 State statutes designed to curb
racketeering on the docks of New York harbor and in the casinos of Atlantic City
have authorized another major form of intervention: outright prohibitions
against individuals with criminal backgrounds or associations from holding union
office.
In 1953, in response to revelations of extensive corruption on
both the New York and New Jersey sides of the Port of New York, the two states,
with congressional approval, entered into an interstate compact to regulate
waterfront employment that was aimed at keeping labor racketeers out of the
longshore industry. 202 Each state implemented the compact
with legislation that prohibited individuals who had been convicted of certain
crimes, and not subsequently pardoned or cleared by a [*942] parole board, from holding office in unions
representing waterfront employees. 203
A quarter century later,
when it legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City, the state of New Jersey
enacted similar legislation intended to prevent organized crime infiltration of
the casino industry and to ensure public trust in the industry's integrity. 204 Like the New York and New Jersey
waterfront statutes, the Casino Control Act prohibits individuals convicted of
certain crimes from holding office in unions representing employees in the
industry. 205 The Act also disqualifies from union
office individuals identified as members of "career offender cartel[s]," or even
as mere associates of career offenders, or career offender cartels, if there is
a "reasonable belief that the association is . . . inimical to the policy of
[the] act." 206
Both the New York Waterfront
Commission Act and the New Jersey Casino Control Act have survived challenges in
the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected arguments that the two state regulatory
schemes were preempted by the National Labor Relations Act and the
Landrum-Griffin Act. 207 As the Court explained:
[A]t
least where the States were confronted with the "public evils" of "crime,
corruption, and racketeering," more stringent state regulation of the
qualifications of union officials [is] not incompatible with . . . national
labor policy. . . . Both statutes form part of comprehensive programs designed
to "vindicate a legitimate and compelling state interest, namely, the interest
in combating local crime infesting a particular industry." 208
To eliminate any
doubt about its agreement with the Court's resolution of these preemption
questions, Congress expressly incorporated the Court's holding into its
Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. 209
The Court left open,
however, the question whether the officer disqualification provisions could be
enforced by cutting off the offending [*943]
union's dues income. It acknowledged the risk that such a remedy could so
incapacitate a union as to prevent it from functioning as a union at all, but
noted that sanctions imposed directly on the disqualified individuals, rather
than their unions, would not have that effect. 210 Both New Jersey statutes, and the
New York statute as amended in 1969, authorize these remedial alternatives. 211
The Casino Control Act and
the two waterfront commission statutes also have survived first amendment
challenges. State and federal courts have held that the three statutes' officer
disqualification provisions do not violate the associational rights of either
the unions, their members, or the disqualified individuals themselves 212 -- an issue to which this Article
will later return. 213
E. The Reform of
Union Pension and Welfare Funds
The Employee Retirement Income
Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 214 which regulates the operation of
employee pension and welfare funds, provides another substantive basis for
institutional reform litigation that can affect the internal affairs of unions.
215 Like construction industry
apprenticeship programs, 216 collectively bargained benefit plans
are ostensibly operated jointly by labor and management, but as with
apprenticeship programs, the union trustees often dominate fund operations. 217 Because union designated benefit
fund trustees typically hold [*944] high union
offices, 218 judicially imposed changes in fund
administration can substantially affect a union's internal political climate.
The most common forms of corruption in pension and welfare plans involve
the abuse of plan funds for personal gain, either through direct self-dealing or
through kickbacks received in exchange for improperly investing plan funds or
contracting with unscrupulous service providers. 219 Not surprisingly, such conduct
violates the fiduciary duties imposed on plan officials by ERISA. 220 The statute's enforcement scheme
provides the Secretary of Labor and plan participants and beneficiaries with
broad, flexible remedies to redress or prevent statutory violations. 221 Although ERISA does not expressly
authorize the appointment of receivers to take over the administration of
benefit plans that have been victimized by fiduciary violations, courts have
construed its language, which provides for "such other equitable or remedial
relief as the court may deem appropriate, including removal of . . .
fiduciar[ies]," 222 to permit such receiverships. 223
Perhaps the leading example
of ERISA's use in the battle against pension fund corruption is its role in
cleaning up the giant Teamsters Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Areas
Pension Fund, the largest multi-employer pension fund in the country. 224 Once dubbed "the most abused,
misused pension fund in America," 225 the Central States fund was for much
of its existence "the mob's bank," where "loans depended almost always on the
right kickbacks or the right organized-crime connections." 226 According to one estimate, the
fund's losses, due [*945] to loans repaid at
below-market interest rates or never repaid at all, amounted to $ 385 million.
227
Not surprisingly, one of
Jimmy Hoffa's criminal convictions was for pension fund abuse involving the
Central States fund. 228 But that conviction no more led to
the cleanup of the Central States pension fund than it did to the cleanup of the
Teamsters union itself. Another decade would pass before the Internal Revenue
Service and the Department of Labor (DOL), relying on ERISA and a threat to
revoke the fund's tax exempt status, 229 successfully pressured Hoffa's
successors into initiating basic reforms in the fund's operations. A majority of
the fund's trustees, including IBT President Frank Fitzsimmons, agreed to resign
in late 1976 and early 1977, and independent asset managers were brought in for
a five-year term. 230 Unfortunately, those reforms, which
had not been embodied in an enforceable consent decree, proved inadequate. The
new fund trustees soon stopped cooperating with further DOL investigations and
also began to undermine the independence of the new asset managers. 231
In September, 1982, in the
face of severe criticism from the General Accounting Office and a Senate
subcommittee that it had bungled a major opportunity for cleaning up the fund,
232 the DOL negotiated a new agreement
with the Central States fund which appears to have finally expunged any
remaining corrupting influences. 233 Partially settling a DOL ERISA
action filed in 1978, the consent decree extended the independent management of
the fund's assets for at least another ten years and increased the barriers
against efforts by the trustees to undermine that independence. The decree also
provided for the appointment of an [*946]
"independent special counsel" to assist in identifying and resolving any
problems or issues that might arise in connection with the fund's performance of
its obligations under the decree or under ERISA. 234 The decree did not waive any of the
DOL's monetary claims against the fund's former trustees.
In late 1987,
a final settlement of the Central States litigation extended the terms of the
1982 decree until at least the year 2002, with a possible extension to 2007.
Moreover, it provided for a judicial veto over any appointments of new pension
fund trustees, as well as a monetary settlement in excess of $ 4 million to be
paid to the fund by the former trustees or their estates. 235 After a decade of institutional
reform litigation pursuant to ERISA, the Teamsters Central States pension fund
appears to be one of the best managed multi-employer plans in the country. 236
V. THE CIVIL RICO STRUCTURAL
INJUNCTION
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act 237 is not primarily a labor statute,
but combating organized crime's infiltration of the labor movement was one of
its central legislative goals. 238 For this reason, many of the
controversies which have been associated with criminal and civil RICO in other
contexts 239 are less relevant to the statute's
labor applications. For example, whether RICO's reach is limited to defendants
with actual organized crime connections has not been an issue [*947] in many union reform cases, where Mafia
infiltration of the labor movement is precisely the problem being addressed. 240 Similarly, the criticism that an
aggressive plaintiff's bar has exploited civil RICO to make trebledamage
mountains out of garden-variety fraud molehills, 241 and that civil RICO should be
limited to defendants who have been convicted of the underlying predicate acts,
242 is not applicable to cases in which
union officials have, in fact, been convicted of violently extorting union
members' rights, embezzling union funds, or taking payoffs from employers. 243 One leading critic of the expansive
reading that many courts have given RICO in the criminal context even goes so
far as to say that "in the labor cases . . . RICO actually operates to a
considerable extent as advertised." 244
On the other hand, RICO's
application in the labor relations context has generated a new set of issues and
controversies all its own. 245 This section will analyze civil RICO
union reform litigation in light of such [*948]
fundamental labor law concerns as preemption and the Norris-LaGuardia Act's
limitation on the role of the federal courts in labor disputes. 246 It also will suggest an approach for
resolving the potential conflicts between intrusive RICO remedies and the
associational rights of unions and their members, rights embodied in the
Landrum-Griffin Act's union members' Bill of Rights 247 and in the first amendment itself.
Before reaching those issues, however, it will describe civil RICO's operation
and the broad range of remedies it contemplates.
A. Civil
RICO
RICO's civil cause of action provides the most important
contemporary basis for the judicially supervised reform of corrupt labor unions.
Pursuant to RICO's core substantive provisions, a person 248 violates the Act if he or she (a)
uses income from a "pattern of racketeering activity" to acquire an interest in
an "enterprise"; (b) acquires an interest in an enterprise directly through a
pattern of racketeering activity; (c) conducts or participates in the operation
of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity; or (d) conspires to
commit any of the foregoing violations. 249 "Enterprise" has a broad definition,
250 and in the labor context, the
relevant enterprise would typically be a union, an employer, or a pension or
benefit fund.
A "pattern of racketeering activity" consists of the
commission of two or more predicate acts of racketeering activity within a
ten-year period. 251 "Racketeering activity" is defined
by reference to a long list of state and federal crimes ranging from murder and
arson to securities fraud and bribery 252 -- a list of predicate acts that
expressly includes three labor crimes. 253 While the nature of the pattern
which the predicate acts [*949] must establish
has been a continuing source of controversy in other contexts, 254 in the civil RICO union reform cases
decided thus far, the number of and the relationships among the predicate acts
have been extensive enough to meet even the most demanding standards. 255
In addition to providing a
treble damages remedy to the victims of RICO violations, 256 the statute's civil provisions
authorize the courts to issue a wide range of equitable relief, including bans
against further participation in the affairs of corrupt unions by the
individuals responsible for their corruption. 257 Statutory language expressly
authorizing the courts to order "the reorganization" of corrupt enterprises
demonstrates that Congress intended civil RICO to serve as a substantive basis
for institutional reform litigation. 258
The authority "to
reorganize" a corrupt enterprise, together with the courts' inherent equitable
powers 259 and Congress's explicit instructions
that RICO "be liberally construed to effectuate its remedial [*950] purposes," 260 leave little doubt that courts have
the power to issue structural injunctions in labor racketeering cases, including
orders imposing trusteeships upon racketeer-ridden unions. 261 As the legislative history makes
clear, RICO's list of remedies "is not meant to be exhaustive. . . . [T]he only
limit on remedies is that they accomplish the aim set out of removing the
corrupting influence and make due provisions for the rights of innocent
persons." 262
In the labor setting,
"mak[ing] due provisions for the rights of innocent persons" requires
accommodating RICO remedies to the organizational and collective bargaining
rights guaranteed workers by federal labor law, and to the associational rights
guaranteed unions and their members by the first amendment. Before addressing
those remedial concerns, however, we turn to an important substantive issue that
has arisen in a number of union reform cases: whether aiding and abetting the
extortion of membership rights is a RICO predicate act.
B.
Aiding and Abetting the Extortion of Membership Rights
When
government prosecutors first sought to explore the full reach of RICO's civil
remedies in their fight against labor racketeering in Tony Provenzano's
Teamsters Local 560, their goal was to remove from office Local 560's entire
seven member executive board and to replace them with a court-appointed trustee
to run the union's affairs until such time as fair elections could be held. 263 By the time the court imposed the
trusteeship, however, neither Tony Provenzano nor any of his brothers [*951] or associates who had been directly implicated in
murders and beatings of union rivals, embezzlement, or receipt of employer
payoffs, were serving on the union's executive board. 264 Three of the seven board members, in
fact, did not hold their positions when most of the predicate acts underlying
the lawsuit occurred. 265 How then did the Local 560
court justify its removal from office of those "executive board defendants"?
The court first held that "aiding and abetting" the commission of a RICO
predicate offense is itself a predicate offense. 266 A clear consensus in the courts
supports that conclusion, 267 as does RICO's liberal construction
clause. 268 While the list of offenses that
constitute "racketeering activity" does not expressly include aiding and
abetting, 269 nothing in the legislative history
suggests that Congress intended to place RICO violations beyond the normal reach
of the federal aiding and abetting statute, 270 which applies to all
federal crimes. 271
The district court found
that the executive board defendants had aided and abetted the Provenzanos and
the other individual defendants in the creation of "a climate of intimidation"
which "induce[d] or coerce[d] the membership into surrendering their federally
protected rights [*952] to participate in the
affairs of Local 560 in a democratic manner." 272 The "Provenzano Group" had created
that climate of intimidation with the repeated use of actual or threatened
violence, exemplified by the murders of Provenzano opponents in 1961 and 1963 273 and the "roughing up" of another
Provenzano critic in 1983 while the trial was in progress. 274 The Provenzano group also spawned
fear that opposition to or criticism of the union's leadership could result in
"disastrous and irreparable economic harm," 275 "particularly the loss of the
ability to earn a livelihood." 276
The court determined that
the executive board defendants assisted the Provenzano Group in creating that
atmosphere in a variety of ways: the repeated appointment of convicted criminals
within that group to positions of trust within the local, 277 the failure to remove corrupt
appointees from office, 278 and the authorization of increased
salary and pension benefits for Tony Provenzano after he had committed three
criminal offenses while a member of the executive board. 279 Moreover, given that title V of the
Landrum-Griffin Act imposes an affirmative duty upon union officials to act on
the membership's behalf, 280 the court concluded that the
executive board defendants' reckless indifference to the Provenzano Group's
systematic misconduct was itself evidence of an intent to aid and abet the
misconduct. 281
[*953] In order to establish RICO liability from this
pattern of conduct, the court still had to determine whether the creation of
that climate of intimidation was a predicate offense. Through a creative
application of the Hobbs Act, 282 the violation of which is a RICO
predicate offense, 283 the court concluded that it was. The
Hobbs Act makes it a federal crime to affect interstate commerce by extorting
property through the actual or threatened use of force, violence, or fear. 284 The court essentially boot-strapped
violations of title I of the Landrum-Griffin Act, 285 which are not themselves predicate
offenses, 286 into Hobbs Act violations by
defining the membership's interest in the "rights to union democracy" guaranteed
by title I as a Hobbs Act property interest. 287 Although many courts have applied
the Hobbs Act to extortion of other types of intangible property, such as a
company's right to make business decisions free from illegal outside pressure,
288 the Local 560 decision was
the first to designate Landrum-Griffin Act rights as property rights for Hobbs
Act purposes.
In United States v. International Brotherhood of
Teamsters, the court utilized the same approach when it denied a motion to
dismiss the [*954] government's action to
impose a trusteeship on the Teamsters International. 289 By that time, however, the court had
to overcome the argument, based on the Supreme Court's decision in McNally
v. United States 290 construing the mail fraud statute,
291 that the democratic rights
guaranteed to union members by Landrum-Griffin were, like the rights of citizens
to honest government, so ethereal and intangible as to fall outside the property
interests protected by the Hobbs Act.
The Teamsters court
distinguished McNally in part by questioning whether McNally's
interpretation of the mail fraud statute had any bearing on the Hobbs Act at
all, since the Hobbs Act, unlike the mail fraud Hobbs Act, unlike the mail fraud
statute, expressly applied to labor racketeering. 292 The court might also have noted that
the definition of "extortion" in the Hobbs Act was modeled on that term's use in
a New York extortion statute under which one court held that union membership
rights are protected property interests "as real and as needful of equitable
protection . . . as money or chattels. . . . If a member has a 'property right'
in his position on the [work] roster . . . he has an equally enforcible property
right in the election of men who will represent him in dealing with his economic
security . . . ." 293
But even assuming "property"
has the same meaning in the Hobbs Act as in the mail fraud statute,
McNally can be distinguished. First, the impact of McNally was
sharply limited by Carpenter v. United States, which held that the mail
fraud statute can protect some forms of intangible property. 294 In fact, the interest in clean
government at stake in McNally might have qualified as a property
interest if the case had been presented differently. 295 Moreover, the McNally
holding was partially motivated by the Court's reluctance to involve the
"Federal government [*955] in setting standards
of disclosure and good government for local and state officials." 296 Not only is this federalism concern
irrelevant to questions of good union government, but the
Landrum-Griffin Act has already established the applicable standards. 297
In any event, the
superficial similarity between a citizen's right to honest government and a
worker's right to honest unions can be misleading. Many in Congress understood
the membership rights provided by Landrum-Griffin to be "economic
rights . . . aris[ing] from economic problems and deal[ing] with economic
democracy. They are not . . . rights . . . dealing with political democracy." 298 Even if Landrum-Griffin is seen as
"bring[ing] to . . . union members the reality of some of the freedoms from
oppression that we enjoy as citizens by virtue of the Constitution," 299 the political processes in unions
are fundamentally different from those of public government because unions are
essentially "one-party states." 300 With no institutionalized rival
party to keep a critical eye on potentially corrupt incumbents, union members
will inevitably be more dependent on the courts to preserve their rights to
honest and democratic union governments -- a fact implicity recognized by
Congress when it enacted the Hobbs Act, Landrum-Griffin, and the civil RICO
statute.
C. Accommodating Federal Labor Policy
A
fundamental purpose of federal labor policy is to promote labor peace and
economic stability by encouraging the practice of collective bargaining. 301 A cornerstone of that policy is
section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which gives covered
workers the right to organize or join unions and to participate in concerted
activities for purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or
protection. 302 In addition, the Act defines a
variety of "unfair labor practices," 303 most of [*956] which relate to employer or union violations of
the rights created by section 7. Section 10 of the Act creates in the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the near exclusive source of remedies for those
unfair labor practices. 304
An important question in the
context of union reform litigation, therefore, is the extent to which the
traditional exclusivity of NLRB jurisdiction limits remedies otherwise available
under civil RICO. When RICO violations in the labor setting do not constitute
unfair labor practices, of course, no difficulty exists. 305 However, many RICO predicate acts in
union reform cases, such as the use of violence to crush membership opposition
to corrupt union officials, the receipt of payoffs to allocate work through
union hiring halls, or the use of the mails or the wires to defraud dissident
members of the fair handling of their grievances, have been or could be held by
the NLRB to be unfair labor practices. 306
That RICO and NLRB remedies
might overlap is not enough to bar the RICO remedy, however; Congress clearly
intended the availability of multiple remedies for some offenses. 307 For example, when conduct violating
section 7 of the NLRA also violates any of the three labor crimes that are
expressly identified as RICO predicate acts, 308 the legislative intent to allow the
RICO remedies is clear. 309 Similarly, where the substantive
rights interfered with by RICO predicate acts have their roots in both section 7
and the Landrum-Griffin Act, Congress already has [*957] demonstrated its intent to abandon NLRB
exclusivity. 310 Moreover, since the courts have long
held that the NLRA does not preempt state criminal statutes of general
applicability, 311 and since many crimes defined by
state law qualify as RICO predicates, 312 it is also arguable that Congress
did not intend the NLRA to limit RICO remedies for violations based on those
predicate acts. 313
On the other hand, the NLRA
probably preempts RICO remedies in cases where employers or unions commit
predicate offenses, such as mail fraud or wire fraud (which are not labor crimes
per se) in order to violate employee rights that derive only
from the NLRA. 314 In order to accommodate federal
labor policy, courts also should decline RICO jurisdiction over predicate acts
committed in pursuit of legitimate collective bargaining goals during the course
of traditional labor disputes. 315 In United States v. Enmons,
the Supreme Court read such a limitation into the Hobbs Act. 316 Congress's repeated refusal to
overrule Enmons suggests that it did not intend RICO, a statute with
legislative goals similar to those of the Hobbs Act, 317 to apply to routine labor struggles.
318
In addition to the NLRA,
which focuses on collective bargaining, a second major source of federal labor
policy is the Landrum-Griffin Act, which regulates internal union affairs. 319 As discussed previously, that
statute expressly preserves most alternative remedies available under state or
other federal sources of law. 320 However, the Act's post-election
remedies for vioaltions of its provisions governing fair elections of union
officers do have preemptive force. 321 Because a court-imposed RICO
trusteeship may have the effect of nullifying the union's last election of
[*958] officers, defendants in the Local
560 and Teamsters cases argued that the Landrum-Griffin Act
preempted the trusteeship remedy. 322 The courts properly rejected that
argument, however, on the grounds that the purpose of the RICO actions in
question was not to remedy specific election violations and "not to invalidate
any particular election"; rather, the RICO actions had an altogether different
goal: "to eliminate entirely the union's racketeering element." 323 In addition, the Teamsters
court held that Landrum-Griffin's post-election remedies preempted only election
challenges initiated by union members, not cases brought by federal prosecutors.
324
Union defendants
nevertheless might argue that Landrum-Griffin's election provisions preempt some
RICO structural injunctions in another way. A goal of the recently settled
Teamsters case, for example, was to compel the IBT to change the method
by which it elected its top national officers. 325 But section 403 of the
Landrum-Griffin Act states that "[n]o labor organization shall be required by
law to conduct elections of officers . . . in a different form or manner than is
required by its own constitution or bylaws, except as provided by this
subchapter." 326 The legislative history, however,
reveals that this language was directed only at election requirements that
state law might have imposed. 327 That Congress could have intended
section 403 to preempt other federal requirements for the fair election of union
officers is unlikely, since in 1959 no other requirements even existed.
Assuming, then, that structural injunctions and court-imposed
trusteeships are available under civil RICO and are not preempted, important
questions nevertheless remain. Can they be obtained in RICO [*959] cases brought by private parties, or are they
available only to government prosecutors? On the larger question of the
availability to private litigants of any equitable relief, the language
of the statute is ambiguous 328 and the courts are split. 329 However, the better arguments
support availability 330 If so, we must return to federal
labor policy to determine whether that conclusion means that intrusive
structural injunctions also must be available to private plaintiffs in union
reform litigation.
The answer depends on which private litigants seek
such relief. Certainly the union itself, as a victim of labor racketeering, has
the necessary standing. However, if the union were sufficiently controlled by
racketeers to be a legitimate candidate for a RICO trusteeship, those in control
obviously would never authorize the lawsuit. 331 Another possibility is that
individual union members might have standing to seek RICO structural
injunctions, at least if they can "show that the directly injured party was
under the continuing control or influence of the defendant or his [*960] henchmen." 332 To the extent the union itself is
the real party in interest, 333 the best answer may be a "hybrid
RICO/section 501" action, in which union members piggyback RICO claims onto a
derivative action brought on behalf of their union pursuant to title V of the
Landrum-Griffin Act. 334 If procedural prerequisites for a
Landrum-Griffin section 501(b) action have been satisfied, 335 and the fiduciary breaches
underlying that action constitute the predicate offenses necessary to establish
a RICO violation, 336 permitting the title V plaintiff to
seek RICO remedies on her union's behalf is entirely consistent with the
purposes of both statutes. 337
On the other hand, in light
of the grave danger that private parties could seek intrusive forms of equitable
relief to weaken or destroy unions, judges should be reluctant to grant them
drastic relief. Employers victimized by strike-related violence, for example,
have been permitted to pursue RICO damage claims against the striking unions, 338 but such employers are so likely to
be motivated by unlawful, anti-union animus that there should be an irrebuttable
presumption against granting their requests for structural injunctions
targetting their union adversaries. RICO claims growing out of bona fide labor
disputes should be preempted outright. 339 However, if they are not, awards of
injunctive relief [*961] in such cases would
conflict directly with the spirit, if not the letter, of the Norris-LaGuardia
Act, 340 which reflects a "very clear
Congressional intent to end injunctive interference in labor relations." 341
D. Freedom of
Association
Discussion of the impact of structural injunctions on
the associational rights of unions and their members has been conspicuously
absent from most of the civil RICO union reform cases, and from most of the
union reform litigation discussed in section IV of this Article as well. 342 It is difficult to imagine a court
today imposing a trusteeship over a chapter of the NAACP without even addressing
the first amendment implications of such a remedy. 343 How different with unions: not one
of the four judges who authored opinions upholding RICO trusteeships and
decreeships in the Local 560 and Philadelphia Roofers cases
offered even a trace of first amendment analysis. 344 This well illustrates what one
[*962] commentator has dubbed the first
amendment's "black hole" in the labor relations setting. 345
It is, nevertheless, well
settled in other contexts that the first amendment's freedom of association
extends to union activity. 346 That freedom, though, is not
absolute; merely because union reform litigation implicates associational rights
does not necessarily mean that structural injunctions violate those rights.
Associational rights entitled to even the highest levels of protection 347 can be overcome by "compelling state
interests, unrelated to the suppression of ideas, that cannot be achieved
through means significantly less restrictive of associational freedoms." 348
Intrusive remedies in labor
racketeering cases may affect two sets of associational interests. First are the
rights of the innocent victims of the racketeering activity -- the infiltrated
unions and their members -- to associate for expressive purposes. Certainly,
removing a union's elected leadership from office and appointing an outside
trustee to run its day-to-day affairs severely compromise the union's and the
membership's freedom to associate. But in cases like Local 560, in
which racketeers had violently extorted the members' rights to participate
democratically in the governance of their union, 349 a RICO trusteeship, rather than
violating those [*963] rights, actually
restores associational rights the mob has already destroyed. 350
Banning individuals with
criminal backgrounds or associations from holding union office also might
restrict the expressive interests of unions and their members, 351 since interference with an
organization's choice of spokesperson can impinge the effectiveness of the
organization's communication. No court, however, has yet held that "the union's
right to free association extends so far as to include a right to elect
particular officers." 352 Also, in section 504 of the
Landrum-Griffin Act, 353 "Congress has unmistakably indicated
that the right of employees to select the officers of their bargaining
representatives is not absolute and necessarily admits of some exception." 354 According to one court, such a
restriction "is akin to a reasonable regulation of the manner of expression and
only incidentally affects the union's expressive activity." 355 Nevertheless, because the removal of
a particular spokesperson could in some instances have devastating effects on a
union's ability to communicate effectively, 356 such bans are appropriate in labor
racketeering cases only in the absence of less restrictive means of achieving
the compelling governmental purpose of insulating unions from racketeers. 357
Intrusive remedies in union
reform cases also may infringe on a second set of associational rights: the
rights of the individuals who are removed or banned from union office because of
their own criminal backgrounds or those of their unsavory associates. These
associational [*964] rights fail to rise to
constitutional significance, since "it is only lawful association that
is protected, not association for a criminal or unlawful purpose." 358 Thus, if a court finds that an
individual's criminal associations facilitate the extortion of the union
membership's democratic rights, those associations warrant little deference,
regardless of whether they are asserted as a mode of expression or as an aspect
of intimate association 359 based on family friendships. 360
Accommodation of first
amendment values in union reform litigation, in addition to being
constitutionally required, also prods judges to devise remedies in a manner that
maximizes their effectiveness while minimizing their intrusiveness. The Supreme
Court has already held, in a union reform setting, that "combating local crime
infesting a particular industry" is "a legitimate and compelling state
interest." 361 By requiring that interest to be
protected by the least drastic remedy likely to be effective, the first
amendment forces the court to evaluate the likely effectiveness of not only the
remedies proposed by the plaintiff, but of less restrictive alternatives as well
-- a process that educates the judge and may result in remedies that are more
carefully crafted, and more effective, than would otherwise be the case.
This discussion sets the stage for an analysis of the effectiveness of
the structural injunctions (and consent decrees) that have been utilized in the
most important recent examples of union reform litigation.
[*965] VI. THE REMEDIES APPLIED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
The preceding sections of this Article have demonstrated that intrusive
structural injunctions, including court-imposed trusteeships, are available to
the courts in union reform litigation. But a remedy's availability does not
necessarily mean that it should be applied in a given case, or that it will be
effective if applied. As Professor Gewirtz has nicely put it, "The idea of a
perfect remedy is a frequent illusion, defied by a resisting, multidimensional
world." 362 Accordingly, this section and the
next will supplement the somewhat abstract discussion thus far with a concrete
examination of the application of structural injunctions to unions in the real
world. 363
A. Teamsters
Local 560
The judicially supervised reform of corrupt labor unions
entered a new era in 1986 with the government's use of civil RICO to obtain a
court-imposed trusteeship over Tony Provenzano's Teamsters Local 560. 364 In 1982, when federal prosecutors
filed their complaint, the 8,000-member Teamsters local in Union City, New
Jersey, presented an inviting target for a test case. As the court eventually
found, the local had been "infiltrated and ultimately captured" through an "orgy
of criminal activity" by a "group of gangsters" headed by Tony Provenzano, a
"made member" of the Genovese organized crime family. 365 For decades, Provenzano and his
associates repeatedly engaged in virtually every known form of labor
racketeering, from embezzling union funds, loansharking, pilferage, and selling
out the interests of the membership in exchange for payoffs and kickbacks, to
beating many and murdering at least one, and maybe two, rank-and-file
challengers to the Provenzano Group's domination. 366
The corruption in Local 560
had proven impervious to a variety of less drastic remedies over the years. In
1959, for example, the Teamsters [*966] Board
of Monitors had sought to compel Jimmy Hoffa to bring internal union charges
against Provenzano and to have Provenzano expelled from the union, but Hoffa
refused. 367 Similarly, in 1978, following
Provenzano's incarceration for murder, members of PROD, an organization of
Teamster reformers, formally petitioned the international to impose an
intra-union trusteeship on the local. This time Frank Fitzsimmons, Hoffa's
hand-picked successor as IBT President, refused. 368
Nor did a long string of
criminal convictions (including four of Tony Provenzano himself), 369 even in combination with the
statutory ban against labor felons holding union office for five (now thirteen)
years after the completions of their prison sentences, 370 loosen the Provenzano Group's grip
on Local 560. Provenzano "ran [that] union with an iron hand whether in or out
of prison or office," 371 and the district court explained
how: "Sam and Nunzio [Provenzano] played musical chairs in minding the store
waiting for Tony to satisfy the technical requirements of the law." 372
[*967] Following a fifty-eight day trial, Judge Harold
A. Ackerman made his liability findings and ordered Local 560's executive board
removed from office, to be replaced by a trustee appointed by the court. He
stayed those remedies, however, pending appeals that lasted more than two years.
Finally, on June 23, 1986, Local 560's RICO trusteeship became effective. 373 Judge Ackerman named as Trustee Joel
R. Jacobson, who seemed an excellent choice. As a twenty-five year veteran of
the labor movement, 374 Jacobson had the credentials to run
the union effectively and to help insulate the trusteeship from the inevitable
charge that it was a "union busting" ploy of a Reagan administration unfriendly
to organized unfriendly to organized labor. Moreover, as a former member of New
Jersey's Casino Control Commission, 375 Jacobson appeared knowledgeable
about the nature of organized crime and the methods appropriate for holding its
remaining influence within Local 560 in check. Finally, as a longtime friend of
Judge Ackerman, 376 Jacobson could be expected to work
well with a judge deeply committed to making the trusteeship work.
The
order establishing the trusteeship gave Jacobson "all authority and power to act
as he may . . . see fit to administer the affairs . . . of Local 560, and to
create and foster conditions under which reasonably free, supervised elections
can be held by Local 560." 377 Those powers included, but were not
limited to, all of the powers previously held by the officers and executive
board members of Local 560 pursuant to the local's bylaws and the IBT's
constitution. The order gave Jacobson complete control over the local's
organizing, collective bargaining, and grievance handling activities. It also
gave him the power to hire and fire the local's paid staff and to make any
appropriate expenditures from the local's treasury. 378
[*968] One of Jacobson's first decisions was also one of
the most important: whether to retain the seven paid business agents and 400
unpaid shop stewards who had served under the old regime. 379 Jacobson had the power to remove
them, 380 and Judge Ackerman urged him to do
so. 381 Ackerman believed that a clean sweep
of all who had worked with the Provenzanos was necessary to weaken the remnants
of the Provenzano machine. It also would liberate the membership from the fear
that open opposition to that machine could expose them to the risk of losing
their jobs because of intentionally poor grievance handling by hostile business
agents and stewards. 382
While Jacobson generally
agreed with the need to replace the business agents, it took him over six months
to do so. 383 Some critics charged that several of
the replacements that he appointed, though screened by the FBI, were in fact
Provenzano loyalists. 384 Jacobson decided to retain most of
the shop stewards for two reasons. First, he felt he would be unable to
effectively carry out his collective bargaining and contract administration
duties without relying upon their knowledge of the more than 300 employers and
numerous contracts under which the members of Local 560 worked. Second, since
workplace elections had chosen many of the stewards, Jacobson believed it would
be inconsistent with the trusteeship's purpose of restoring democracy to remove
them without individual showings of misconduct. 385
[*969] It is hard to quarrel with Jacobson's first
reason for retaining the stewards, although he might have looked for other ways
to maintain his effectiveness on bread-and-butter issues while reducing his
dependence upon the old stewards. Jacobson's second reason, however, despite
some superficial appeal, was ill-founded. Given the level of fear and
intimidation that existed during the old regime, and the power that Provenzano
and his surrogates had to remove from office any stewards they disliked for any
reason, 386 few union members independent of the
Provenzano machine would have been likely to run for steward positions. If they
did run and win, they would not have kept those positions for very long. And in
fact many stewards repeatedly and forcefully demonstrated their loyalty to
Provenzano's remaining associates in the local during the course of the
trusteeship. 387
Jacobson's decision to
replace business agents gradually and shop stewards not at all typified his
approach to the trusteeship. He viewed himself first and foremost as "a union
man, not a cop." His role, as he saw it, was to demonstrate to the membership
how much more effective an honest, dedicated, and militant trade unionist like
himself could be in protecting their jobs and improving their wages and working
conditions. Jacobson believed that once the members understood what they had
been missing during the corrupt Provenzano years, candidates determined to
create honest unionism would emerge as the trusteeship drew to a close and would
defeat any potential slates comprised of Provenzano loyalists. 388
That approach was
surprisingly naive for a man of Jacobson's background and experience. True, the
trusteeship under Jacobson was very effective on bread-and-butter issues. New
contracts provided annual wage increases substantially greater than the national
average, fringe benefits improved, grievances were handled forcefully, and the
local's membership grew by twenty-six percent. 389 Jacobson, however, grossly
underestimated the strength of the Provenzano loyalists who were still active in
the union and who were led by former Local 560 president Michael Sciarra 390 and former vice president Joseph
[*970] Sheridan. 391 As a result, Jacobson made little
effort to investigate Sciarra and Sheridan for wrongdoing or to otherwise
discredit them within the local. On the contrary, by retaining the incumbent
shop stewards he played into their hands; he provided Sciarra with a powerful
political base from which he could seek to regain control of the local.
Sciarra and Sheridan formed a campaign organization known as "Teamsters
for Liberty" (TFL). In numerous incidents stewards used their positions to
coerce and intimidate members into signing petitions opposing the trusteeship
and buying baseball caps inscribed "Free 560," with proceeds presumably going
into a Sciarra slate campaign fund. 392 TFL organized several public
demonstrations aimed at pressuring Judge Ackerman into ordering an early end to
the trusteeship, and it recruited numerous New Jersey politicans, religious
leaders, and civic organizations to join that campaign. 393 TFL was also a moving force behind a
collateral attack on the trusteeship filed in April, 1988. 394
TFL adherents also brought
their intimidation tactics into stewards' and membership meetings called by
Jacobson or his successor, and Jacobson was nearly heckled off the stage by
Sciarra and his supporters on several occasions. 395 After viewing the videotape of one
particularly raucus membership meeting, Judge Ackerman concluded that Jacobson's
approach to the trusteeship was not working. 396 According to one knowledgeable
observer, "the problem was that [Jacobson] didn't create the feeling there was a
new regime," 397 a problem symbolized by the
prominent display of Tony Provenzano's portrait in the Local 560 office [*971] during Jacobson's entire tenure as trustee. 398 Even Jacobson admitted that
dissenters within the local still feared reprisals. 399 If that fear prevented many members
from risking open opposition to Sciarra during the trusteeship, it would
virtually assure Sciarra's election at the conclusion of the trusteeship. A
return to conditions in the local much as they were before was almost certain.
400
In response to this possible
scenario, Judge Ackerman removed as trustee the "union man" Jacobson on May 12,
1987, and replaced him with a "cop," Edwin H. Stier, a former Assistant United
States Attorney and Director of the New Jersey State Division of Criminal
Justice. 401 Despite his lack of labor movement
experience, Stier, like Jacobson was effective on bread-and-butter union issues,
in part because he had the help of a newly-appointed associate trustee who was
an experienced union official. 402 He also improved administration of
the local's pension and benefit funds, initiated publication of a monthly
newspaper, "The 560 Free Press," and took steps to encourage union membership
involvement with union affairs. 403 Stier was also much more aggressive
than Jacobson in digging for evidence that might discredit Sciarra with the
membership or lead to the imposition of civil or criminal sanctions. 404
In December, 1987, Stier
reported to Judge Ackerman that after eighteen months of trusteeship, the local
was "still suffering from the effects of more than twenty five years of
racketeer domination." 405 Despite "widely held resentment
toward the Provenzano group," according to Stier, the membership was not yet
"willing to become actively involved . . . if it means challenging someone who
has been in power in the Union" 406 -- an obvious reference to former
president Michael Sciarra. Therefore, Stier recommended that the court extend
the trusteeship for [*972] another year, with
elections to be held at the end of 1988, following Justice Department
investigations which "may have an impact on the eligibility of certain
individuals to run for office." 407 The court complied with Stier's
recommendations 408 , and in February, 1988, ordered
Sciarra and Sherdian to provide deposition testimony to federal prosecutors
concerning Sciarra's 1984 to 1986 performance as Local 560's president and his
alleged links to the Genovese crime family. 409
While that investigation was
proceeding, the union election campaign got under way. 410 In addition to the TFL slate headed
by Sciarra and Sheridan, two opposition slates emerged, including one headed by
Ray Carney, who had run unsuccessfully on anti-Provenzano slates in the last two
contested elections held by the local, in 1962 and 1965. 411 The Sciarra slate was heavily
favored, however, 412 in part because of its political
base in the remnants of the Provenzano machine and the intimidation tactics
sometimes resorted to by its supporters. 413
In September, 1988, just
weeks before a membership meeting at which candidates for office would be
formally nominated, the court granted a government motion, endorsed by Stier,
for an injunction barring Sciarra and Sheridan from running in the December
election, despite the fact that neither had ever been convicted of a crime. 414 In support of the injunction, the
court cited wiretap evidence indicating that the Genovese crime family had
"direct control" over Sciarra, "the Family's chosen instrument" for continuing
its domination of Local 560 after the court lifted the trusteeship. 415 The court also relied on evidence
that Sciarra, while president of the local, entered into a "sweetheart"
arrangement with an employer at the behest of the mob; permitted a Local 560
benefit plan administrator to remain in office after he had been convicted of
obstruction of justice in a case involving fraud upon the plans; and continued
to contract with corrupt providers of a membership legal services plan "under
circumstances so extraordinary as to almost defy belief." 416
[*973] Despite Sciarra and Sheridan's disqualification,
the election results did not please the government. Michael Sciarra's brother
Danny and Joseph Sheridan's nephew Mark, running on the TFL slate as open
surrogates for their disqualified relatives, defeated the two reform slates by
an almost two-to-one margin. 417 Following the election, trustee Ed
Stier returned the day-to-day operations of the local to its newly elected
officers, although he continued to oversee the local's pension and benefit funds
and retained the power to monitor the union's affairs and investigate
wrongdoing. 418 As of this writing, Michael Sciarra,
serving in his brother's administration as a business agent, is "clearly in
charge" of Local 560. 419
Any explanation of the
Sciarra victory must begin with Local 560's long history of coercion and fear.
As one newspaper reported, ["W]hen it became apparent that Sciarra had won, none
of the United Ticket backers wanted to give a name. A trucker said: 'Fear is
returning to the union with Sciarra back in control. You not only worry about
your job but your health, too, if you go against him.'" 420 However, it is also true, as Joel
Jacobson reported to Judge Ackerman in late 1986, that "many members do not
comprehend the connection between a 'Provenzano' and a 'Provenzano-selected'
lieutenant. . . . Sciarra had been a Business Agent for over a dozen years, and
enjoyed a reputation as an aggressive battler for the members." 421 Moreover, not all members who saw
the link between Sciarra and the Provenzanos were necessarily troubled by that
connection. The Provenzano Group had had decades to cement loyalties with large
segments of the membership through patronage and community and ethnic ties, and
since the union's members worked at [*974]
hundreds of workplaces, even the rampant levels of corruption found in Local 560
may have had a direct effect on only a minority of its members; many others
undoubtedly saw Provenzano as a Robin Hood figure. 422
Another factor explaining
Sciarra's apparent popularity was the absence of credible alternatives. Even the
most democratic unions are typically "one-party states," where dominant factions
can retain office for decades by centralizing power, controlling the union's
bureaucracy and its channels of communication, and characterizing opposition to
incumbent union leaders as disloyalty to the union itself. 423 In Local 560, these natural
advantages of incumbency were for years reinforced by the brutal suppression of
any organized dissent. After two years of trusteeship, organized opposition to
the Provenzano-Sciarra faction had emerged, but it was seriously disadvantaged
by the fact that it was largely inexperienced and unknown.
Finally, the
vote in Local 560 was not only an election of officers, but also, to some
extent, a referendum on the RICO trusteeship itself. 424 For some members, the heavy
handedness of the remedy shifted the focus away from the corruption of the
Provenzano regime to the danger of union busting by a conservative Republican
administration. The eleventh hour candidate disqualifications reinforced that
view, making martyrs of Sciarra and Sheridan and "freedom fighters" of TFL.
To declare the Local 560 trusteeship a failure, however, would be a
mistake. Fears that prosecutors were using the suit to destroy the union were
unfounded, and conditions in Local 560 were undoubtedly better at the end of the
trusteeship than they were when the trusteship began. Indeed, the same
conditions that made Local 560 a good candidate for a RICO trusteeship at the
start -- deeply rooted corruption, the absence of a democratic tradition, and a
membership too intimidated to do much about it -- meant that no remedy
was likely to be an instant or total success. The court and its trustee will
continue monitoring conditions in the local, and federal prosecutors will
continue battling organized crime's influence in Local 560 on other fronts as
well. 425 A final evaluation of the
trusteeship's effectiveness must await future elections and the performance of
any opposition slates that may emerge.
[*975] B. Cement & Concrete Workers Local
6A
In June, 1986, just as the Teamsters Local 560 trusteeship was
getting under way, federal prosecutors in New York filed the second civil RICO
case to seek a judicially imposed trusteeship over a corrupt labor union. In
United States v. Local 6A, Cement & Concrete Workers International
Unions, 426 the complaint, based in large part
on facts established during a successful prosecution of leading figures in the
Colombo organized crime family, 427 alleged that the 1400-member Local
6A, and the 4000 member District Council to which it belonged, had become
"captive labor organizations," used by the Colombo organization to extort
payoffs from concrete construction contractors, steal union funds, and create a
climate of intimidation and fear among the members. 428
Given the strength of their
case in light of the prior criminal convictions, federal prosecutors immediately
sought a preliminary injunction to oust the local and joint council officers and
replace them with trustees to conduct the union's business pendente
lite. 429 Nine months later, before a ruling
on that motion, the union defendants 430 agreed to a consent judgment that
created a remedy designated a trusteeship, but which, unlike the Local 560
trusteeship, was far from a total takeover of the local by the court appointed
trustee. 431
Pursuant to the agreement,
sixteen of the twenty-five local and joint council officers resigned their
positions. 432 The remaining officers retained
their positions, subject to the powers of the trustee, Eugene R. Anderson, a New
York lawyer and former federal prosecutor whom the [*976] court chose from a list of six candidates agreed
to by the parties. 433 Anderson had general power "to
oversee the operations" of the local and the joint council. He also had the
specific authority to remove union officers, business agents, and shop stewards
for acts of racketeering or malfeasance, or for knowingly associating with La
Cosa Nostra members, and to veto any contracts or expenditures constituting or
furthering acts of racketeering or malfeasance. 434 The consent judgment also instructed
the trustee to conduct new elections for local and joint council officers in
late 1987, and again in 1990, after which time the trusteeship would end, unless
extended by the court. 435 The trustee could hire any
accountants, investigators, or other staff necessary to assist him in his
duties, and all trusteeship expenses were to be paid by the defendant unions. 436
Anderson began his tenure as
trustee on April 6, 1987, planning to play "a cop's role." 437 Due to limited resources, however --
the local and district council treasuries had been depleted by legal fees
associated with the underlying civil RICO action 438 -- Anderson found it "problematic .
. . even to hire an accountant to review the books and records of Local 6A and
the District Council" at the start of the trusteeship, much less to put his
investigatory powers to significant use. 439 Nevertheless, he subsequently
concluded that, at least on the surface, no evidence existed of corruption among
the union officials remaining from the old guard, perhaps because "they know
they are under a microscope, so they are clean now, waiting out the end of the
trusteeship." 440
Whether they will stay clean
after the trusteeship is lifted, of course, remains to be seen. What seems more
certain is that, as in Teamsters Local 560, the officers in place at the end of
the trusteeship are likely to have been close associates of those ousted at the
start. Perhaps due to "an element of fear and intimidation" 441 resulting from the fact that the
incumbent officers "are viewed by the rank-and-file as part of the old [*977] regime," not a single office in Local 6A or the
Joint Council was contested when elections were held in late 1987. 442 The trustee recognizes the
importance of greater participation by the rank-and-file in the union's affairs,
but he has been unable to generate significant participation, in part, he
believes, because he is "merely a . . . watchdog" without "the hands on,
day-to-day responsibility of running the union." He explained that "only if the
trustee becomes in effect the union leadership can a relationship of trust
develop with the rank-and-file and can the rank and file eventually feel that
they can safely assume control over their own destinies." 443
C. Teamsters
Local 814
Like the Cement & Concrete Workers
litigation, the Justice Department's third attempt to impose a RICO trusteeship
over a corrupt union was part of a larger effort to put a New York organized
crime family out of business. 444 In United States v. Bonanno
Organized Crime Family, 445 the government alleged that a Mafia
crime family had a "stranglehold" on Teamsters Local 814, a 3000 member Queens,
New York local representing workers in the moving and storage industry and at
sports and exhibition centers in the New York area. One of the defendants named
in the suit was James Bracco, president of Local 814 until October, 1986, who,
together with the local's then secretary-treasurer, was convicted of labor
racketeering and extortion in the moving and storage industry. 446 Other defendants in the government's
suit included his son Ignatius Bracco, who replaced him as the local's
president, Local 814 itself and its executive board, and the Local 814 pension
and benefit funds and their trustees. 447
Again, the government moved
almost immediately for a preliminary injunction placing the local under the
control of a court-appointed trustee pendent lite. 448 This time, however, the injunction
would have [*978] specifically instructed the
trustee to take steps to promote union democracy and greater rank-and-file
involvement in the local. For example, the injunction would have established an
advisory executive board comprised of five Local 814 members to act as business
agents, handle grievances, and carry out the union's collective bargaining
responsibilities. Members would elect new shop stewards by secret ballot, and
within six months, a stewards' council would serve as an advisory body on
collective bargaining. In addition, the injunction would have created a
grievance committee comprised of selected shop stewards to hear complaints about
grievance handling and to make recommendations concerning pending grievances.
Finally, the injunction would have initiated a membership education program,
focusing on collective bargaining issues, democracy, and safety. 449
Within weeks, the union
defendants entered into a consent judgment which provided for the resignations
of the local's executive board members and pension and benefit fund trustees,
and barred the union's president and secretary-treasurer from participating in
the union's affairs for five years. 450 The agreement also provided for the
appointment of a trustee, but placed most of the authority for running the
local's day-to-day affairs in an Interim Executive Board (IEB) comprised of two
of the locals' former officers who had been screened by the U.S. Attorney's
Office and the FBI. 451
Under the consent decree,
the trustee, Arthur Eisenberg, a former regional director of the NLRB's New
Jersey region, 452 could 1) participate in the
deliberations of the IEB and cast a deciding vote in the case of tie; 2) have
access to all books, accounts, and records of the local and the pension and
benefit funds; 3) obtain accountings of union and fund assets and petition the
court to enjoin any improper union expenditures in excess of $ 5000; 4) conduct
a study of the local's job referral system and, "with the advice and consent of
the Interim Executive Board, which shall not be unreasonably withheld,"
implement any appropriate [*979] changes; 5)
recommend to the IEB the removal of any local or fund official or agent found to
be corrupt or in dereliction of her duties, and to petition the court for such
removal if it is not approved by the IEB; and 6) petition the court for any
additional powers necessary to respond to any corruption he discovered. 453 Some but not all of the provisions
for greater membership involvement in the union's governance that had been
sought in the preliminary injunction were included in the consent judgment. A
membership council was created to serve as an advisory body to the IEB, and a
membership education program was ordered. 454 Elections of new officers, to be
supervised by the trustee and the DOL, were to be held in October, 1988, after
which time the trusteeship would terminate. 455
In addition to his watchdog
function, Eisenberg as trustee served as an advisor to the relatively
inexperienced IEB, "participating fully in the day-to-day activities and
meetings." 456 This role evolved into that of
mediator and conciliator after the two IEB members had a falling out. 457 On bread-and-butter matters such as
contract negotiation and enforcement, Eisenberg reports that Local 814 has
performed reasonably well during the trusteeship, 458 and the operation of the local's
pension and welfare funds has greatly improved. 459 The union's job referral system also
has been cleaned up, with a switch from a part-time to a full-time dispatcher
and the elimination of such abuses as dispatches made for a fee from certain
"social clubs" rather than the union hall. 460
The trusteeship also has
sought to promote democracy and greater membership participation within the
local. The local revived a long dormant union newsletter; a rank-and-file
membership council, which meets monthly, serves as an advisory body to the IEB;
and membership meetings are more frequent, better attended and include more
discussion and floor debate than in the past. 461 The trustee and DOL supervised
election of new officers, held four months late in February of 1989, suggests
that a corner may have been turned in restoring democracy to Local 814: two
slates of candidates ran, headed by the two members of the IEB, and [*980] each won about half of the officer positions.
Voter turnout was triple that of past elections in the local. 462
D. Roofers Local
30
The fourth and most recent case in which federal prosecutors
obtained civil RICO structural relief over a corrupt union local is United
States v. Local 30, United Slate, Tile and Composition Roofers Association.
463 It too was largely based on prior
criminal prosecutions: in November, 1987 thirteen officers and employees of the
local, including its chief executive, business manager Stephen Traitz, were
convicted. 464 Following a preliminary injunction
hearing in which over seventy witnesses testified, the court found that Local
30, which represents approximately 2000 commercial and residential roofing
construction workers in the Philadelphia area, "has been dominated over more
than twenty years by a creed of violence, unlawfulness and definance of
authority" that was imposed "by force, fear and intimidation upon the roofing
industry and much of the Union membership." 465
More specifically, the court
found that the union and its leadership had used violence against roofing
contractors to extract payoffs and coerce unionization. 466 In addition, numerous union officers
and employees had taken kickbacks and payoffs related to the operation of the
union's pension and benefit funds and had embezzled monies from the funds. 467 The union used some embezzlement
proceeds to bribe public officials 468 and unlawfully spent over $ 1
million on defense costs associated with the prior criminal prosecutions of
union officials. 469 The court held that, since at least
1981, Local 30 had been under the influence of [*981] Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra boss Nicodemo Scarfo,
who used union power to collect his gambling and drug debts. 470 Scarfo also helped to install Traitz
as Local 30 business manager following the murder of Traitz' predecessor, John
McCullough. 471
In that environment, not
surprisingly, union democracy did not flourish. Violence and threats of violence
directed against Local 30 members were commonplace, and dissidents often found
themselves unable to obtain work through the union's hiring hall. For twenty
years before the December, 1987 election to replace the convicted officers, no
race for the position of business manager had ever been contested. 472 In that election, held just days
before the start of the preliminary injunction hearing, opposition candidates
and their supporters suffered discharges from union employment, removals from
shop steward positions, threats of violence, loss of hiring hall referrals, and
disruption of their efforts to distribute campaign literature at a union
meeting. Long time associates of the thirteen convicted officials won the
election and reappointed all of the business agents who had served the old
regime. 473 Many union members, as well as
contractors, "fear[ed] attending meetings" and "fear[ed] . . . that if they go
to the Union Hall to resolve a dispute or problem . . . they will be
outnumbered, intimidated, threatened with physical violence and/or physically
beaten" -- a fear which the court found to be "legitimate and well-founded." 474
Given these findings, the
court agreed with the Justice Department that drastic remedies might be
appropriate and even asserted that it would be "fully justified . . . to
dissolve the Union and make an equitable distribution of its assets." 475 The court rejected that option, "at
least for now." It also rejected the government's request for a Local 560-type
trusteeship, on the grounds that
court-imposed trusteeships have not
worked as well as have been expected. . . . The shortcoming of a trusteeship . .
. is clearly the distasteful and unworkable act of forcing an authority figure
on the existing Union leadership and membership, who they are required to be
loyal to, and indeed, expected to like. History has shown that this has rarely
worked in the political world and there is no reason to expect it to work in the
labor Union circumstance now before the court, especially where the authority
figure is replacing individuals and policies that have theretofore in great
measure been supported, enforced, or at least [*982] tolerated by the very membership who would be
ruled over by the unwanted trustee. 476
At the other extreme,
the court considered equally unworkable the defendants' suggestion that the
union be permitted to operate as before, subject only to a court-imposed
monitorship. 477
As an alternative, the court
decided to "leav[e] the Union institution and its present leadership in place,
but then [to] remov[e] from Union control those areas of activity which
the Union has misused in the past." 478 It endeavored to do so by creating a
"decreeship" pursuant to which all face-to-face negotiations between employers
and the union must be conducted in the presence of a court-appointed court
liaison officer who, as the decree's "principal enforcement officer," would have
to certify any resulting collective bargaining agreements as having been
negotiated in an atmosphere free of intimidation or violence before the
agreements could be given effect. The decree also required the union and the
relevant contractors associations to negotiate new grievance procedures for
their collective bargaining agreements. It prohibited union officials from
spending or transferring any union or fund assets, except for ordinary business
expenditures, without the court's approval. In addition, the decree barred the
thirteen individual defendants from any union office or position of authority in
the industry, and provided for a financial audit of the local and its affiliated
pension and benefit funds. Finally, it gave the court liaison officer access to
all union and fund records, as well as the authority to hire any necessary
staff. All costs of the decreeship were to be borne by the local and its funds.
479
The decreeship went into
effect on May 23, 1988, and Judge Louis C. Bechtle named as court liaison
officer Philadelphia attorney Robert E. Welsh, Jr., a former Assistant U.S.
Attorney and former law clerk to Judge Bechtle. 480 According to Welsh, the decreeship
has resulted in "substantial progress . . . in the Union's relations with the
outside world, [*983] most particularly in
collective bargaining." 481 During a recently concluded round of
contract negotiations, several work stoppages occurred, but union violence and
intimidation were greatly reduced, and Welsh believes that the agreement reached
was superior, from the union's perspective, to the contract negotiated prior to
the decreeship. 482 The decreeship also has brought
about improvements in the union's financial practices; for example, the union
has adopted many of the measures recommended by the accountants who conducted
the court ordered audit, as a means to promote greater accountability and
efficiency. 483
Welsh concedes, however,
that little progress has been made in the area of internal union democracy, 484 despite the court's instruction that
its decree be applied "to protect, as much as possible, the right of Union
members to fully participate in the Union affairs, including the right to vote,
to assemble, to speak freely, [and] to be treated fairly . . . ." 485 Union officers continue to denounce
dissenters at union meetings as traitors and stooges of the federal prosecutors
and continue to target them for economic retaliation through abusive hiring hall
practices. 486 In June, 1989 elections held
pursuant to court order, the incumbent officers, linked to the corrupt old
guard, were reelected by a two-to-one margin over an opposition slate. Although
the balloting itself was without incident, 487 the challengers conducted their
campaign in an atmosphere of intense intimidation. At a membership meeting two
months before the vote, for example, the incumbents whipped their supporters
into such a frenzy of hostility toward the opposition candidates that reformers
had to flee the meeting for their personal safety. 488 No end for the Roofers Local 30
decreeship has yet been planned, and Welsh suggests that it could last for five
or more years. 489
[*984] VII. REMEDIAL ALTERNATIVES AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
The structural relief recently extracted by federal prosecutors from the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters as part of the price of settling their
civil RICO trusteeship case against the IBT 490 does not represent the first time a
federal court has involved itself in the day-to-day operations of the Teamsters
union. Thirty years ago, union reformers obtained a similar remedy in
Cunningham v. English, 491 a rank-and-file lawsuit which
originally sought to prevent Jimmy Hoffa's election as General President at an
IBT convention stacked with illegally selected delegates pledged to Hoffa's
candidacy. This section examines these two ambitious and controversial efforts
to reform the powerful Teamsters union.
A. The Teamsters
Board of Monitors 492
When Dave Beck announced in
the Spring of 1957 that he would not seek reelection as General President of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 493 Jimmy Hoffa seemed a sure bet to be
elected to succeed him at the union's September convention, but as the
convention approached, Hoffa fell under attack from all sides. He had become a
principal target of the U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Improper Activities in
the Labor or Management Field (the McClellan Committee), 494 which formally leveled at him
forty-eight specific charges of misconduct. 495 Though he had recently been
acquitted in one criminal [*985] prosecution,
he was facing trial on new charges in the fall. 496 These events led the Executive
Council of the AFL-CIO to announce that Hoffa's election to the IBT presidency
would precipitate the Teamsters' expulsion from the Federation. 497 Taking no chances, Hoffa set out to
guarantee his election by stacking the convention with almost 500 illegally
selected delegates under his control. 498
Ten days before the IBT
convention started, however, thirteen New York area Teamsters filed an action
seeking to remedy Hoffa's violations of the IBT constitution by enjoining the
convention and obtaining the appointment of "a master or several masters in
equity" to supervise honest elections of delegates and then to supervise the
election of national officers at a properly constituted convention. 499 District Court Judge F. Dickinson
Letts issued a temporary restraining order, but it was stayed pending appeal. 500 The convention took place as
scheduled, and to no one's surprise, Hoffa was elected.
Two weeks later,
the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint, seeking to prevent Hoffa and his
slate from taking office and still attempting to place the union into some form
of receivership. 501 This time they met with greater
success. The plaintiffs presented to the court evidence obtained from the
McClellan Committee showing that the convention had been rigged. 502 On the day before Hoffa was to take
office, Judge Letts issued a preliminary injunction barring Hoffa from taking
office until the plaintiffs' election challenge could be heard on the merits. 503
[*986] During the trial on the merits, the union's
lawyers proposed a settlement: if the plaintiffs would let Hoffa and his slate
take office on a provisional basis, the defendants would agree to the creation
of a three member "Board of Monitors" to serve as a watchdog and to recommend
reforms necessary to permit a new convention, and a new election, to take place.
The plaintiffs agreed, 504 and the court approved a consent
order to that effect on January 31, 1958. 505
The Board of Monitors had a
turbulent three-year existence. 506 Its first three members were L.N.D.
Wells, a Teamster lawyer from Texas who was nominated by the defendants; Godfrey
P. Schmidt, who was nominated by the plaintiffs and was their principal lawyer;
and Nathan Cayton, a retired judge from Washington who was appointed chairman.
507 The Board of Monitors had a generous
budget, drawn from the IBT's treasury pursuant to the consent decree, 508 and it hired its own staff of
lawyers, investigators, and accountants.
The monitors were to serve "for
at least one year and thereafter until a new convention" was held and new
elections of officers conducted. 509 Their tasks were to: 1) draft model
bylaws, consistent with the IBT constitution, for recommendation by the union's
General Executive Board (GEB) to Teamster locals that did not have bylaws; 510 2) review the status of Teamster
locals under intra-union trusteeships and to "counsel with and make
recommendations to" the GEB for lifting such trusteeships; 511 3) "consult" with the GEB in
establishing accounting and financial controls aimed at eliminating
mismanagement of union funds; 512 and 4) "counsel with . . . and make
recommendations to" the credentials committee for the IBT convention that would
be called at the [*987] conclusion of the
monitorship, in order to assure that delegates to that convention would be
properly selected. 513
The consent order also gave
the monitors something of a Public Review Board role: 514 the monitors had general power to
"counsel with" the GEB and to "make recommendations upon review of appeals"
pursuant to the IBT constitution, in order to insure compliance with the rights
under that constitution. 515 The consent order mandated no
changes in the IBT constitution, but authorized the monitors to "make
recommendations after consultation with the [GEB] for amendments . . . for
proposal at the next . . . convention." 516 Finally -- but without expressly
assigning the monitors an enforcement role -- the consent order imposed upon all
Teamster officials the obligation to avoid conflicts of interest and to fulfill
their officials duties in accordance with accepted fiduciary standards. 517 The monitors had no powers with
respect to collective bargaining, contract administration, or grievances against
employers. 518
During the monitorship's
first few months, it restored autonomy to forty-one of the 109 locals that had
been in trusteeship and retained an accounting firm to review the IBT's
accounting procedures. 519 However, as Monitor Godfrey Schmidt
complained, the monitors did nothing to encourage the union's provisional
officers to correct the abuses uncovered by the McClellan Committee. They failed
to take any action against seven local unions identified as "trouble spots," and
in general they displayed a passive and tolerant attitude toward the dilatory
and uncooperative behavior of the defendants. 520
All this changed in late
May, 1958, when Martin F. O'Donoghue was appointed chairman following Nathan
Cayton's resignation. 521 The plaintiffs had opposed
O'Donoghue's appointment, 522 but he surprised everyone by teaming
with Godfrey Schmidt to interpret the monitorship's powers broadly. He reshaped
the Board of Monitors into an aggressive, almost prosecutorial entity determined
to force a total cleanup upon an unwilling IBT.
[*988] While conceding an absence of express language
authorizing a purge of corrupt union officials, Schmidt and O'Donoghue argued
that "[n]o objective is . . . more emphatically an implication of the Consent
Order than the purpose to eliminate criminality and corruption (especially . . .
in the officials and leaders of the union) from the International Organization
and its subordinate bodies." 523 Accordingly, over the repeated
protests of the defendants and their designated monitor, 524 the Board of Monitors issued a
stream of "Orders of Recommendation" seeking to force Hoffa and the GEB to bring
up on union charges and expel a number of corrupt officials who had been exposed
by the McClellan Committee. 525 The union's principal response was
to establish for public relations purposes a do-nothing "Anti-Racketeering
Commission" later described by Judge Letts as "a deceptive tactic to defeat and
frustrate the Board of Monitors." 526
Other Orders of
Recommendation challenged the procedures under which the fifty-four remaining
intra-union trusteeships were to be lifted, 527 and sought to postpone elections in
those locals until new election rules could be agreed upon and audits of
membership records could be completed. 528 Still another urged that Local 107
in Philadelphia -- [*989] then the IBT's fifth
largest affiliate 529 -- be placed in an intra-union
trusteeship because of the extensive corruption exposed by the McClellan
Committee. 530 The defendants delayed or refused
compliance with most of these recommendations in what Judge Letts later found to
have been a "bad faith" effort to "prevent[ ] the Monitors from carrying out the
basic purposes of the Decree." 531
When the monitors learned of
a plan by defendants to call a convention and hold new elections in early 1959,
they sought a modification of the consent order to block the proposed convention
and a general clarification of the Board of Monitors' powers. 532 In December of 1958, Judge Letts
complied by modifying the consent order to require prior court approval before
any new convention could be held and authorizing the monitors to undertake "a
general housecleaning" of the union. 533
Six months later, the court
of appeals affirmed. 534 It held that changed circumstances
justified the district court's modification of the consent order 535 and concluded that the consent order
imposed "definite obligations upon the defendants" to clean up the union. 536 By this time, however, the
monitorship was almost eighteen months old, and because the district court's
modification of the original consent order had been stayed pending appeal, 537 no meaningful housecleaning had yet
taken place. Even after the monitors' vindication in the court of appeals, the
[*990] monitors' efforts to force the
defendants to rid the union of corrupt officials met with only empty promises
and endless foot-dragging. 538
In September, 1959,
following Hoffa's refusal to bring charges against several union officials,
including Local 560's Tony Provenzano, 539 the monitor decided to challenge
Jimmy Hoffa himself. They issued an Interim Report charging Hoffa with
mismanaging the funds of his home local in Detroit and sought an order removing
Hoffa from office on the ground that he had breached his fiduciary duties under
breached his fiduciary duties under the consent order. 540 A hearing on their charges never
took place, however, because during the course of an imaginative and seemingly
endless series of legal maneuvers, 541 the court of appeals ruled that the
consent order did not authorize "the District Court itself to select or remove
officers." 542
Meanwhile, the monitorship
steadily disintegrated as a result of bitter infighting among the monitors and
among the plaintiffs. Three months into the monitorship, for example, one of the
plaintiffs split off from the rest and, joining the Hoffa camp, petitioned for
Schmidt's removal as monitor. 543 While evidence exists that Hoffa
bought and paid for this defection, 544 it is also true that the conflict of
interest charges against Schmidt had merit. Schmidt was primarily a management
labor lawyer, and he continued to represent some trucking companies in their
dealings with several Teamster locals after becoming a monitor. 545 [*991] Schmidt resigned as a monitor in June, 1959, 546 but his replacement, Lawrence J.
Smith, was the target of similar charges. 547 The monitorship never overcame this
damage to its credibility. 548
As Schmidt's replacement on
the Board of Monitors, Smith had a nonconfrontational style that was as
disappointing to the remaining plaintiffs as O'Donoghue's prosecutorial approach
had been a happy surprise. By March 30, 1960, Judge Letts concluded that Smith
"did not have his heart in the assignment" and summarily dismissed him. 549 Smith's dismissal led to a second
split in the plaintiffs' ranks, as Smith and several supporters obtained a
reversal of Smith's dismissal from the court of appeals. 550
While Smith's status was
being litigated, the defendants' monitor resigned. His replacement was William
E. Bufalino, a Teamster official from Detroit. 551 Bufalino was the classic fox
guarding the chickens; the McClellan Committee had identified him as having
close ties to organized crime and had implicated him in the same abuse of union
funds for which O'Donoghue was trying to investigate Hoffa. 552 Not surprisingly, Bufalino played an
obstructionist role as a monitor. 553
[*992] The monitorship's problems were not all internal.
Virtually every move the monitors made was challenged by the defendants or any
of seven different groups of Teamster officials, loyal to Hoffa, who intervened
or tried to intervene in the name of the union's rank-and-file. 554 For a case that supposedly had
settled, Cunningham generated an astounding volume of litigation. At
one point, twenty-four motions were awaiting disposition in the district court,
and during the course of the monitorship, there were no less than thirty-eight
appeals to the D.C. Circuit, nine mandamus actions, and three petitions for
certiorari. 555 There were also a number of
collateral attacks on the monitorship, 556 and the union orchestrated a
relentless public relations and lobbying campaign that led to the introduction
in Congress of several bills that would have legislated the monitorship out of
existence. 557
All this slowed the Board of
Monitors' progress to a snail's pace. For months on end, many projects were at a
standstill pending judicial clarification of the Board's powers and composition.
This opened the monitors to the charge that they, not Hoffa, were denying the
membership the opportunity to elect new officers, and they, not Hoffa, were
fruitlessly draining the union's treasury at a rate of $ 35,000 per month. 558
By the Spring of 1960, the
defendants were clamoring for a new convention and accusing the monitors of
ignoring their more mundane duties, such as drafting model bylaws and
supervising the lifting of trusteeships, in their effort to "get" Jimmy Hoffa.
559 Though the court of appeals denied
Hoffa's petition for a writ of mandamus, it sent a clear message to Judge Letts
that the monitorship soon should end, 560 in part [*993] because the recently enacted Landrum-Griffin Act
had mandated most of the reforms which the Board of Monitors had been
established to facilitate. 561
Even before that ruling,
however, the Board of Monitors had collapsed. Martin O'Donoghue had resigned in
frustration, 562 and the parties were unable to agree
on a replacement. Judge Letts attempted to appoint a replacement over the
defendants' objections, but the court of appeals overturned the appointment. 563 Judge Letts therefore convened a
September, 1960 settlement conference for "an earnest effort" to resolve all
outstanding matters. 564 By the end of the year, the parties
reached an agreement regarding proposed model bylaws, release of locals still in
trusteeship, rules for the nomination and election of convention delegates, and
proposed amendments to the IBT constitution. 565 No further efforts were taken to
oust Hoffa or his corrupt associates from the union. On February 28, 1961, the
Board of Monitors was formally dissolved. 566 At an IBT convention held four
months later, Jimmy Hoffa won reelection as General President. 567
Despite its problems, the
Board of Monitors accomplished some important changes in the Teamsters union.
The monitors liberated over one-hundred Teamster locals from intra-union
trusteeships; supervised adoption of new accounting and auditing procedures;
drafted model bylaws for the many locals that had none; and at least for a short
time, offered union members a Public Review Board-type entity to which they
could appeal unfair disciplinary rulings. Although passage of the
Landrum-Griffin Act would have brought about many of these reforms, none of the
parties could have anticipated such legislation when the monitorship began.
Nevertheless, the Board of Monitors obviously failed to accomplish a
fundamental cleanup of the union. Several reasons account for that failure: a
poorly drafted consent agreement that resulted in too much uncertainty over the
monitors' powers and too many opportunities for the defendants to swamp the
monitors with legal challenges; 568 the failure of the plaintiffs'
lawyers and monitors to avoid conflicts of interest, [*994] which created a "union busting" appearance
exploited by Hoffa to undermine the monitorship's credibility; 569 and ironically, the passage of the
Landrum-Griffin Act, which the court of appeals perhaps too quickly assumed
would solve the problems the Board of Monitors had been established to address.
570 In addition, Judge Letts, perhaps
out of frustration with the defendants' recalcitrance, exhibited a rashness in
some of his rulings that led to a number of reversals by the court of appeals,
further slowing the monitorship's progress and fueling the defendants'
resistance.
A final reason for the Board's failure to clean up the union
was the absence of an organized rank-and-file movement which could use the
political openings created by the monitorship to further reform the union. No
matter what procedural or structural reforms the union finally might have
adopted, they would have little impact unless utilized by credible,
rank-and-file reformers seeking to become delegates to IBT conventions, or
running for office in Teamster locals. 571 The Board of Monitors, of course,
cannot be blamed for the absence of a stronger rank-and-file movement in Hoffa's
Teamsters union. After all, Hoffa was a genuinely charismatic and effective
leader, and the economic boom of the period undoubtedly contributed to the
membership's complacency. 572 And then, as now, the ever present
danger of economic or physical retaliation against those who chose to speak out
reinforced membership complacency.
In the end, the Teamsters Board of
Monitors represents a tragically missed opportunity for what could have been a
fundamental reform of one of the nation's most important unions. Thirty years
later, another such opportunity is at hand, and it is to that we now turn.
B. Reorganization by Decree: The Teamsters' RICO
Settlement
In June, 1988, the United States Department of Justice
filed its long anticipated civil RICO action against the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters. 573 It sought 1) the removal of any IBT
General Executive [*995] Board members,
including the General President, found to have committed RICO violations, 2) the
appointment of a trustee empowered to discharge the GEB's duties, other than
those related to collective bargaining or Teamster political activities, and 3)
new elections of International officers in a manner that would protect against
intimidation or other improper influences. 574
The factual allegations and
legal theories advanced by the complaint closely resembled those in the
Local 560 litigation, 575 but on a larger scale. The
government alleged that the IBT was "a captive labor organization" that had been
infiltrated, exploited, and controlled by "La Cosa Nostra" (LCN or Mafia)
through its control of key affiliates, including Local 560 before its RICO
trusteeship, and through its direct control over the IBT's top officers. The
government further alleged that the LCN engineered the selections of Roy
Williams and Jackie Presser as IBT presidents. 576 According to the government, the
union's top officers allegedly aided and abetted LCN at almost every turn. Far
from taking steps to rid the union of corruption, these officers repeatedly and
knowingly appointed persons with criminal records to high office and approved
the direct use of violence and intimidation against union reformers. 577 As summarized in a Justice
Department brief:
[T]he IBT leadership has made a devil's pact with La
Cosa Nostra. La Cosa Nostra figures have insured the elections of the IBT' top
officers. . . . In return, union officers have allowed La Cosa Nostra ready
access to union funds and jobs and free reign over certain IBT Locals, which La
Cosa Nostra figures have used as instrumentalities to extort monies from
employers. Thus, the IBT's leaders get their union officers, and La Cosa Nostra
figures get their money -- all to the detriment of union members, victimized
businesses and the general public. 578
Because the government
already had proven many of its allegations in prior cases, it immediately
sought, without even an evidentiary hearing, a preliminary injunction to appoint
pendente lite "court liaison officers" with the power 1) to discipline
pursuant to the IBT constitution corrupt or dishonest Teamster officers,
members, or employees, and to [*996] impose
intra-union trusteeships over corrupt locals; and 2) to review proposed GEB
actions regarding expenditures, appointments, and changes in the union
constitution and bylaws. 579 District Court Judge Edward
Edelstein, noting that the case was, "to say the least, unique; if not in
substance, then in scope," properly concluded that it would be "imprudent" to
grant such relief without an evidentiary hearing; he did, however, agree to
expedite a consolidated trial on the merits. 580
On March 13, 1989, hours
before the trial was to begin, the government and the union defendants entered
into a consent order of monumental significance to both the labor movement and
the battle against organized crime. 581 The government's principal
concession was that the individual defendants then holding union office, 582 including IBT General President
William J. McCarthy, 583 can remain in office until elections
are held in 1991. In exchange, federal prosecutors obtained a fundamental
reorganization of the IBT's governing structure and electoral process, and the
judicial appointment of three "Court Officers" to oversee the union's operations
-- an Administrator, an Investigations Officer, and an Election Officer. 584 The Administrator has the power of
the IBT president and GEB, pursuant to the IBT constitution, to remove from
office, expel, or otherwise discipline corrupt officers and members, [*997] and to impose intra-union trusteeships over
corrupt affiliates. 585 The Administrator is also empowered
to review and veto any IBT expenditures, appointments, or contracts (other than
collective bargaining agreements) that appear to further acts of racketeering or
the association of the union with La Coas Nostra. 586 The Investigations Officer, with
broad discovery powers, has the authority to investigate corruption within the
union and to press union disciplinary charges against wrongdoers. 587
The consent order's most
innovative, and in the long run perhaps most important, provisions mandate
dramatic changes in the way the IBT's top officers will be elected, beginning
with the 1991 elections. 588 For the first time, the IBT's
General President and entire GEB will be elected by secret ballot vote of the
membership, and not by the open ballot votes of convention delegates who in the
past have been either part of the IBT hierarchy or vulnerable to pressure from
it. 589 A reform long sought by Teamster
dissidents, direct elections will not only force the [*998] hierarchy to be more responsive to the
rank-and-file, it also will make it harder for LCN to influence the outcome of
the vote. 590
Candidates for International
office will be nominated by secret ballot votes of delegates to the IBT
convention -- delegates who, for the first time in thirty years will be elected
by the membership shortly before the convention. 591 Moreover, eleven of the sixteen
International Vice Presidents for the first time will run for office on a
regional, rather than an atlarge, basis. 592 This decentralization of power
within the union should make LCN control more difficult and will promote
internal democracy by enabling potential challengers of the International
hierarchy to develop independent bases of political strength. 593
[*999] The terms of the Administrator and Investigations
Officer will expire following the 1991 election, but the Election Officer also
can supervise the next election, in 1996. 594 Following the 1991 election, the
union will establish an Independent Review Board with power to investigate and
remedy corruption within the union and to review, and if necessary overturn, any
disciplinary or intra-union trusteeship decisions of the GEB. 595 All expenses related to the consent
order's implementation will be paid by the union. 596 Until the 1991 convention, the IBT
constitution will be "deemed amended" in any manner necessary to comply with the
new election procedures or other terms of the consent order; at the 1991
convention, the IBT "shall" formally adopt the necessary amendments. 597 Any subsequent changes in IBT
practices covered by the consent order are subject to a Justice Department veto,
reviewable in federal court. 598
It is impossible to predict
whether changes mandated by the 1989 consent order will succeed in cleaning up
the Teamsters union where previous efforts have failed. Certainly, much will
hinge on the abilities of the three individuals appointed to serve as
Administrator, Investigations Officer, and Election Officer, and as of this
writing, the court has not yet made those appointments. Nevertheless, the 1989
reorganization has a greater chance of success than the monitorship had a
generation ago. In part, this is because the powers of the three court officers
are substantially greater than were those of the monitors. In addition, the
consent order reflects a more sophisticated understanding of how the union works
and what kinds of structural changes are necessary to promote union democracy
and reduce the opportunities for mob infiltration. Finally, the consent order's
electoral reforms provide the union's membership with their first real
opportunity to clean up their union for themselves, at a time when organized
pressure from below and splits at the top 599 make that result a genuine
possibility for the first time in fifty years.
This is not to say that
the consent order is a perfect document. For example, voting in the 1991
elections will apparently be "by in-person [*1000] ballot box voting at local union(s)," rather
than by a mail referendum. 600 This approach is likely to reduce
member turnout and could make policing voter intimidation more difficult. 601 Moreover, while the consent order
authorizes the Administrator to publish monthly reports in the IBT magazine, 602 it does not indicate whether
Teamster reformers, or candidates running in IBT elections, will also have
access to the union publication. 603 Reform candidates may find it
difficult to compete credibly with incumbents, due both to the normal advantages
of incumbency, which can be overwhelming even in honest unions, 604 and to the lingering effects of
decades of intimidation against rank-and-file activism. Providing access to
union publications can help level the playing field. 605 Finally, the consent order also
might have prohibited union officials from holding multiple offices and from
drawing multiple salaries, 606 a practice that contributes to the
centralization of power in a few officers at the top of the hierarchy. 607
It will undoubtedly take
years before any final conclusions can be reached about the consent order's
effectiveness in rooting out corruption in the Teamsters union. But even before
the announcement of the settlement, there was reason for optimism that the
consent order's election reforms would make even the IBT's old guard more
responsive to the union's membership: one of the first steps William J. McCarthy
took [*1001] after the GEB chose him to
succeed the late Jackie Presser as IBT president 608 was to democratize the ratification
process for Teamster contracts 609 -- just the kind of move one might
expect from a man aware that his continued tenure in office might depend more on
the union's membership than on the Mafia.
VIII. TOWARD MAXIMIZING
EFFECTIVENESS WHILE MINIMIZING INTRUSIVENESS
This Article has surveyed a
wide range of remedies for union corruption and labor racketeering and has
examined their application in many different settings. This section will
synthesize some of the lessons from those experiments in union reform
litigation, in the hope that they may assist courts and lawyers involved in such
cases to develop remedies that are effective in reforming corrupt unions but at
the same time respectful of the independence of the American labor movement.
A. The Politics of RICO Trusteeships
As
discussed earlier, the courts have resolved most of the legal questions
regarding the availability of RICO trusteeships in recent labor racketeering
cases favorably to federal prosecutors. 610 Moreover, courts have long
recognized their inherent equitable power to impose trusteeships and other forms
of structural relief in institutional reform cases arising outside the labor
context, 611 and those equitable powers have
played a significant, if sometimes overlooked, role in the history of union
reform litigation as well. 612
Opponents of RICO
trusteeships, however, sometimes compare them to the recently ended suppression
of the labor movement "Solidarity" by a totalitarian Polish government. 613 Jackie Presser was by no [*1002] stretch of the imagination a Lech Walesa, but
the analogy does emphasize an important point: the labor movement's freedom from
government control is not only important to unions themselves, it is also one of
the most important features distinguishing the Western democracies from more
oppressive forms of government.
Former U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani
was undoubtedly sincere when he disclaimed any anti-union motivation in his
efforts to impose a trusteeship over the IBT. 614 But establishing a precedent for
placing a national union into a full-blown trusteeship would create a danger
that the device will be abused in other cases for the illegitimate purpose of
weakening unions. The Reagan administration's 1981 destruction of the air
traffic controllers' union and its overall anti-union orientation, 615 as well as the judiciary's long
history of hostility towards labor unions throughout the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, 616 suggest that this scenario is less
far-fetched than one might hope.
Nor does a reluctant acknowledgement of
the potential propriety of a RICO trusteeship over a hopelessly corrupt local
union such as Teamsters Local 560 necessitate the acceptance of its use in cases
involving national unions. The differences in scale are so great as to become
qualitative. If an 8000-member local 617 were placed into a RICO trusteeship
for abusive reasons, there undoubtedly would be a chilling effect on other
unions; however, the direct impact on the rest of the labor movement would be
relatively small. On the other hand, if a national union as important as the
Teamsters, which comprises nearly ten percent of the American labor movement,
were improperly placed in a full-fledged trusteeship, the consequences could be
devastating. Circumstances that could justify running such a risk are difficult
to imagine.
Moreover, quite apart from these policy concerns,
prosecutors serious about maximizing civil RICO's effectiveness in the war
against organized crime should be reluctant to seek RICO trusteeships on an
extensive scale because of the political backlash which those remedies [*1003] would engender. Even before the government
filed its suit against the IBT, union lobbyists had persuaded over two hundred
members of Congress to sign a letter to the Attorney General opposing a RICO
trusteeship over the IBT, 618 and shortly after the suit was
filed, the number approached 300. 619 Congress has come close on several
occasions to weakening civil RICO by amendment, 620 and while none of the proposals
addressed the statute's equitable remedies, amendments put forward in the future
in all likelihood will. 621
B. Some Civil
RICO "Sentencing" Guidelines
Notwithstanding these political
constraints on the availability of civil RICO structural injunctions in union
reform litigation, situations may arise -- like that in Tony Provenzano's
Teamsters Local 560 -- which warrant drastic remedies. This subsection offers
some guidelines to litigants and courts for evaluating the propriety of seeking
or imposing intrusive RICO remedies in particular cases.
1. Seek the
Least Intrusive Remedy Likely to Be Effective, and Recognize that the Most
Intrusive Remedy Is Not Always the Most Effective. Rights protected by the
first amendment -- particularly freedom of association -- are unavoidably
implicated in union reform litigation. 622 First amendment analysis must
therefore be brought to bear. The Supreme Court has indicated that eradicating
organized crime's infiltration of the labor movement may be a compelling state
interest, 623 but the Court has also demanded
"'precision of regulation:'" government "'may not employ means that broadly
stifle fundamental personal liberties when the end can be more narrowly
achieved.'" 624
[*1004] Some commentators characterize the 1989
Teamsters consent order, though arguably "precise," as a defeat for the
government. The incumbent officers remain in office, and unlike the situation in
Local 560, there was no full-fledged trusteeship. 625 However, the most intrusive remedy
is not necessarily the most effective remedy. 626 By forgoing a trusteeship over the
IBT, the government not only avoided the political dangers outlined above, it
also avoided transforming ousted IBT officers into martyrs and "freedom
fighters," as it had in Local 560. Such a result may enhance the remedy's
prospects for success. 627
2. An Evidentiary
Hearing Must Precede the Imposition of Structural Relief. No court has yet
granted intrusive structural relief in a civil RICO union reform case without
first holding an evidentiary hearing, but federal prosecutors have repeatedly
petitioned the courts to do so. 628 Courts should continue to deny such
requests, both to accommodate federal labor policy as manifest in the
Norris-LaGuardia Act, which expressly bars federal courts from granting labor
injunctions without holding evidentiary hearings, 629 and to ensure that the requested
relief is not only warranted on the merits, 630 but also properly tailored to the
circumstances of the particular case.
3. Design Remedies That Will
Promote Union Democracy. A fundamental assumption of the Landrum-Griffin
Act is that the "full and active participation by the rank and file in the
affairs of the union" 631 will [*1005] "bring about a regeneration of union
leadership." 632 Nothing in the history of union
reform litigation disproves that assumption, and much supports it. 633 In unions such as the Teamsters, the
Landrum-Griffin Act alone may have failed to eliminate corruption, but that
failure calls into question not the need for union democracy but the nature of
the reforms necessary to achieve it. Civil RICO should be applied to unions in a
manner that furthers the goals of the Landrum-Griffin Act, but with the
recognition that Landrum-Griffin establishes only general standards of democracy
applicable to the labor movement at large. RICO remedies can be tailored to the
needs of the particular union and the particular case. 634
Of course, overnight results
cannot be expected. For decades in these unions, challengers to corrupt regimes
have risked financial ruin and the threat of physical assault or worse. 635 In the wake of such oppression, time
is necessary for reform factions to emerge; more time is needed for challengers
to gain enough credibility to win union office. RICO remedies must encourage and
facilitate their development. 636
What if these efforts do not
work, and the members vote the mob back into power? Local 560 aside, 637 I do not think that will often
happen if the members have a real choice. Besides, the mere risk of failure
[*1006] cannot preclude the attempt. Providing
union members with the opportunity to clean up their unions for themselves
is the less drastic alternative demanded by the first amendment and
federal labor policy.
4. RICO Remedies Should Build Upon Internal
Union Remedies. One way RICO litigation can promote responsible union
self-government is by enhancing remedies already provided for in union
constitutions. Most unions, even corrupt ones like the Teamsters, make paper
promises of fair treatment to their members. 638 Using RICO remedies to enforce those
promises can create in the membership an expectation of compliance with the
union constitution, and can give union officers and members the experience with
their own institutions that is necessary to promote their continued operation
after judicial supervision ends. Of course, if a union's own remedies were
working properly at the outset, no RICO remedy would be required. Therefore, to
"build upon" union remedies in RICO cases can mean authorizing court appointees
to invoke them, as in the IBT settlement, or mandating the creation of new ones,
such as public review boards. 639
5. The Membership's
Interests Should Be Represented in Court. In any case involving structural
relief against a union, the court should assure itself that the interests of the
union's rank-and-file are adequately represented, both to comply with RICO's
mandate for "making due provision for the rights of innocent persons," 640 and to obtain the benefit of the
expertise and insight that rank-and-file activists might have to offer when
shaping and implementing appropriate remedies. 641 In a civil RICO case alleging mob
infiltration and control of a union's hierarchy, the stronger that claim, the
more likely union lawyers, retained by that hierarchy, will fail to protect the
membership's interests. 642 Federal [*1007] prosecutors bringing such cases represent the
public's interest in law enforcement, but do not purport to represent the
interests of rank-and-file union members in controlling their own unions.
Courts, therefore, should freely grant motions to intervene filed
pursuant to Rule 24 643 on behalf of reform elements within
a union targeted for RICO relief. 644 If no members seek to intervene,
they may be too intimidated, insufficiently organized, or lacking in resources
to do so. In such cases, the court might invite amicus briefs from organizations
such as the Association for Union Democracy, or even employ, sua
sponte, compulsory joinder pursuant to Rule 19(a), 645 with appointed counsel to be
compensated by the government or the union defendants. 646
6. Only Unions
Victimized by Organized Crime Should Be Targeted for RICO Structural
Injunctions. Because RICO structural injunctions are potentially dangerous
to the independence of the American labor movement, they should be available
only against unions that have been infiltrated by organized crime, and only when
that infiltration has violated the membership's right to union self-government.
647 The successful elimination of
serious but non-organized crime related corruption in the UMW in 1972
demonstrates that the remedies available under the Landrum-Griffin Act, when
vigorously enforced, are sufficient in most other situations. 648 A Mafia presence, on the other hand,
makes it highly unlikely that the removal of a few corrupt individuals, without
structural relief, will be sufficient to clean up a union. Judicial rejections
of efforts to limit all applications of RICO to cases involving
organized crime 649 do not preclude this limitation in
union reform litigation, since the first [*1008] amendment and federal labor policy warrant
special treatment of unions. 650
7. Intrusive RICO
Remedies Are Inappropriate in Cases Arising Solely Out of Traditional Labor
Disputes. Again for reasons of federal labor policy, no court should apply
intrusive RICO remedies in cases where the predicate acts 651 have occurred in the context of
traditional labor disputes, even if violence taints those disputes. 652 Although RICO may not be totally
preempted in such cases, 653 courts nonetheless should exercise
their discretion to reject drastic structural injunctions. The danger is simply
too great that such structural remedies will undermine federal labor policy by
weakening the labor movement's ability to advance the legitimate interests of
the workers it represents. Less drastic criminal or civil remedies are almost
always sufficient to control routine picket line violence or related misconduct
in any event.
Limiting relief to less drastic criminal or civil remedies
does not mean that structural relief should be unavailable any time a RICO case
involves a labor dispute; after all, organized crime often seeks to infiltrate
unions precisely to use strikes or strike threats to extort payoffs from
employers. 654 In those cases, however, intrusive
remedies should be available only where there are sufficient predicate acts,
unrelated to the union's legitimate collective bargaining goals, to establish
RICO liability.
8. Minimize Judicial Involvement with Collective
Bargaining or Union Political Activities. Where intrusive structural relief
is appropriate, courts should design the remedy to minimize direct involvement
by the court or the court's appointees in the union's day-to-day collective
bargaining activities. Of course, any remedy affecting a union's internal
affairs can have an indirect impact on collective bargaining. 655 But to the extent possible, contract
negotiation and administration should be left in [*1009] the hands of union officials, subject only to
monitoring for corrupt practices. 656 This approach not only complies with
the mandates of federal labor policy, 657 it also preserves the legitimacy of
the RICO remedy itself by insulating it from criticism for any collective
bargaining setbacks the union might suffer during the remedy's duration. As for
union activities in the political arena, the first amendment all but totally
bars judicial interference. 658
9. Adequate Resources
Must Be Available for Implementation. Implementation of RICO remedies in
union reform litigation can be expensive. Trustees and other court appointees
must be compensated, and they may need to retain lawyers, accountants,
investigators, or other staff to assist them. Efforts to promote membership
involvement in union affairs, such as publication of a union newspaper or
running membership training programs, are also costly.
In large unions,
the resources may be readily available from the union itself, although there is
obviously "something unsettling about billing the victimized rank and file" for
the cost of the remedy. 659 In small unions, on the other hand,
particularly where corrupt officials have embezzled or misappropriated union
funds, this option may not be available, since the treasury may be unable to
support the costs of an effective remedy. 660
An alternative source of
funding might be monies recovered from labor racketeers through RICO's criminal
fortfeiture provision. 661 Courts might also make remedies
sought by federal prosecutors contingent on [*1010] funding being made available by the Justice or
Labor Departments. 662 Unless funding is available in
amounts sufficient to give structural relief a realistic chance of success, the
compromise of first amendment rights and federal labor policy resulting from
such remedies is difficult to justify.
10. The Court Must Be
Committed to the Relief It Orders. Institutional reform cases typically
stretch the courts' resources and abilities to their limits. 663 A court cannot impose structural
relief, or approve a consent decree providing for it, and assume that the remedy
will implement itself. Even the use of masters, monitors, or trustees will not
insulate the judge from involvement in the routine problems of the remedy's
implementation; at best it only reduces that involvement. The judge therefore
must be prepared to become "a policy planner and manager." 664 As one commentator explained:
Implementation is an incremental, cyclical process of small steps, each
followed by assessment or reaction and further adjustment. Courts must revise
decrees repeatedly to cover unforeseen impediments or adverse consequences. . .
. Remedial decrees have not been static, comprehensive blueprints but rather
evolving guides, constantly growing and changing. 665
IX. CONCLUSION
This
Article has explored the nature of corruption and racketeering within the
American labor movement and has examined the many different approaches to the
problem that Congress, the courts, and the labor movement itself have developed
over the years. The structural injunctions and court-imposed trusteeships now
available under the civil provisions of the federal RICO statute are among the
most important of these remedies because of their potential effectiveness if
used properly and their obvious danger to an independent labor movement if
abused.
It is important to reiterate that the corruption and
racketeering discussed in this Article are the exception, not the rule, in
American unions. At the same time, however, significant segments of the labor
movement, [*1011] typified by the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, suffer tremendously from the
infiltration and domination of organized crime. Unfortunately, denial is the
response typically forthcoming from the house of labor, as illustrated by the
recent reaffiliation of the Teamsters with the AFL-CIO without a word about the
IBT's still rampant corruption. That is a dangerous state of affairs.
I
have written this Article as a friend of the labor movement, in the belief that
a labor movement free of corruption and racketeering will provide a stronger and
more effective voice for the workers it represents. Nevertheless, I recognize
that this Article will not be warmly received by many within labor's ranks who
believe that public exposure of union corruption can only play into the hands of
the labor movement's enemies. In my view, however, anti-union forces will
continue to exploit these failings whether or not supporters of the labor
movement choose to confront them directly. Indeed, it is incumbent upon the
labor movement itself to play a greater role in eliminating corruption and
racketeering from its ranks, not only to free itself of unsavory and
discrediting elements, but also to avoid more extensive and intrusive regulation
by a federal government that has not always been a friend of organized labor. As
Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers warned:
American labor had
better roll up its sleeves, it had better get the stiffest broom and brush it
can find, and the strongest soap and disinfectant, and it had better take on the
job of cleaning its own house from top to bottom and drive out every crook and
gangster and racketeer we find, because if we don't clean our own house, then
the reactionaries will clean it for us. But they won't use a broom, they'll use
an ax, and they'll try to destroy the labor movement in the process. 666
FOOTNOTES:
n1
Speculating about the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa is one of the favorite pastimes
of Teamsters watchers like myself. Nobody has much douvt that Hoffa is dead. He
disappeared in July of 1975, presumably murdered on the order of Mafia chieftans
who felt threatened by his efforts to regain the union's presidency, which he
was forced to relinquish several years earlier when he went to jail for jury
tampering and pension fraud. The two leading theories are that Hoffa's body was
incinerated or "compacted" on the premises of a Michigan sanitation company, or
that it was buried in the New Jersey meadowlands. For informed speculation about
Hoffa's death and the reasons his former allies in organized crime turned
against him, see S. BRILL, THE TEAMSTERS 43-75 (1978); L. VELIE, DESPERATE
BARGAIN: WHY JIMMY HOFFA HAD TO DIE 12-49, 174-83 (1977).
n2
R. JAMES & E. JAMES, HOFFA AND THE TEAMSTERS 19-20 & n. * (1965).
n3
See infra text accompanying notes 492-567.
n4
The most important and wide-reaching of these investigations was conducted by
the U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and
Management Field (the McClellan Committee) during 1957 and 1958.
n5
See AFL-CIO's
Expulsion of Three Unions, 41 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 37 (1958); Teamsters
Suspended by AFL-CIO Executive Council, 40 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 84 (1957).
n6
Formally known as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959
(LMRDA), the Landrum-Griffin Act is codified at 29
U.S.C. §§ 401-531 (1982 & Supp. V 1987). Referring to the then recently
enacted LMRDA, the final report of the McClellan Committee stated that "Hoffa,
more than any other single individual, must bear the responsibility for specific
provisions of the law that is now on the Nation's statute books." S. REP. NO.
1139, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. pt. 3, at 731 (1960).
n7
See D. MOLDEA, THE HOFFA WARS 171-73, 185-86 (1978). For general
accounts of Hoffa's controversial career, his investigation by the McClellan
Committee, and his numerous prosecutions, see R. JAMES & E. JAMES,
supra note 2; C. MOLLENHOFF, TENTACLES OF POWER: THE STORY OF JIMMY
HOFFA (1965); W. SHERIDAN, THE FALL AND RISE OF JIMMY HOFFA (1972); L. VELIE,
supra note 1. For Hoffa's side of the story, see J. HOFFA, HOFFA: THE
REAL STORY (1975); J. HOFFA, THE TRIALS OF JIMMY HOFFA (1970).
n8
See Serrin, Jackie Presser's Secret Lives Detailed in Government
Files, N.Y. Times, Mar. 27, 1989, at 1, col. 5.
n9
See D. MOLDEA, supra note 7, at 71.
n10
See Serrin, supra note 8.
n11
See Serrin, supra note 8; Lubasch, Ex-Teamster Chief Tells
Jury Union is Controlled by Mafia, N.Y. Times, June 2, 1987, at 1, col. 3.
n12
Shenon, Teamster Leader Is Indicted by U.S. for Racketeering, N.Y.
Times, May 17, 1986, at Al, col. 3. Presser never denied the underlying charge
-- authorizing payments to "ghost employees" associated with the mob who were on
the union's payroll but never performed any work for the union -- but he claimed
to be acting with FBI approval while serving as an FBI informant. Presser died
before he could be brought to trial, but two codefendants were convicted.
Serrin, supra note 8.
n13
Serrin, Jubilant Teamsters Elect Presser as President, N.Y. Times, May
22, 1986, at A22, col. 1. For a discussion of the questionable legality of the
procedure used to select Teamster convention delegates, see infra note
591.
n14
PRESIDENT'S COMM'N ON ORGANIZED CRIME, THE EDGE: ORGANIZED CRIME, BUSINESS, AND
LABOR UNIONS 89 (1986) [hereinafter PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION].
n15
18
U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968 (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n16
See Complaint, United States v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 88
Civ. 4486 (S.D.N.Y. June 29, 1988).
n17
See infra text accompanying notes 581-607.
n18
See Noble, Teamster Return to AFL-CIO Wins Approval, N.Y.
Times, Oct. 25, 1987, at 1, col. 5.
n19
The federal government estimates that 300 to 400 local unions, out of about
70,000, are associated, influenced, or controlled by organized crime.
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 8 n.2. An unknown number of
additional unions suffer from corruption on a smaller and more "amateur" scale.
n20
Id. at 2. But see D. ELBAOR & L. GOLD, THE CRIMINALIZATION
OF UNION ACTIVITY: FEDERAL CRIMINAL ENFORCEMENT AGAINST UNIONS, UNION OFFICIALS
AND EMPLOYEES (1985) (arguing that federal law enforcement authorities have
greatly exaggerated the extent of labor racketeering and have wastefully and
discriminatorily singled out the labor movement for investigation and
prosecution).
n21
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 33-88, 145-66; see also
Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union: Hearings Before
the Perm. Subcomm. on Investigations of the Senate Comm. on Governmental
Affairs, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. and 98th Cong., 1st & 2d Sess. (1982-84)
(investigation of organized crime influence on Hotel and Restaurant Employees
Union) [hereinafter Hotel Employees]; Waterfront Corruption:
Hearings Before the Perm. Subcomm. on Investigations of the Senate Comm. on
Governmental Affairs, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. (1981) (inquiry into extensive
organized crime influence on unions operating in east and gulf coast ports)
[hereinafter Waterfront Corruption]; S. REP. NO. 595, 98th Cong., 2d
Sess. (1984); Barnes & Windreme, Six Ways to Take Over a Union,
MOTHER JONES, Aug. 1980, at 34 (describing corruption in the Laborers).
n22
780
F.2d 267, 270 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n23
See infra text accompanying notes 364-424.
n24
See infra text accompanying note 573-609.
n25
See generally Chayes, The Role of the Judge in Public Law
Litigation, 89 HARV. L. REV. 1281 (1976) (describing and analyzing the
differences between public law litigation and traditional, bipolar lawsuits
between private parties); Fiss, The Supreme Court, 1978 Term -- Forward: The
Forms of Justice, 93 HARV. L. REV. 1 (1979) (describing structural reform
litigation as vehicle for giving meaning to constitutional values in the
operation of large-scale organizations); Horowitz, Decreeing Organizational
Change: Judicial Supervision of Public Institutions, 1983
DUKE L.J. 1265 (tracing the origins, characteristics, and consequences of
organizational change decrees).
n26
Tony's brother Salvatore Provenzano, on the other hand, who took over the
leadership of Local 560 after Tony was jailed in 1978, earned more than $
230,000 in Teamster salaries during 1982, a year in which Jackie Presser earned
over $ 350,000. Both men held multiple "full-time" Teamster offices at the
local, regional, and national levels. See It's A Family Affair: Nine
Families Pocket $ 3.5 Million, CONVOY DISPATCH, Sept. 1982, at 4
(Convoy Dispatch is the monthly newspaper of Teamsters for a Democratic
Union (TDU)). During 1987, as multiple job holding remained a common practice
among Teamster officials, salaries of $ 100,000 or more were paid to 124
Teamster officials -- more than all other American unions combined. The salaries
of these 124 officers totalled almost $ 19 million. Jackie Presser led the way
with total compensation of over $ 600,000. See Shameful Squandering of Our
Union's Resources, CONVOY DISPATCH, Oct. 1988, at 6-7. In addition to these
large, multiple salaries, Teamster officials usually receive correspondingly
generous pension coverage through multiple Teamster pension plans. See How
Locals Inflate Officers' Pensions, CONVOY DISPATCH, April 1987, at 12.
n27
Teamsters Local 560 Paid $ 28,143 in '81 To Jailed Ex-Chief, Wall St.
J., July 28, 1982, at 2, col. 3. Provenzano, who recently died, was serving his
sentence at the federal prison in Lompoc, California. He was convicted in 1978
for ordering the 1961 slaying of Anthony Castellitto, a popular member of Local
560 whom Provenzano considered a threat to his continued control over the union.
See United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267, 273
(3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986). Another dissident member of Local 560, Walter Glockner,
was murdered in 1963 on the morning after he expressed opposition to Provenzano
during a union meeting. Although one eyewitness later identified the murderer as
Thomas Reynolds, a Local 560 official and a Provenzano relative by marriage, no
one was ever convicted for the crime. See United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279,
308 (D.N.J. 1984), aff'd, 780
F.2d 267, cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n28
P. TAFT, CORRUPTION AND RACKETEERING IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT 1 (2d ed. 1979).
See also PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 9 (defining
labor racketeering as "the infiltration, domination, and use of a union for
personal benefit by illegal, violent, and fraudulent means"). In this Article,
the terms labor racketeering and union corruption will be used interchangeably.
n29
Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 287. It is unclear whether these payments in
fact constituted salary payments, as opposed to deferred salary or a pension
bonus, but there is no question that the payments were not "in the best
interests of Local 560 or its membership, but rather . . . were solely for the
personal benefit of Anthony Provenzano." Id.
at 288.
n30
Until its amendment in 1984, section 504 of the Landrum-Griffin Act, 29
U.S.C. § 504(a) (1982 & Supp. V 1987), barred individuals convicted of
certain crimes from holding union office for five years following their
convictions or the ends of their prison terms. The 1984 amendment, part of the
Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, Pub. L. No. 98-473, 98 Stat. 1837
(codified as amended at 29
U.S.C. § 504(a) (1982 & Supp. V 1987)) increased the maximum period of
debarment to thirteen years.
n31
See Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 286-88.
n32
Weinstein, Racketeering and Labor: An Economic Analysis, 19 INDUS.
& LAB. REL. REV. 402, 406, 412 (1966).
n33
See generally PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 16-27.
With limited exceptions, section 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29
U.S.C. § 186 (1982 & Supp. V 1987), outlaws payments from employers to
unions or union officials.
Illegal payoffs can take many imaginative
forms: "No longer is cash received in a booth of a hotel bar. Today, with
various degrees of expertise, payments are camouflaged among the countless
checkbook transactions of the victim's business." Blakey & Goldstock,
"On the Waterfront": RICO and Labor Racketeering, 17 AM. CRIM. L. REV.
341, 345 (1980). A common technique is to put the corrupt union official or his
"bag man" on the employer's payroll as a "ghost" employee who receives a
paycheck without ever showing up for work. See, e.g., United
States v. Pecora, 798 F.2d 614, 617-21 (3d Cir. 1986) (general manager of
company kept union business agent on payroll for a decade to influence conduct
of union business); United
States v. LeRoy, 687 F.2d 610, 613-16 (2d Cir. 1982) (vice-president of
union local placed on the payroll of seven subcontractors and received
compensation without performing any work), cert. denied, 459
U.S. 1174 (1983).
n34
Collusive relations between corrupt unions and corrupt employers can become
vehicles for "stabilizing" market conditions in highly competitive industries
and indeed for eliminating some competitors altogether. See NEW YORK
STATE ORGANIZED CRIME TASK FORCE, CORRUPTION AND RACKETEERING IN THE NEW YORK
CITY CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY 42-66 (Interim Report 1988) [hereinafter N.Y. TASK
FORCE]; PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 10-11; Weinstein,
supra note 32, at 406-08. Thus, it is not surprising that in none of
the highly competitive industries susceptible to these forms of labor
racketeering, such as construction, trucking, and the waterfront, "is there a
public record of substantial employer opposition to the works of the corrupt in
the labor-management field." J. HUTCHINSON, THE IMPERFECT UNION: A HISTORY OF
CORRUPTION IN AMERICAN TRADE UNIONS 383-84 (1970).
n35
The National Labor Relations Board's "contract bar rule" prevents workers
covered by a collective bargaining agreement from replacing their union with a
different one for the life of the contract or three years, whichever period is
shorter. See 1 THE DEVELOPING LABOR LAW 361-63 (C. Morris ed. 1983).
Colorfully put, "Labor law is thus sometimes more effective than an army of
professional sluggers." Blakey & Goldstock, supra note 33, at 344.
n36
See United
States v. Provenzano, 620 F.2d 985 (3d Cir. 1980); United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279,
289-90 (D.N.J. 1984) aff'd, 780
F.2d 267 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n37
These funds now have assets totalling more than $ 51 billion. PRESIDENT'S
COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 13.
n38
Thornton
v. Evans, 692 F.2d 1064, 1065 (7th Cir. 1982).
n39
In 1974 and 1977, for example, Tony Provenzano received kickbacks totalling more
than $ 60,000 in connection with Local 560 pension and welfare fund loans to a
Florida real estate developer. See Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 274, 293
n.33. Provenzano was also convicted in 1978 for violating anti-kickback laws
relating to a proposed loan from a Teamsters benefit fund in Utica, New York.
See Local
560 I, 581 F. Supp. at 290.
n40
Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 271. Similarly, a fund administrator was
retained in spite of the fact that he had taken payoffs from an insurance
company representative during the 1950s. Id.
n41
It may be no coincidence that when ERISA recently was amended to reduce the
period needed for pension benefits to "vest" from ten years to five for most
plans, Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-514, § 1113, 100 Stat. 2085,
2446-48, 26
U.S.C. 411(a)(2) (1982 & Supp. V 1987), Teamsters lobbyists made no
attempt to block successful industry efforts to exclude from the amendment's
coverage multi-employer pension plans typical of those covering most Teamsters.
26
U.S.C. § 411(e) (1982 & Supp. V. 1987); see Teamsters Cut Out of New
Pension Law, CONVOY DISPATCH, Sept. 1986, at 8.
n42
The effects of pension and welfare fund abuse may be felt more quickly if,
instead of cutting or slowing the growth of benefits or tightening eligibility
requirements, the union seeks larger benefit fund contributions from employers
at the bargaining table. In such cases, fund abuse results in cuts or reduced
rates of growth in the employees' take-home pay.
n43
See Weinstein, supra note 32, at 403, 411-12.
n44
See Local
560 I, 581 F. Supp. at 290-91.
n45
See PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 114.
n46
See supra note 27.
n47
See Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 278.
n48
See, e.g., United
States v. Stockton, 788 F.2d 210, 220 (4th Cir. 1986) (affirming local
president's conviction for embezzling union assets).
n49
See, e.g., N.Y. TASK FORCE, supra note 34 (cataloguing
corruption and racketering that plagues New York City's construction industry);
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra note 14, at 33-70, 217-26 (documenting
extensive racketeering in New York, New Jersey, and Miami); Waterfront
Corruption, supra note 21 (investigation of influence and control organized
crime exercises over unions in a number of east and gulf coast ports).
n50
See, e.g., Barnes & Windrem, supra note 21, at 40-41;
Hotel Employees, supra note 21; PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION, supra
note 14, at 78-79, 152-62; P. TAFT, supra note 28, at 65. There is no
question, however, that the Teamsters have been in a class by themselves when it
comes to pension and welfare fund racketeering. Abuses of the Teamsters' giant
Central States fund are well documented, see infra text accompanying
notes 214-36, and from 1974 through 1981, former IBT President Roy Williams
himself took bribes of $ 1500 per month in exchange for arranging pension fund
loans for Las Vegas casinos. See Trott, Recent Developments in
Criminal Labor Law, 37 LAB. L.J. 131, 132 (1986). The late IBT President
Jackie Presser also had a long history of questionable self-dealing in
connection with Teamster funds. In the early 1960s, for example, he borrowed
over $ 1 million from the Central States fund, only to default on the loan
several years later.
n51
See infra notes 185-86 and accompanying text.
n52
See infra text accompanying note 472.
n53
See infra text accompanying note 460.
n54
The best history of union corruption is J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34;
see also M. JOHNSON, CRIME ON THE LABOR FRONT (1950); H. SEIDMAN, LABOR
CZARS: A HISTORY OF LABOR RACKETEERING (1938); P. TAFT, supra note 28,
at 5-17, 45-70.
n55
Compare, for example, the extensive corruption reported in such old AFL unions
as the Teamsters, the International Longshoreman's Association, and building
trades unions such as the Laborers, Operating Engineers, and Boilermakers, with
the small amount of corruption found in such CIO unions as the Steelworkers and
the United Auto Workers. See P. TAFT, supra note 28, at 1-37.
n56
See, e.g., J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at 371 ("Business
unionism is not a mercenary creed, but neither is it much of a discipline. . . .
[T]he commodity conception of trade unionism is a poor guide to ethics; the
narrowness of its vision leaves too much to the imagination of the acquisitive
and the weak."). But see P. TAFT, supra note 28, at 20-28
(arguing against Hutchinson's explanation).
n57
J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at 380. Hutchinson continued:
In
contrast, the circumstances of the mass production industries have always been a
himdrance to trade union corruption. These industries are large, highly
centralized, stable, not savagely competitive, very much in the public eye, too
big for the racketeers. The mass production unions . . . are typically organized
into substantial locals; their members are grouped together in large numbers and
close contact, better equipped to watch over the affairs of the union and to
resist intimidation.
Id. at 381. See also N.Y. TASK FORCE,
supra note 34, at 42-66.
n58
J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at 382.
n59
Id. at 380. In the restaurant and trucking industries, organized crime
has been an active force since its bootlegging activities during Prohibition.
Indeed, the repeal of Prohibition was a major force in organized crime's
infiltration of the labor movement. It cut off one of organized crime's largest
sources of income and necessitated a search for new income. "Trade unions were
an obvious target." Weinstein, supra note 32, at 403. In some
industries, gangsters were actually invited in by labor leaders who needed the
muscle that gangsters could provide in their battles with company goons or rival
factions, and once in, the criminal elements tended to stay in. See J.
HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at 74-92.
n60
For an argument that the extent of union corruption and labor racketeering has
been greatly exaggerated, see D. ELBAOR & L. GOLD, supra note 20,
at 2, 40-43.
n61
P. TAFT, supra note 28, at 33.
n62
See N.Y. TASK FORCE, supra note 34; PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION,
supra note 14; Reuter, Racketeers as Cartel Organizers, in THE
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF ORGANIZED CRIME (H. Alexander & G. Caiden eds.
1985).
n63
For example, subsection 9(a) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29
U.S.C. § 159(a) (1982), gives unions selected by a majority of the workers
in a bargaining unit the exclusive authority to represent all those workers in
collective bargaining.
n64
The relationship between autocratic unionism and corrupt unionism was recognized
by Congress when it passed the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of
1959. As Senator McClellan stated during the debates over the Act:
I do
not believe that racketeering, corruption, abuse [sic] of power, and other
improper practices on the part of some labor organizations can be, or ever will
be, prevented until and unless the Congress of the United States has the wisdom
and the courage to enact laws prescribing minimum standards of democratic
process . . . for the administration of internal union affairs.
105 CONG.
REC. 6471 (1959), reprinted in 2 NLRB, LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE
LABOR-MANAGEMENT REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1959, at 1098 (1959)
[hereinafter LMRDA LEGISLATIVE HISTORY].
At one time commentators
attempting to minimize the connection between autocracy and corruption could
point to the absence of corruption during John L. Lewis's autocratic reign as
president of the United Mine Workers. See J. HUTCHINSON, supra
note 34, at 373; P. TAFT, supra note 28, at 29-30. That example now
fails, however, since the UMW under Lewis' successor, Tony Boyle, was exposed as
suffering from terrible corruption. Indeed, Boyle was eventually convicted of
ordering the brutal murders of reform candidate Jock Yablonski and his family in
a futile effort to maintain his hold on the UMW. For accounts of Boyle's role in
Yablonski's murder, see J. FINLEY, THE CORRUPT KINGDOM: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE
UNITED MINE WORKERS 255-79 (1972); B. HUME, DEATH AND THE MINES: REBELLION AND
MURDER IN THE UNITED MINE WORKERS 240-59 (1971).
n65
See Goldberg, Book Review, 84
MICH. L. REV. 1063, 1077-78 (1986) (reviewing R. FREEMAN & J. MEDOFF,
WHAT DO UNIONS DO? (1984)); Hartley, The Framework of Democracy in Union
Government, 32
CATH. U.L. REV. 13, 54-61 (1982).
n66
Cf. Summers, The Public Interest in Union Democracy, 53 NW.
U.L. REV. 610 (1958).
n67
See, e.g., Clayton
v. UAW, 451 U.S. 679, 696 (1981) (plaintiff in hybrid duty of fair
representation/section 301 action must exhaust internal union remedies where
such remedies can result in reactivation of plaintiff's grievance or the award
of complete relief); Landrum-Griffin Act § 101(a)(4), 29
U.S.C. § 411(a)(4) (1982) (authorizing courts to require union members to
exhaust internal union remedies for up to four months before bringing suit
against their unions); id. § 402(a)(1), (2), 29
U.S.C. § 482(a)(1), (2) (1982) (requiring union members to exhaust internal
union remedies for up to three months before seeking relief through the
Department of Labor for violations of the fair election provisions of the
Landrum-Griffin Act); id. § 501(b), 29
U.S.C. § 501(b) (1982) (requiring union members to request their officers to
take appropriate steps to remedy officer breaches of fiduciary duties before
seeking such relief in the courts); cf. Republic
Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 659 (1965) (employee alleging a breach
of a collective bargaining agreement must exhaust contractual remedies before
bringing suit under section 301 of Labor-Management Relations Act, 29
U.S.C. § 185).
However, exhaustion requirements are not universally
imposed and are subject to a number of important exceptions where they are
present. See, e.g., NLRB
v. Marine and Shipbuilding Workers Local 22, 391 U.S. 418, 428 (1968)
(exhaustion of internal union remedies not required before union can be charged
with unfair labor practice); Semancik
v. United Mine Workers, 466 F.2d 144, 150-51 (3d Cir. 1972) (exhaustion
requirements can be waived to avoid irreparable harm to plaintiffs or where
exhaustion would be futile because the appeals structure is inadequate, or
controlled by those to whom plaintiffs are opposed); cf. Fox &
Sonenthal, Section 301 and the Exhaustion of Intra-Union Appeals: A
Misbegotten Marriage, 128 U. PA. L. REV. 989, 1034-35 (1980) (arguing
against strict exhaustion requirements in duty of fair representation
litigation).
n68
See, e.g., Falsetti
v. Local 2026, United Mine Workers, 400 Pa. 145, 161 A.2d 882 (1960); S.
REP. NO. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 7 (1959), reprinted in LMRDA
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY, supra note 64, at 397, 403; Vorenberg,
Exhaustion of Intraunion Remedies, 2 LAB. L.J. 487 (1951). An earlier
rationale for exhaustion was that union constitutions containing such
requirements were contractually binding on the unions' members. See,
e.g., Wilson
v. Miller, 194 Tenn. 390, 396, 250 S.W.2d 575, 577 (1952). However, like
contracts of adhesion, such agreements are not always enforceable.
n69
To understand the operation of internal union remedies, one must have some
knowledge of the three-part structure into which most of the labor movement
fits. At the bottom is the local union, typically representing the workers in a
single workplace or in a number of similar workplaces in one city or region. The
vast majority of union locals are chartered by and are essentially subdivisions
of a parent union organized on a national basis. These national unions, or
"Internationals" as they are often called when they include locals in Canada,
comprise the second major component of the labor movement. National unions often
exercise extensive control over the structure, activities, and even the very
existence of their affiliated locals. Finally, most national unions, with some
important exceptions, are affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations. The AFL-CIO is a loose, voluntary
federation; each member national union remains an autonomous organization in
control of its own affairs. See generally M. ESTEY, THE UNIONS:
STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT 43-54 (3d ed. 1981); J. WALLIHAN, UNION
GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATION 86-175 (1985).
n70
Of course, detecting the corruption in the first place may not be easy. Some
assistance to the rank-and-file is provided by title II of the Landrum-Griffin
Act, which requires labor organizations, and some union officers, employees, and
employers to file annual financial reports with the Department of Labor.
Landrum-Griffin Act §§ 201-03, 29
U.S.C. §§ 431-433 (1982). These reports are available to the public,
id. § 205, 29
U.S.C. § 435 (1982), and for just cause, a union member is entitled to
inspect the union's books, records, and accounts in order to verify the union's
financial reports. Id. § 201(c), 29
U.S.C. § 431(c) 1982. The standard for determining just cause for such an
examination of the union's books is minimal, and members who successfully sue to
enforce their right of inspection are entitled to attorneys' fees. Mallick
v. International Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 749 F.2d 771 (D.C. Cir. 1984).
n71
Any labor organiztion's procedures and grounds for disciplining union officers
or members must be spelled out in the organization's constitution or bylaws,
Landrum Griffin Act § 201(a)(5)(H)(I), 29
U.S.C. § 431(a)(5)(H)(I) (1982), and disciplinary proceedings (other than,
in some cases, removing an officer from his or her post) must comply with the
safeguards against improper disciplinary action contained in section 101(a)(5)
of the Act, 29
U.S.C. § 411(a)(5) (1982). See generally M. MALIN, INDIVIDUAL
RIGHTS WITHIN THE UNION 92-106 (1988) (collecting cases defining section
101(a)(5)'s scope). The sometimes more limited protections afforded to union
officers were addressed by the Supreme Court in Sheet
Metal Workers Int'l. v. Lynn, 109 S.Ct. 639, 645 (1989) (elected local union
officials may not be discharged by international for exercising free speech
rights), and Finnegan
v. Leu, 456 U.S. 431 (1982) (union officers appointed by previous president
may be discharged by newly-elected president). See generally Levy,
Legal Responses to Rank-and-File Dissent: Restrictions on Union Officer
Autonomy, 30 BUFFALO L. REV. 663 (1981); Pope, Free Speech Rights of
Union Officers Under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 18
HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 525 (1983).
In addition to the statutory
remedies provided by Landrum-Griffin, improperly disciplined union members or
officers can also resort to common law remedies, which the Act does not preempt.
Landrum Griffin Act §§ 103, 603(a), 29
U.S.C. §§ 413, 523(a) (1982). For a study of such remedies, see Summers,
The Law of Union Discipline: What the Courts Do In Fact, 70 YALE L.J.
175, 222-23 (1960).
n72
If necessary, collection of such fines can be compelled through a common law
contract action, since the union's constitution comprises a contract between the
union and the offending member. See NLRB
v. Boeing Co., 412 U.S. 67, 75-76 (1973).
n73
See infra text accompanying notes 246-56.
n74
§ 501(b), 29
U.S.C. § 501(b) (1982). See generally M. MALIN, supra note
71, at 315-27 (describing procedures for filing section 501(b) action).
n75
See R. DICKERSON, THE INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION OF STATUTES 233
(1975).
n76
See infra text accompanying notes 333-37.
n77
See P. CLARK, THE MINERS' FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY 25-31 (1981).
n78
See Raskin, Why They Cheer For Hoffa, N.Y. Times Nov. 9, 1958
(Magazine). For discussions of Hoffa's effectiveness at the bargaining table,
see R. JAMES & E. JAMES, supra note 2, at 143-94; Sloane,
Collective Bargaining in Trucking: Prelude to a National Contract, 19
INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 21 (1965).
n79
Under Presser's leadership, the Teamsters pioneered the use of unpopular
"two-tiered" contracts and granted wage concessions to even the most profitable
of Teamster employers, such as the United Parcel Service. See, e.g.,
Master, Teamsters President Proposes Cut-Rate Pay for Recalled Workers and
New Hires, LABOR NOTES, July 1983, at 3; UPS Members Reject, IBT
Imposes Contract, CONVOY DISPATCH, Oct. 1987, at 1.
n80
See, e.g., Teamsters Are Said to Scrap a Rule on Two-Thirds Vote, N.Y.
Times, Oct. 21, 1988, at A14, col. 5; Members: 94,086, Presser: 13,082,
CONVOY DISPATCH, Oct. 1983, at 1; UPS Members Reject, IBT Imposes
Contract, CONVOY DISPATCH, Oct. 1987, at 1.
n81
See J. EDELSTEIN & M. WARNER, COMPARATIVE UNION DEMOCRACY 72-80
(1975). For a more detailed description and critique of the Teamster electoral
system, see infra notes 588-93 and accompanying text.
n82
See James, Union Democracy and the LMRDA: Autocracy and Insurgency
in National Union Elections, 13 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 247 (1978).
n83
See P. CLARK, supra note 77, at 26. Another important
distinction between the UMW and the IBT, for example, is that those running the
Boyle machine, corrupt and brutal though it was, were amateurs in comparison to
the mafia figures who have infiltrated the Teamsters.
n84
See D. McLAUGHLIN & A. SCHOOMAKER, THE LANDRUM-GRIFFIN ACT AND
UNION DEMOCRACY 48-50 (1979); James, supra note 82, at 294-313; Rauh,
LMRDA -- Enforce It or Repeal It, 5 GA. L. REV. 643, 659-66 (1971).
n85
See 105 CONG. REC. 6478 (1959), reprinted in LMRDA LEGISLATIVE
HISTORY, supra note 64, at 1098, 1102, 1105 (remarks of Senator
McClellan).
n86
See supra text accompanying notes 46-47.
n87
The Landrum-Griffin Act defines a trusteeship as "any . . . method of
supervision or control whereby a labor organization suspends the autonomy
otherwise available to a subordinate body under its constitution or bylaws." 29
U.S.C. § 402(h) (1982). See generally J. BELLACE & A.
BERKOWITZ, THE LANDRUM-GRIFFIN ACT: TWENTY YEARS OF FEDERAL PROTECTION OF UNION
MEMBERS' RIGHTS 98-150 (1979); M. MALIN, supra note 71, at 175-204.
n88
Cf. 1 A. CORBIN, CORBIN ON CONTRACTS § 6 (2d ed. 1963) (contract
induced by fraud is voidable by defrauded party); 6A id. §§ 1455
(bargain made with purpose or effect of defrauding or in violation of a
fiduciary relationship is voidable by the defrauded party); 12 S. WILLISTON, A
TREATISE ON THE LAW OF CONTRACTS §§ 1455A, 1532 (3d ed. 1970) (recission of
contracts obtained 3d ed. 1970) (recission of contracts obtained through fraud
and contracts intended to defraud or injure third parties). See also Pioneer
Bus Co., 140 N.L.R.B. 54 (1962) (contract bar rules cannot be used to shield
contracts that discriminate between blacks and whites); Paragon
Prods. Corp., 134 N.L.R.B. 662 (1961) (contract bar rules cannot be used to
shield contracts that contain illegal union security clauses).
n89
See Goldberg, Federal Suit Seeks Trusteeship Over N.J. Teamsters
Local 560, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., Dec. 1982, at 9; Bid By Teamster
Local, N.Y. Times, June 16, 1978, at B24, col. 6.
It also should be
noted that trusteeships are two-edged swords that can be abused by a union's
national leadership in order to stifle dissent and democratic unionism at the
local level. See, e.g., Perm. Subcomm. on Investigations, Comm. on
Governmental Affairs, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International
Union, S. REP. NO. 403-14, 98th Cong., 2d Sess. 47-60 (1984). Title III of the
Landrum-Griffin Act therefore prohibits a national union from imposing a
trusteeship unless it does so with a modicum of procedural fairness and for
legitimate purposes under the statute. However, title III's broad declaration of
acceptable purposes for which trusteeships can be imposed, combined with the
provision's eighteen-month presumption of validity when the title's procedural
requirements are satisfied, allow many abusive trusteeships to pass statutory
muster. See Note, Title III of the Labor-Management Relations and
Disclosure Act: For Greater Judicial Protection of Union Democracy and Local
Autonomy, 9 J. CORP. L. 271, 295 (1984).
n90
See, e.g., TEAMSTERS CONST. art. VI, § 4; id. art. XII, §§ 4,
5, 21 (1986); National Master Freight Agreement art. 8, § 1(a) (adopted April,
1985) (principal contract between the IBT and many unionized trucking and
freight industry employers).
n91
On the other hand, where corruption has reached a union's national level, these
means of influencing local affairs can be abused for purposes of undermining the
positions of honest and reform-minded local officers who may be potential
challengers to the union's corrupt national leadership.
n92
As alternatives to imposing a trusteeship, either of these approaches has an
advantage for the national union in that the provisions of title III of the
Landrum-Griffin Act need not be complied with in most cases. See, e.g.,
Parks
v. International Bd. of Elec. Workers, 314 F.2d 886, 924 (4th Cir. 1963)
(where revocation of charter was not used as means of evading title III's
trusteeship provisions, title III not applicable); UNION TRUSTEESHIPS: REPORT OF
THE SECRETARY OF LABOR TO THE CONGRESS UPON THE OPERATION OF TITLE III OF THE
LABOR-MANGEMENT REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE ACT 33-34 (1962) (revocation of a
charter does not create a trusteeship). Unfortunately, this gap in the Act's
coverage sometimes can result in the abuse of mergers or charter revocations for
purposes of political gerrymandering. An unscrupulous national leadership, for
example, might orchestrate the mergers of locals in order to eliminate the local
power bases of political rivals within the union.
n93
See Brooks, Impartial Public Review of Internal Union Disputes:
Experiment in Democratic Self-Discipline, 22 OHIO ST. L.J. 64, 71-73
(1961); Oberer, Voluntary Impartial Review of Labor: Some Reflections,
58 MICH. L. REV. 55, 58-60 (1959).
n94
In practice, however, the distinction between the legislative and executive
branches of union government often breaks down, with the executive branch
holding the dominant position. See Levy, supra note 71, at
673.
n95
See, e.g., TEAMSTERS CONST. art. XIX, §§ 1, 2 (1986).
n96
Oberer, supra note 93, at 60. Even when the union's tribunal of last
resort is the convention, the union's hierarchy usually controls the outcome.
For example, the period between conventions may be as long as five years, and in
that period many grievances will become moot. Thus, for many aggrieved union
members, the last effective form of internal appellate review will
remain with the union's officers. Moreover, the substantive reviews of appeals
that do make it all the way to the convention are often handled by a convention
committee appointed for that purpose by the national union president or
executive board. Finally, a majority of the delegates to most union conventions
are already officials at some level in the union's hierarchy, and they may be
vulnerable to pressure from the top to vote the party line. See
generally Craypo, The National Union Convention as an Internal Appeal
Tribunal, 22 INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 487 (1969).
n97
By the same token, the abuse of these union remedies -- such as the expulsion of
union dissidents on trumped up charges or the imposition of intra-union
trusteeships for illegitimate purposes -- may continue unchecked unless
challenged in the courts.
n98
The concept was first advanced by Professor Clyde Summers in a report he drafted
for the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU, DEMOCRACY AND LABOR UNIONS: A
REPORT AND STATEMENT OF POLICY (1952). The first public review board was
established by the Upholsterers' International in 1953, but it was never very
active. Although similar efforts in such other unions as the Packinghouse
Workers, the Pulp and Paper Workers, and the American Federation of Teachers
have had mixed reviews, the UAW's Public Review Board is widely considered a
success. See generally J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at
375-78; J. STIEBER, W. OBERER & M. HARRINGTON, DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC REVIEW:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE UAW PUBLIC REVIEW BOARD (1960); Brooks, supra note
93; Review Boards: Due Process vs. Power in Union Trial Procedure,
UNION DEMOCRACY REV., Winter 1973, at 1. For a discussion of efforts to
establish an internal review board within the State, County and Municipal
Employees Union, see Ames, The Rise of the AFSCME Judicial Panel, UNION
DEMOCRACY REV., Apr. 1982, at 6.
n99
UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA
CONST. art. 32, §§ 2, 9 (1986). Appointments to the PRB must be approved by the
International Executive Board and ratified by the Convention. Members serve
three-year terms (the period between Conventions) and cannot be removed from
office until their terms expire. Mid-term replacements, when vacancies arise,
are appointed by the International President from a list of names submitted by
the remaining members of the PRB. Some of the more distinguished PRB members
over the years have included former federal judge and Solicitor General Wade
McCree, former Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, historian Henry Steele
Commager, and former president of the University of Michigan Robben Fleming.
Klein, The United Auto Workers' Public Review Board, UNION DEMOCRACY
REV., Winter 1973, at 2.
n100 UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT
WORKERS OF AMERICAN CONST. art. 32, § 3; id. art. 33, §§ 1-2, 3(f). The
PRB nevertheless has jurisdiction over some aspects of contract enforcement,
such as union misconduct during grievance handling. See Klein,
Enforcement of the Right to Fair Representation: Alternative Forums, in
THE DUTY OF FAIR REPRESENTATION 97, 103 (J. McKelvey ed. 1977).
n101 See, e.g., UAW Review Board Voids Fraudulent
Election, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., May 1986, at 9; UAW Review Board Voids
Trusteeship, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., July 1987, at 6; The UAW Review
Board: Part of the Record, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., Apr. 1982, at 2, 5
(detailing selected cases in which the PRB acted to overturn international
executive board).
n102 See, e.g., J. STIEBER, W. OBERER, & M.
HARRINGTON, supra note 98, at 14-15, Public Review Board Acts to
Uphold UAW's Democractic Tradition, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., April 1982, at 1.
n103 J. STIEBER, W. OBERER & M. HARRINGTON, supra note
98, at 19, 59. PRB recommendations also have led directly to improvements in the
UAW's ethical practices codes. See UAW Strenghens Its Ethical Practices
Codes, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., July 1986, at 7.
n104 An executive director of the UAW's PRB has suggested that
PRB's may work best only in those unions that need them the least:
In
order for the institution to work at all, it must operate within a framework of
basic democratic guarantees . . . . I have long since concluded that the
institution could not effectively operate if faced with an implaceable
opposition on the part of the Union's leadership . . . . It would be easy for
union officialdom, simply by withholding key bits of information and data, to
thwart the effective operation of independent review.
Klein, supra
note 99, at 2.
n105 D. DUBINSKY & A. RASKIN, DAVID DUBINSKY: A LIFE WITH LABOR
156 (1977).
n106 C. LARROWE, HARRY BRIDGES: THE RISE AND FALL OF RADICAL LABOR
IN THE U.S. 325 (2d ed. 1972). Whatever one's opinion of the labor movement's
post-war purge of the left, it is difficult to deny its effectiveness, although
the rampant anti-communist hysteria of the period certainly facilitated that
effectiveness. See generally D. CAUTE, THE GREAT FEAR: THE
ANTI-COMMUNICST PURGE UNDER TRUMAN AND EISENHOWER (1978).
n107 See J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at 320-24;
P. TAFT, supra note 28, at 58, 61.
n108 See V. JENSEN, STRIFE ON THE WATERFRONT: THE PORT OF
NEW YORK SINCE 1945, at 95-135 (1974). In a last-minute bid to avoid explusion,
the ILA offered to submit to a receivership so that it could reform itself under
AFL supervision. Id. at 111. It is interesting to speculate whether
that route would have been any more effective than the AFL's futile expulsion of
the ILA.
n109 See id. at 241. The invitation to reaffiliate was
apparently made in part to head off the formation of a rival labor federation
comprised of the recently expelled Teamsters, the west coast International
Longshoremen and Warehousemen Union (ILWU), and the ILA. See id. at
229-30. (The ILWU had been expelled from the CIO in 1950 because of its
allegedly Communist leadership. C. LARROWE, supra note 106, at 323-25).
n110 See Matlack, Taking on the Teamsters, 19
NAT'L J. 2782 (1987).
n111 See J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at 308-20,
324-28.
n112 See D. DUBINSKY & A. RASKIN, supra note
105, at 168. Copies of the ethical practices codes are available from the
Association for Union Democracy.
n113 Reformers have frequently obtained injunctions requiring
unions to comply with specific requirements of the law, see, e.g., Mallick
v. International Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 749 F.2d 771, 785 (D.C. Cir. 1984)
(union ordered to permit reformers to inspect union financial records); McCabe
v. International Bhd. of Elec. Workers, Local Union 1377, 415 F.2d 92, 97-98
(6th Cir. 1969) (union ordered to discontinue unauthorized expenditures),
and they have occasionally obtained orders voiding provisions in union
constitutions, see, e.g., Pawlak
v. Greenawalt, 628 F.2d 826, 831 (3d Cir. 1980) (injunction against
enforcement of union's constitutional provision authorizing imposition of fines
against members who sue the union without first exhausting internal union
remedies); see generally Note, Facial Adjudication of Disciplinary
Provisions in Union Constitutions, 91 YALE L.J. 144 (1981) (urging more
frequent application of this remedy), but they have rarely obtained anything
approaching the kind of structural injunctions that are the focus of this
Article.
n114 See infra text accompanying notes 364-424.
n115 E.g., Benson, Now or Never! Oust Racketeers From
Unions!, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., NOV. 1987, at 3; PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION,
supra note 14, at 253-54.
n116 See, e.g. United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267,
295-96 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986); United
States v. Local 30, United Roofers Ass'n, 686 F. Supp. 1139, 1167-68 (E.D. Pa.
1988). See also infra text accompanying notes 463-89. As Owen Fiss
has observed, "[O]ne of the most striking features of opinions in structural
[reform] cases [is] the failure to discuss the remedy with any specificity at
all." Fiss, supra note 25, at 52 n.105.
n117 See, e.g., H. McCLINTOCK, HANDBOOK OF THE PRINCIPLES
OF EQUITY 76 (2d ed. 1948).
n118 Brown
v. Board of Educ., 349 U.S. 294, 300 (1955).
n119 Horowitz, supra note 25, at 1287; see also
Kirp & Babcock, Judge and Company: Court-Appointed Masters, School
Desegregation, and Institutional Reform, 32 ALA. L. REV. 313 (1981);
Comment, Confronting the Conditions of Confinement: An Expanded Role for
Courts in Prison Reform, 12 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 367 (1977); Note,
The Wyatt Case: Implementation of a Judicial Decree Ordering
Institutional Change, 84 YALE L.J. 1338 (1975).
n120 See generally O. FISS, THE CIVIL RIGHTS INJUNCTION
(1978).
n121 See Chayes, supra note 25, at 1292.
n122 O. FISS, supra note 120, at 28, 92.
n123 Ex
parte Peterson, 253 U.S. 300, 312-13 (1920).
n124 See Horowitz, supra note 25, at 1274. Courts
utilizing masters in this way have often referred to them by a variety of
titles, such as "administrator," "monitor," and "hearing officer." See
Special Project, The Remedial Process in Institutional Reform
Litigation, 78 COLUM. L. REV. 784, 826-35 (1978). See generally
Berger, Away From the Court House and Into the Field: The Odyssey of a
Special Master, 78 COLUM. L. REV. 707 (1978); Brakel, Special Masters
in Institutional Litigation, 1979 AM. B. FOUND. RES. J. 543; Kirp &
Babcock, supra note 119, at 553-64; Nathan, The Use of Masters in
Institutional Reform Litigation, 10 TOL. L. REV. 419.
n125 See Note, Receivership As a Remedy in Civil
Rights Cases, 24 RUTGERS L. REV. 115, 132 (1969).
n126 See, e.g., Morgan
v. McDonough, 540 F.2d 527, 535 (1st Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 429
U.S. 1042 (1977) (high school); Newman
v. Alabama, 466 F. Supp. 628, 635 (M.D. Ala. 1979) (prison); Turner
v. Goolsby, 255 F.Supp. 724, 730 (S.D. Ga. 1966) (school system). See
generally Comment, Equitable Remedies: An Analysis of Judicial
Utilization of Neoreceiverships to Implement Large Scale Institutional
Change, 1976 WISC. L. REV. 1161 (1976); Note, supra note 125.
n127 See Fiss, supra note 25, at 44 n.92.
n128 Although it has been argued that union activity should be
treated as state action because much union power is derived from federal labor
law, see, e.g., Steele
v. Louisville & N.R.R., 323 U.S. 192, 208 (1944) (Murphy, J.,
concurring); R. POSNER, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW 248, 532 (2d ed. 1977), that
view has been repeatedly rejected by the Supreme Court, see, e.g., United
Bhd. of Carpenters, Local 610 v. Scott, 463 U.S. 825, 832-33 (1983); United
Steelworkers v. Sadlowski, 457 U.S. 102, 117 (1982). See generally
Klare, The Public/Private Distinction in Labor Law, 130 U. PA. L. REV.
1358 (1982).
n129 See infra notes 342-61 and accompanying text.
n130 See Frug, The Judicial Power of the Purse,
126 U. PA. L. REV. 715, 743-49 (1978); Mishkin, Federal Courts as State
Reformers, 35 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 949, 967-71, 975-76, (1978); Nagel,
Separation of Powers and the Scope of Federal Equitable Remedies, 30
STAN. L. REV. 661, 664-81 (1978). For counterarguments, see Eisenberg &
Yeazell, The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in Institutional
Litigation, 93 HARV. L. REV. 465, 501-06 (1980); Fiss, supra note
25, at 11-17, 36-39.
n131 See, e.g., Eisenberg & Yeazell, supra
note 130, at 501-06; Fiss, supra note 25, at 51-56.
n132 See, e.g., SEC
v. S & P Nat'l Corp., 360 F.2d 741, 750-51 (2d Cir. 1966); Los
Angeles Trust Deed & Mortgage Exch. v. SEC, 285 F.2d 162, 181-82 (9th Cir.
1960), cert. denied, 366
U.S. 919 (1961). Although the Investment Company Act of 1940 expressly
authorizes the appointment of "trustee[s]" to remedy certain violations, 15
U.S.C. § 80a-41(d) (1982 & Supp. V. 1987), the other major securities
statutes mention only injunctions as available equitable remedies.
E.g., Securities Act of 1933, 15
U.S.C. § 77t(b) (1982 & Supp. V 1987); id. § 77v(a); Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, 15
U.S.C. § 78u(e) (1982 & Supp. V 1987). Therefore, most courts that have
imposed receiverships in SEC enforcement proceedings have relied at least in
part, and often exclusively, on their inherent equitable powers. See
Farrand, Ancillary Remedies in SEC Civil Enforcement Suits, 89 HARV. L.
REV. 1779, 1780-81, 1788 (1976).
n133 See United
States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U.S. 106, 186-88 (1911); see
also United
States v. E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., 366 U.S. 316, 326-35 (1961).
n134 145
Misc. 863, 870, 261 N.Y.S. 112, 119 (Sup. Ct. 1932). In one earlier case,
receivers had been appointed to take charge of the funds of a union that had
been ordered dissolved. Kealey
v. Faulkner, 18 Ohio Dec. 498 (Cuyahoga C.P. 1907). In another, several
employers forced a union into receivership as a result of litigation growing out
of an ongoing labor dispute, but the receivership was overturned on appeal. District
No. 21, UMW v. Bourland, 169 Ark. 796, 807, 277 S.W. 546, 551 (1925).
n135 Kaplan,
145 Misc. at 869-70, 261 N.Y.S. at 119-20.
n136 Kaplan v. Elliot, N.Y.L.J., Jan. 5, 1933, at 57. The court
later modified its order to establish a two-member committee -- one member named
by the local and the second by the international -- to run the local's
day-to-day affairs, subject to the supervision of the receivers, who maintained
complete control over the local's funds. See Comment, Appointment
of Receivers for Labor Unions, 42 YALE L.J. 1244, 1246 (1933).
n137 Kaplan v. Elliot, N.Y.L.J., Jan. 24, 1933, at 56 (App. Div.
1st Dep't 1933).
n138 See. e.g., Recent Case, 46 HARV. L. REV. 1037, 1038
(1933) (stating that the decision in Kaplan may have rested on the fact
that the constitution and bylaws of the Union provided an alternative remedy);
Note, A Forward Step in Labor Regulations, 7 ST. JOHN'S L. REV. 316,
317 n. 6 (1933) (supporting appointment as only way evils of local mismanagement
can be prevented). But see Comment, supra note 136, at 1248-50
(discussing theoretical justification for court appointed receivers, but noting
union self-policing could justify a court's forbearance of such action).
n139 Chalghian
v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, Local 617, 114 N.J. Eq. 497, 169 A. 327 (Ch.
1933).
n140 Id.
at 501, 169 A. at 329.
n141 114
N.J. Eq. 555, 169 A. 351 (Ch. 1933).
n142 Id.
at 558-59, 169 A. at 353.
n143 Id.
at 566, 169 A. at 354-55.
n144 Mullins
v. Merchandise Drivers Local 641, 120 N.J. Eq. 307, 185 A. 51 (Ch. 1936).
n145 Id.
at 312, 185 A. at 53 (quoting Toledo,
A.A. & N.M. Ry. v. Pennsylvania Co., 54 F. 730, 741 (C.C.N.D. Ohio
1893), appeal dismissed, 150
U.S. 393, 401 (1893)).
n146 Id. at 311, 185 A. at 53.
n147 Id. at 309, 185 A. at 52.
n148 See supra text accompanying notes 134-47; see
also Sibilia
v. Western Elec. Employees Ass'n, 142 N.J. Eq. 77, 80, 59 A.2d 251, 253
(1948); Collins
v. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, 119 N.J. Eq. 230,
246-47, 182 A. 37, 45-46 (Ch. 1935).
n149 See Clinton
v. Hueston, 308 F.2d 908, 911 (5th Cir. 1962) (vacating, following removal
to federal court, appointment by Alabama state court pursuant to Alabama law of
a receiver pendente lite in case involving alleged Landrum-Griffin Act
violations).
n150 In August, 1940, an Illinois chancery court placed Chicago's
Local 278 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in receivership due to its
infiltration by organized crime. See S. REP. NO. 621, 86th Cong., 1st
Sess., pt. 2, at 598-601 (1959) (the McClellan Committee's Second Interim
Report).
n151 See Mills
v. Collier, 50 Lab. Cas. (CCH) P19,150 (S.D. Ind. June 9, 1964) (rejecting
challenge, brought under title III of the Landrum-Griffin Act, to a union
receivership imposed by state court pursuant to state law).
n152 Robinson
v. Nick, 136 S.W.2d 374, 385 (Mo. Ct. App. 1940) ("the appointment of a
receiver . . . may be exercised in a pending case as a means of preventive
justice").
n153 Mursener
v. Forte, 186 Or. 253, 272, 205 P.2d 568, 577 (1949) (upholding receivership
to protect dissipation of union funds by International officers pending election
of new Local officers).
n154 O'Neill
v. United Ass'n of Journeymen, 348 Pa. 531, 538, 36 A.2d 325, 328 (1944)
(master appointed to supervise local union elections).
n155 See, e.g., Gilligan
v. Moving Picture Mach. Operators, 135 N.J. Eq. 484, 487-88, 39 A.2d 129, 131-32
(1944) (upholding order threatening receivership unless union amended
constitution to establish a seniority system for allocating work).
n156 See, e.g., Yellin
v. Schaefer, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2723 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June 27, 1960) (part of
earlier settlement was a court-supervised general election of union officers);
Holderman
v. International Org. of Masters, 7 A.D.2d 1021, 1022, 184 N.Y.S. 2d 698, 699
(1959) ("action was settled in open court before a Special Referee"); Kegg
v. Bianco, 89 PITT. LEG. J. 447, 448 (Pa. C.P. 1941) (counsel for parties
permitted appointment of receiver to conduct union's duties, hold an election,
and report to the court).
n157 See, e.g., Dusing
v. Nuzzo, 263 A.D. 59, 63-65, 31 N.Y.S. 2d 849, 852-54 (1941) (establishing
procedures for election of union officers).
n158 See, e.g., Katz & Friedman, Members' Control
Over Officers, Elections, and Finances: Equitable Remedies and Modern
Developments, 22 OHIO ST. L.J. 97, 101-03 (1961); Summers, Judicial
Regulation of Union Elections, 70 YALE L.J. 1221, 1255 (1961); Comment,
Disputes Within Trade Unions, 45 YALE L.J. 1248, 1268 (1936); Recent
Case, supra note 138, at 1038; Note, supra note 138, at 317
n.6. Even Archibald Cox, who expressed the view that court-imposed receiverships
were "intolerable" in the labor context, never argued that such receiverships
were unavailable as a matter of law. Cox, The Role of Law in Preserving
Union Democracy, 72 HARV. L. REV. 609, 634 (1959).
n159 See, e.g., S. REP. NO. 1139, 86th Cong., 2d Sess.
(1960); S. REP. NO. 621, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. (1959); S. REP. NO. 1417, 85th
Cong., 2d Sess. (1958) (reports of the McClellan Committee).
n160 See infra text accompanying notes 499-503.
n161 Consent Order, Cunningham v. English, C.A. 2361-57 (D.D.C.
Jan. 31, 1958), reprinted in English
v. Cunningham, 269 F.2d 517, 532-35 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 361
U.S. 905 (1959).
n162 See infra text accompanying notes 492-572; Goldberg,
The Teamsters Board of Monitors: An Experiment in Union Reform
Litigation, 30 LAB. HIST. 563 (1989).
n163 Pub. L. No. 86-257, 73 Stat. 519 (1959) (codified as amended
at 29
U.S.C. §§ 401-531 (1982 & Supp. V. 1987)).
n164 Title I of the Landrum-Griffin Act, §§ 101-05, 29
U.S.C. §§ 411-15 (1982) -- the "Bill of Rights of Members of Labor
Organizations" -- protects union members' civil liberties within unions, such as
the right to equal treatment, freedom of speech and assembly, and protection
against improper disciplinary action; title II, id. §§ 201-10, 29
U.S.C. §§ 431-41, imposes reporting and disclosure requirements on unions
and union officers; title III, id. §§ 301-06, 29
U.S.C. §§ 461-66, establishes limits on the power of national or
international labor organizations to impose intra-union trusteeships on their
affiliates; title IV, id. §§ 401-04, 29
U.S.C. §§ 481-83, regulates the election of union officers; and title V,
id. §§ 501-04, 29
U.S.C. §§ 501-04, defines and provides for the enforcement of the fiduciary
responsibilities of union officers. See generally J. BELLACE & A.
BERKOWITZ, supra note 87, at 1-313; M. MALIN, supra note 71,
at 33-346.
n165 Landrum-Griffin Act §§ 401-04, 29
U.S.C. §§ 481-83 (1982).
n166 Id. § 403, 29
U.S.C. § 483.
n167 Nor does the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29
U.S.C. §§ 101-15 (1982 & Supp. V 1987), which limits the power of the
federal courts to issue injunctions in labor disputes, affect the availability
of injunctions or other equitable remedies in cases involving internal union
affairs. See Cunningham
v. English, 41 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2022, 2028 (D.D.C. 1957), modified on
other grounds sub nom. Teamsters
v. Cunningham, 41 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2044 (D.C. Cir. 1957); Fitzgerald
v. Abramson, 89 F. Supp. 504, 509 (S.D.N.Y. 1950); Chambers
v. International Hod Carriers' Building and Common Laborers Union, 52 F. Supp.
978, 979-80 (D.D.C. 1943).
n168 Landrum-Griffin Act §§ 103, 306, 603, 29
U.S.C. §§ 413, 466, 523 (1982). See generally Summers,
Pre-emption and the Labor Reform Act -- Dual Rights and Remedies, 22
OHIO ST. L.J. 119 (1961) (outlining impact of the Act on existing law; provides
history of the savings clauses of titles I, III and V).
n169 Mills
v. Collier, 50 Lab. Cas. (CCH) P19,150, at 32,033 (S.D. Ind. June 9, 1964).
n170 See, e.g., Forkosch, The Legal Status and
Suability of Labor Organizations, 28 TEMPLE L.Q. 1 (1954) (48 state survey
of conflicting state decisions on this issue).
n171 Section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29
U.S.C. § 186(a) (1982), has been construed to provide a federal
jurisdictional and substantive basis for suits to enforce union constitutions,
even where those disputes do not directly impact collective bargaining. See,
e.g., United
Ass'n of Journeymen v. Local 334, United Ass'n of Journeymen, 452 U.S. 615, 627
(1981); Lewis
v. International Bhd. of Teamsters Local 771, 826 F.2d 1310, 1314 (3d Cir.
1987); Kinney
v. International Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 669 F.2d 1222, 1229 (9th Cir. 1982).
n172 See, e.g., Brennan, The Bill of Rights and the
States: The Revival of State Constitutions as Guardians of Individual
Rights, 61
N.Y.U. L. REV. 535, 548 (1986) ("the diminution of federal scrutiny and
protection out of purported deference to the states mandates the assumption of a
more responsible state role. And state courts have taken seriously their
obligation as coequal guardians of civil rights and liberties.")
n173 See, e.g., Hood
v. Journeymen Int'l Union, 454 F.2d 1347, 1356 (7th Cir. 1972) (upholding
receivership, pursuant to title V of the Landrum-Griffin Act, over a
union-controlled pension fund.); cf. Fanning
v. United Scenic Artists, Local 829, 265 F. Supp. 523, 527 (S.D.N.Y. 1966)
(denying preliminary injunctive relief, including the appointment of a receiver,
to remedy alleged Landrum-Griffin Act violations, due to absence of irreparable
harm and small probability of success on the merits, but not denying that a
receivership would be available if plaintiffs prevailed on the merits); Marin
v. Union de Empleados de Muelles, 46 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2744, 2745 (D.P.R. 1960)
(appointing monitor, pursuant to consent order, to insure protection of members'
Landrum-Griffin Act rights).
n174 Landrum-Griffin Act §§ 102, 210, 304(a), 29
U.S.C. §§ 412, 440, 464(a) (1982).
n175 Id. § 501(b), 29
U.S.C. § 501(b) (1982).
n176 Section 402(a) of the Landrum-Griffin Act, 20
U.S.C. § 482(a) (1982), provides, in relevant part: "The challenged election
shall be presumed valid pending a final decision . . . and in the interim the
affairs of the organization shall be conducted by the officers elected or in
such other manner as [the union's] constitution and bylaws may provide." The
Senate Report elaborated:
Since union business must not be brought to a
standstill whenever an election is challenged, it is necessary to make some
provison for the conduct of business while the proceeding is in progress. It
would be intolerable for the Government to appoint outsiders to act as
receivers. The choice lay between keeping the old officers in office or allowing
the new officers to enter upon their duties . . . .
SENATE COMM. ON LABOR
AND PUBLIC WELFARE, LABOR-MANAGEMENT REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1959, S.
REP. NO. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 22, reprinted in 1959 U.S. CODE
CONG. & ADMIN. NEWS 2318, 2338, and in 1 LMRDA LEGISLATIVE HISTORY,
supra note 66, at 418.
n177 Landrum-Griffin Act § 402(b), 29
U.S.C. § 482(b) (1982).
n178 Brennan
v. American Guild of Variety Artists, 87 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2607 (S.D.N.Y.
1974).
n179 See Hall
v. Cole, 412 U.S. 1, 10-13 (1973) (noting that the remedy provisions "cast
as a broad mandate to the courts to fashion 'appropriate relief'").
n180 Porter
v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U.S. 395, 398 (1946); see also Califano
v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 705 (1979); Sullivan
v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U.S. 229, 239 (1969); Jones
v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409, 414 n.13 (1968); Bell
v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 684 (1946); Scripps-Howard
Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 316 U.S. 4, 11 (1942). As the Supreme Court explained in
a decision implying the availability of attorneys fees for prevailing plaintiffs
under the LMRDA's union members' bill of rights:
Title I litigation
necessarily demands that remedies "be tailored to fit facts and circumstances
admitting of almost infinite variety," and § 102 was therefore cast as a broad
mandate to the courts to fashion "appropriate" relief. Indeed, any attempt on
the part of Congress to spell out all of the remedies available under § 102
would create the "danger that those [remedies] not listed might be proscribed
with the result that the courts would be fettered in their efforts to 'grant
relief according to the necessities of the case.'"
Hall
v. Cole, 412 U.S. 1, 11 (1972) (quoting Gartner
v. Soloner, 384 F.2d 348, 353 (3d Cir. 1967)).
ERISA, the pension
reform statute of 1974, like Landrum-Griffin, contains broad remedial language
but no express authorization for the appointment of receivers, and courts have
construed it to authorize the judicial appointment of receivers to supervise the
day-to-day affairs of pension and welfare funds. See infra text
accompanying notes 214-36.
n181 United
Steelworkers v. Sadlowski, 457 U.S. 102, 117 (1981) (quoting S. REP. NO.
1684, 85th Cong., 2d Sess. 4-5 (1958)).
n182 S. REP. NO. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 7 (1959), 1 LMRDA
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY, supra note 64, at 403.
n183 See Levy, supra note 71, at 684 n.118 ("The
adoption on the floor . . . of the Landrum-Griffin substitute, amounts to a
repudiation of this portion of Senate Report No. 187."); see generally
Rothman, Legislative History of the "Bill of Rights" for Union Members,
45 MINN. L. REV. 199, 213 (1960).
n184 42
U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17 (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n185 See, e.g., Oliphant
v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen & Enginemen, 262 F.2d 359, 363 (6th
Cir. 1958) (holding that "[t]he Brotherhood is a private association, whose
membership policies are its own affair, and this is not an appropriate case for
interposition of judicial control"), cert. denied, 359
U.S. 935 (1959).
n186 See generally P. FONER, ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE BLACK
WORKER (2d ed. 1982); W. GOULD, BLACK WORKERS IN WHITE UNIONS (1977); R.
MARSHALL, THE NEGRO AND ORGANIZED LABOR (1965).
n187 See, e.g., Fluker
v. Papermakers, Locals 265 and 940, 6 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 92, 97 (S.D.
Ala. 1972) (ordering transitional protection to newly merged locals by
creating additional officer positions); English
v. Seaboard Coast Line R.R., 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 904 (S.D. Ga.
1972); Hicks
v. Crown Zellerbach Corp., 310 F. Supp. 536, 538 (E.D. La. 1970) (upholding
order temporarily allocating officer positions to members of former local for
black employees). For a general discussion of more recent, voluntary programs
along these lines, see Goldberg, Affirmative Action in Union Government: The
Landrum-Griffin Act Implications, 44
OHIO ST. L.J. 649 (1983).
n188 See Fick, Political Abuse of Hiring Halls:
Comparative Treatment Under the NLRA and the LMRDA, 9 INDUS. REL. L.J. 339,
341-46 (1987); Rains, Construction Trades Hiring Halls, 10 LAB. L.J.
363, 367 (1959).
n189 Although most apprenticeship programs are ostensibly run by
joint union-management committees, it is common for the union representatives on
those committees to dominate the process by which new apprentices are selected.
See W. GOULD, supra note 186, at 285.
n190 See, e.g., Local
28, Sheet Metal Workers' Int'l Ass'n v. EEOC, 478 U.S. 421, 481-83 (1986).
n191 See, e.g., Pennsylvania
v. Local 542, Int'l Union of Operating Eng'rs, 502 F. Supp. 7, 13-14 (E.D. Pa.
1978), aff'd, 648
F. 2d 922 (3d Cir. 1981) (en banc), aff'd in part and rev'd in part on
other grounds sub nom. General
Bldg. Contractors Ass'n v. Pennsylvania, 458 U.S. 375 (1982).
n192 See, e.g., Local
542, 502 F. Supp. at 14.
n193 See, e.g., United
States v. Ironworkers Local 86, 443 F.2d 544, 550-51 (9th Cir. 1971),
cert. denied, 404
U.S. 984 (1971).
n194 EEOC
v. Int'l Union of Operating Eng'rs, Locals 14 & 15, 13 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas.
(BNA) 1490, 1503-04 (S.D.N.Y. 1976).
n195 Ironworkers
Local 86, 443 F.2d at 552-53. For an analysis of the nature and
effectiveness of the title VII remedies imposed upon building trades unions,
including a particularly detailed discussion of Ironworkers Local 86,
see W. GOULD, supra note 186, at 316-62.
n196 See, e.g., Pennsylvania
v. Local 542, Int'l Union of Operating Eng'rs., 619 F. Supp. 1273, 1279 (E.D.
Pa. 1985) ("monitor"); United
States v. Local 638, Enter. Ass'n of Steam, Hot Water, Hot Water, Hydraulic
Sprinkler, Pneumatic Tube, Compressed Air, Ice Machine, Air Conditioning and
Gen. Pipefitters, 360 F. Supp. 979, 991 (S.D.N.Y. 1973), aff'd, 501
F.2d 622 (2d Cir. 1974) ("administrator"); United
States v. Local 86, Int'l Ass'n of Ironworkers, 315 F. Supp. 1202, 1249 (W.D.
Wash. 1970) ("Advisory Committee"), aff'd, 443
F.2d 544 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 404
U.S. 984 (1971). See generally Harris, The Title VII
Administrator: A Case Study in Judicial Flexibility, 60 CORNELL L. REV. 53
(1974).
n197 478
U.S. 421, 482 (1986).
n198 Id.
at 481-82. Earlier in the litigation, the court of appeals made the same
point more forcefully: "While union self-government is desirable and is, indeed,
an ideal to which the law aspires, . . . our interest in union self-government
cannot immunize Local 28 from the consequences of its actions. . . . [I]t is
necessary for a court appointed its actions. . . . [I]t necessary for a court
appointed administrator to exercise day-to-day oversight of the union's
affairs." EEOC
v. Local 638, Sheet Metal Workers Int'l Ass'n, 532 F.2d 821, 829 (2d Meat
Workers Int'l Ass'n, 532 F.2d 821, 829 (2d Cir. 1976).
n199 619
F. Supp. 1273, 1277 (E.D. Pa. 1985). The court made crystal clear that the
monitor was "responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the hiring
hall." Id.
at 1279.
n200 EEOC
v. Local 14, Int'l Union of Operating Engr's, 13 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA)
1490, 1495 (S.D.N.Y. 1976).
n201 See, e.g., Highway
and City Freight Drivers, Local 600 v. Gordon Transports, Inc., 576 F.2d 1285,
1287 (8th Cir. 1978) (holding that a union is a "person" under the
Bankruptcy Act and thus can file for voluntary bankruptcy); In
re Lane County Sheriff's Officers Ass'n, 16 Bankr. 190, 191 (D. Oregon
1981) (suit brought by trustee of a bankrupt labor union).
n202 N.Y. Laws 1953, chs. 882, 883; N.J. Laws 1953, chs. 202, 203;
Congressional approval appears in Act of Aug. 12, 1953, Pub. L. No. 83-252, 67
Stat. 541 (not codified). See DeVeau
v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 147-50 (1960). See generally V. JENSEN,
supra note 108, at 116-20. (bi-state compact required registration of
longshoremen and government supervision of employee selection).
n203 Waterfront Commission Act of 1953 § 8, (as amended), N.J.
STAT. ANN. §§ 32:23-80, 32:23-80.2 (West 1963); Waterfront Commission Act of
1953 § 8, N.Y. Laws 1953, cc. 882, 883, McKinney's Unconsol. Laws, § 6700aa.
n204 Casino Control Act, N.J. STAT. ANN. §§ 5:12-1 to -190 (West
1988). See generally Cohen, The New Jersey Casino Control Act:
Creation of a Regulatory System, 6 SETON HALL LEGIS. J. 1 (1982); Lee &
Chelius, Government Regulation of Labor-Management Corruption: The Casino
Industry Experience in New Jersey, 42 INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 536
(1989); O'Brian & Flaherty, Regulation of the Atlantic City Casino
Industry and Attempts to Control Its Infiltration by Organized Crime, 16
RUTGERS L.J. 721 (1985).
n205 N.J. STAT. ANN. §§ 5:12-86(c), 5:12-93(b) (West 1988).
n206 Id. § 5:12-86(f).
n207 See Brown
v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees Int'l Union Local 54, 468 U.S. 491, 492
(1984) (Casino Control Act); De
Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 155-56 (1960) (Waterfront Commission Act).
n208 Brown,
468 U.S. at 508-09 (citations omitted).
n209 29
U.S.C. § 524a (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n210 Brown,
468 U.S. at 510-12.
n211 See N.J. STAT. ANN. § 5:12-93(d)(e) (West 1988);
id. § 32:23-80.2 (West 1963); 1969 N.Y. LAWS ch. 951, § 1.
n212 For decisions upholding provisions of the New Jersey Casino
Control Act, see Hotel
and Restaurant Employees Int'l Union Local 54 v. Read, 832 F.2d 263, 266 (3d
Cir. 1987); In
re Martin, 90 N.J. 295, 336, 447 A.2d 1290, 1311 (1982); In
re Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 54, 203 N.J. Super. 297, 297, 496
A.2d 1111, 1112 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 102
N.J. 352, 508 A.2d 223 (1985), cert. denied, 475
U.S. 1085 (1986). For decisions reviewing provisions of the New York
Waterfront Commission Act, see Local
1814, Int'l Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Waterfront Comm'n, 667 F.2d 267, 273-74 (2d
Cir. 1981); International
Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Waterfront Comm'n, 642 F.2d 666, 669-71 (2d Cir.
1981). On the constitutionality of the disqualification provision of the New
Jersey Waterfront Commission Act, see Hazelton
v. Murray, 21 N.J. 115, 115, 121 A.2d 1, 1 (1956) (Brennan, Wm., J.).
n213 See infra text accompanying note 342-61.
n214 29
U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461 (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n215 Even before ERISA, courts asserted their inherent equitable
powers to impose receiverships on pension funds, see, e.g., Hurd
v. Hutnik, 419 F. Supp. 630, 636 n.1, 662 (D.N.J. 1976), and to remove
corrupt benefit plan trustees and order the new trustees to retain independent
professional investment counselors, see, e.g., Blankenship
v. Boyle, 329 F. Supp. 1089, 1113 (D.D.C. 1971), aff'd, 511
F.2d 447 (D.C. Cir. 1975).
n216 See supra note 189.
n217 Before its cleanup, for example, trustees appointed by the
union called the tune in the giant, corruption-ridden Teamsters Central States
pension fund. See S. BRILL, supra note 1, at 203.
n218 In the Teamsters Central States fund, for example, past
trustees have included Teamsters General Presidents Jimmy Hoffa, Frank
Fitzsimmons, Roy Williams, and Jackie Presser. Id. at 115.
n219 See supra text accompanying notes 37-42.
n220 29
U.S.C. §§ 1104, 1106 (1982).
n221 Id. § 1132 (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n222 Id. § 1109(a).
n223 See, e.g., Marshall
v. Snyder, 572 F.2d 894, 901 (2d Cir. 1978) (appointment of receivership
proper in view of union officers' conflict of interest); Donovan
v. Robbins, 558 F. Supp. 319, 329 (N.D. Ill.) (receivership is a proper
remedy where serious fiduciary violations have occurred), aff'd sub
nom. Donovan
v. Dorfman, 703 F.2d 570 (7th Cir. 1983); Donovan
v. Bryans, 566 F. Supp. 1258, 1264 (E.D. Pa. 1983) (Secretary of Labor may
seek a receiver in appropriate circumstances); see also Donovan
v. Mazzola, 716 F.2d 1226, 1238-39 (9th Cir. 1983) (upholding the court
appointment of an investment manager to control fund's investments for ten
year-period).
n224 The fund has 400,000 participants and beneficiaries and assets
totalling over $ 8 billion. Teamsters Pension Fund Accord, N.Y. Times,
Nov. 11, 1987, at A27, col. 1.
n225 Cook, The Most Abused, Misused Pension Fund in
America, FORBES, Nov. 10, 1980, at 69.
n226 S. BRILL, supra note 1, at 201, 215. Teamster
reformers sometimes joke that IBT conventions are held in Las Vegas so that
delegates can see how their pension funds have been invested. It's no joke:
millions of dollars in Central States' loans, often to front-men for organized
crime, financed construction of several large Las Vegas casinos and hotels.
See id. at 210-16. Collateral for one such loan was $ 5 million in
gambler's IOU's. See id. at 117.
n227 Id. at 255.
n228 See D. MOLDEA, supra note 7, at 173-74.
n229 The IRS in fact had charged ahead on its own, without
coordinating its efforts with either the Labor or Justice Departments, and had
ordered the fund's tax exempt status revoked in June of 1976. See
OVERSIGHT INQUIRY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S INVESTIGATION OF THE TEAMSTERS
CENTRAL STATES PENSION FUND, S. REP. NO. 177, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. 18 (1981)
[hereinafter OVERSIGHT INQUIRY]. The revocation was never actually implemented,
however, see id. at 164-65, because, as the "atomic weapon" of pension
reform, it would have punished not only the trustees but also innocent
participants and employers as well. The IRS thus found itself "scrambling around
trying to find a way out of it." Id. at 24 (quoting Senator Sam Nunn).
n230 See id. at 61-62; S. BRILL, supra note 1, at
114-20.
n231 The DOL had no role in selecting the trustees. See
OVERSIGHT INQUIRY, supra note 229, at 62-76, 167-68.
n232 See GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, INVESTIGATION TO
REFORM TEAMSTERS' CENTRAL STATES PENSION FUND FOUND INADEQUATE (1982); OVERSIGHT
INQUIRY, supra note 229.
n233 See Proposed Consent Decree, Donovan v. Fitzsimmons,
No. 78-C-342 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 21, 1982), reprinted in Daily Lab. (BNA),
Sept. 21, 1982, at F-1. [hereinafter Consent Decree]; see Cook,
Going Sraight, FORBES, May 19, 1986, at 51; Geisel, ERISA Prompts
Cleanup of Teamsters Plan, BUS. INS., Aug. 27, 1984, at 3.
n234 Consent Decree, supra note 233. Former U.S. Attorney
General William B. Saxbe was named independent special counsel shortly
thereafter. See Former Attorney General Saxbe Named to be Counsel to Central
States Fund, 9 Pen. Rep. (BNA) 1784 (1982).
n235 Whitfield v. Fitzsimmons, No. 78-C-342 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 10,
1987). See also Labor Department Settlement of Central States Case Is
Approved, 14 Pen. Rep. (BNA) 1500 (1987) (discussing Whitfield).
n236 See Cook, supra note 233, at 51. But see
"Trustees Report" Fails to Tell Full Story, CONVOY DISPATCH, Mar. 1989, at
6 (criticizing trustees for keeping benefits too low and eligibility
requirements too high).
n237 18
U.S.C. §§ 1961-68 (1982 & Supp. V 1987). RICO was enacted as title IX of
the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Pub. L. No. 91-452, § 1, 84 Stat. 922,
922.
n238 See Pub. L. No. 91-452, § 1, 84 Stat. 922, 922
(Statement of Findings and Purposes, noting organized crime inflitration and
corruption of legitimate businesses and labor unions); S. REP. NO. 617, 91st
Cong., 2d Sess. 35, 78 (1970) (same); 115 CONG. REC. 5874 (1969); 116 CONG. REC.
585 (1970) (remarks of Senator McClellan, RICO's chief sponsor in the Senate --
the same Senator McClellan who chaired the Senate's investigation of labor
racketeering in the late 1950's and who was a key supporter of the
Landrum-Griffin Act).
n239 See, e.g., Mansnerus, As Racketeering Law
Expands, So Does Pressure to Rein It In, N.Y. Times, Mar. 12, 1989, § 4, at
4; Pickholz, The Firestorm Over Civil RICO, 71 A.B.A. J., Mar. 1985, at
79.
n240 See, e.g., United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267, 284
(3d Cir. 1985) (infiltration by Genovese organized crime family), cert.
denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986); United
States v. Local 30, United Slate, Tile & Composition Roofers, 686 F. Supp.
1139, 1141-63 (E.D. Pa. 1988) (infiltrated by associates of Philadelphia
Mafia boss Nicodemo Scarfo); United
States v. Local 6A, Cement and Concrete Workers, 663 F. Supp. 192, 193 (S.D.N.Y.
1986) (infiltration by Colombo organized crime family).
Although
eradicating organized crime was one of the principal purposes behind RICO,
constitutional prohibitions against making Mafia membership a "status crime"
necessitated a broadly written statute which Congress knew would reach far
beyond the criminal underworld. As Senator McClellan explained, "It is
impossible to draw an effective statute which reaches most of the commercial
activities of organized crime, yet does not include offenses commonly committed
by persons outside organized crime as well." 116 CONG. REC. 18,940 (1970). The
courts, therefore, have almost uniformly rejected efforts to so limit the
statute. See, e.g., Sedima,
S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 499 (1985); Alcorn
County v. U.S. Interstate Supplies, Inc., 731 F.2d 1160, 1167 (5th Cir.
1984) (citing other courts in agreement).
n241 See, e.g., 1985 A.B.A. Sec. Corp., Report of the
Ad Hoc Civil RICO Task Force 56-57 (Mar. 28, 1985).
n242 Since the Supreme Court's rejection of the argument that a
defendant's prior conviction is an essential element of the civil RICO cause of
action, see Sedima,
473 U.S. at 493, repeated efforts have been made to amend the statute to
impose such a requirement. See, e.g., Justice Department Backs Limits on
Civil Racketeer Suits, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 24, 1986, at A17, col. 1.
n243 See, e.g., Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 273-74, 283
(union officials extortion of "labor peace payments" and kickbacks from a number
of employers; extortion of members' Landrum-Griffin rights); Local
30, 686 F. Supp. at 1165-66 (over twenty year period leaders of Roofers
Union utilized threats and violence against members and non-union contractors).
n244 Lynch, RICO: The Crime of Being a Criminal (pts. 1
& 2), 87
COLUM. L. REV. 661, 758 (1987). For an overview of RICO's application to
labor racketeering, see Blakey & Goldstock, supra note 33.
n245 For discussion of some of these controversies, see Engelstein,
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act: Uninvited Guest at the
Collective Bargaining Table?, 38 NAT'L CONF. ON LABOR PROC. 10-1 (1985);
Shepard, Horn & Duston, RICO and Employment Law, 3 LABOR LAW. 267
(1987); Tarantola, An Analysis of the Potential Use of RICO to Impede the
Flow of Runaway Shops, 3 HOFSTRA LAB. L.J. 205 (1986); Note, The
Exclusive Jurisdiction of the NLRB as a Limitation on the Application of RICO to
Labor Disputes, 76
KY. L.J. 201 (1987-88).
n246 See infra text accompanying notes 301-41.
n247 29
U.S.C. § 411 (1982).
n248 "Persons" under the Act can be entities such as unions and
employers, as well as individuals. 18
U.S.C. § 1961(3) (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n249 Id. § 1962(a)-(d).
n250 See id. § 1961(4).
n251 Id. § 1961(5).
n252 Id. § 1961(1). Mail and wire fraud are two of RICO's
more controversial predicate offenses, because they bring many "garden variety"
cases of fraud within the statute's reach. See supra text accompanying
note 241.
n253 These are embezzlement of union funds, 29
U.S.C. § 501(c) (1982); embezzlement of pension and welfare funds, 18
U.S.C. § 664 (1982); and illegal payments to labor unions and bribery of
union officials, 29
U.S.C. § 186 (1982). See 18
U.S.C. § 1961(1) (1982 & Supp. V 1987) (incorporating these labor
offenses into RICO). Extortion of membership rights as a RICO predicate act is
addressed infra at text accompanying notes 263-300.
n254 In H.J.
Inc., v. Northwestern Bell Tel. Co., 109 S. Ct. 2893, 2906 (1989), the
Supreme Court endorsed a broad concept of "pattern" in the civil RICO context.
See also Blakey & Cessar, Equitable Relief Under Civil RICO:
Reflections On Religious Technology Center v. Wollersheim: Will Civil
RICO Be Effective Only Against White-Collar Crime?, 62
NOTRE DAME L. REV. 526, 535-40 (1987) (discussing district court failure to
follow Supreme Court initiative in developing consistent definition of pattern
in Sedima); Goldsmith, Civil RICO Reform: The Basis for
Compromise, 71
MINN. L. REV. 27, 843 & n.69 (1987) (broad definition of "pattern" by
certain district courts encourages undesirable forum-shopping, so a more
consistent definition should be created); Note, Clarifying a "Pattern" of
Confusion: Multi-Factor Approach to Civil RICO's Pattern Requirement, 86
MICH. L. REV. 1745 (1988) (courts' definition of "pattern" should consider
number of victims injured, duration of activity, number of separate
transactions, and source of multiple and distinct criminal decisions).
n255 See United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267 (3d
Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986); United
States v. Local 30, United Slate, Tile & Composition Roofers, 686 F. Supp.
1139, 1165 (E.D. Pa. 1988).
n256 18
U.S.C. § 1964(c) (1982 & Supp. V 1987). For a discussion of the
relationship between RICO's treble damages remedy and the "union members
derivative action" created by title V of the Landrum-Griffin Act -- and the
availability of a "hybrid RICO/section 501" cause of action, see supra
text accompanying notes 74-76; infra text accompanying notes 333-37.
n257 18
U.S.C. § 1964(a)(1982).
n258 Id. As RICO's floor manager in the House explained,
"Courts are given broad powers . . . to proceed civilly, using essentially their
equitable powers, to reform corrupted organizations." 116 CONG. REC.
35,295 (1970) (remarks of Cong. Richard H. Poff) (emphasis added). The statute
even gives RICO courts the authority to dissolve corrupt enterprises:
The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction to
prevent and restrain [RICO] violations . . . by issuing appropriate orders,
including, but not limited to: ordering any person to divest himself of any
interest, direct or indirect, in any enterprise; imposing reasonable
restrictions on the future activities or investments of any person, including,
but not limited to, prohibiting any person from engaging in the same type of
endeavor as the enterprise engaged in . . . or ordering dissolution or
reorganization of any enterprise, making due provision for the rights of
innocent persons.
18
U.S.C. § 1964(a) (emphasis added).
n259 Nothing in the statute or its legislative history suggests
that Congress intended to limit the courts' traditional range of equitable
remedies. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly held, "Unless otherwise provided
by statute, all the inherent equitable powers [of the court] are available." Porter
v. Warner Holding Co., 328 U.S. 395, 398 (1946). See supra text
accompanying notes 117-33.
n260 Pub. L. No. 91-452, § 904(a), 84 Stat. 922, 947 (1970);
see also Sedima,
S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 497-98 (1985) (Congress's
"self-consciously expansive language" and express admonition that "RICO is to be
'liberally construed'" dictate the conclusion that RICO is to be read broadly);
Russello
v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 27 (1983) ("the legislative history clearly
demonstrates that the RICO statute was intended to provide new weapons of
unprecedented scope for an assualt upon organized crime and its economic
roots").
n261 Further support for this conclusion can be found in the fact
that RICO's civil provisions were modeled in part on those of the antitrust
statutes, see Sedima,
473 U.S. at 486-90, and judicial authority to impose corporate receiverships
to enforce the antitrust laws has been recognized for over seventy-five years.
See United
States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U.S. 106, 186, 188 (1911). Senator
McClellan may have had precisely these receiverships in mind when he explained,
"[S]ince enactment of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1980, the courts have used
several equitable remedies. . . . I believe, and numerous others have expressed
a similar belief, that these equitable devices can prove effective in cleaning
up organizations corrupted by the forces of organized crime." 116 CONG. REC. 592
(1970).
n262 H.R. REP. NO. 1549, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 57 (1970). Similarly,
Senator McClellan explained that RICO is not "limit[ed] [to] the remedies . . .
already . . . established. The ability of our chancery courts to formulate a
remedy to fit the wrong is one of the great benefits of our system of justice."
115 CONG. REC. 9567 (1969).
n263 See infra text accompanying notes 364-74.
n264 See United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267, 274
(3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n265 See id.
780 F.2d at 288.
n266 Id.
at 288 n.25.
n267 See, e.g., Petro-Tech,
Inc. v. Western Co., 824 F.2d 1349, 1356-57 (3d Cir. 1987); United
States v. Wyatt, 807 F.2d 1480, 1482 (9th Cir. 1987); United
States v. Cauble, 706 F.2d 1322, 1334, 1339 (5th Cir. 1983); United
States v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 708 F. Supp. 1388, 1401 (S.D.N.Y.
1989); Rodonich
v. House Wreckers Union, Local 95, 627 F. Supp. 176, 180 (S.D.N.Y. 1985); Laterza
v. American Broadcasting Co., 581 F. Supp. 408, 412 (S.D.N.Y. 1984).
n268 See supra notes 260-62 and accompanying text.
n269 18
U.S.C. § 1961(1) (1982 & Supp. V 1987). Perhaps it was omitted because
aiding and abetting can best be understood not as a discrete criminal offense
but simply as a means of identifying the nature of a given defendant's
involvement in the substantive offense. See United
States v. Oates, 560 F.2d 45, 54 (2d Cir. 1977). If so, the maxim
expressio unius est exclusio alterius (the express inclusion of some
items implies the exclusion of others) would have little application to this
question of statutory interpretation.
n270 The aiding and abetting statute, 18
U.S.C. § 2 (1982), provides: "(a) Whoever commits an offense against the
United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its
commission, is punishable as a principal." The defendant need not commit all the
elements of the substantive offense so long as she assists in some manner with
its commission with the requisite criminal intent. See, e.g., United
States v. Fischel, 686 F.2d 1082 (5th Cir. 1982).
n271 See United
States v. Lennon, 751 F.2d 737, 741 (5th Cir. 1985) (federal statute applies
to all federal crimes and "prohibits one from causing another to do any act that
would be illegal if one did it personally"), cert. denied, 471
U.S. 1100 (1985); United
States v. Jones, 678 F.2d 102, 105 (9th Cir. 1982) ("The aiding and abetting
provision of 18
U.S.C. § 2 . . . is applicable to the entire criminal code."); Note,
Aiding and Abetting the Investment of Dirty Money: Mens Rea and the
Nonracketeer Under RICO, Section 1962(a), 82
COLUM. L. REV. 574, 583 (1982) (Congress did not intend to abandon "normal
criminal law principles and preclude the conviction of nonracketeers as aiders
and abettors or coconspirators.").
n272 United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279,
284-85, 312 (D.N.J. 1984), aff'd, 780
F.2d 267 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986). One measure of the effectiveness of the defendants'
campaign of intimidation, according to the court and the government's expert
witness, Professor Clyde Summers, was "the complete absence of publicly voiced
opposition to, disagreement with or critical discussion of the [non-contract
related] policies, proposals, decisions and actions of the Provenzano Group
incumbents." Local
560 I, 581 F. Supp. at 316.
n273 Although the court found the evidence insufficient to conclude
that Provenzano or his associates had actually ordered or committed the second
murder, it did find that "Glockner's violent demise [was] used by the Provenzano
Group either directly or subtly as a mechanism of intimidation." Id.
at 312.
n274 Id.
at 312-13.
n275 Id.
at 334.
n276 Id.
at 311-12.
n277 That those appointments may have been in technical compliance
with the Landrum-Griffin Act's provisions concerning eligibility for union
office, 29
U.S.C. § 504 (1982 & Supp. V 1987), did not reduce their intimidating
effect on the rank and file. See Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 286.
n278 Id.
at 285-86.
n279 Id.
at 283, 287. The executive board defendants also gave known or reputed
criminals access to Local 560's offices. Id.
n280 29
U.S.C. § 501(a).
n281 Local
560 I, 581 F. Supp. at 332. In Local 560 III, the court
utilized the criminal standard for defining the elements of the aiding and
abetting offense: "(1) that the substantive crime has been committed, and (2)
that the defendant charged with aiding and abetting that crime knew of the
commission of the substantive offense and acted with the intent to facilitate
it." 780
F.2d at 284 (quoting United
States v. Dixon, 658 F.2d 181, 189 n.17 (3d Cir. 1981)). A later civil RICO
decision by the same court applied a definition of aiding and abetting that
entailed a less demanding intent requirement. Petro-Tech,
Inc. v. Western Co., 824 F.2d 1349, 1356-57 (3d Cir. 1987). See
generally Comment, Aiding and Abetting Liability for Civil Violations
of RICO, 61 TEMPLE L. REV. 1481 (1988).
n282 18
U.S.C. § 1951 (1982).
n283 See id. § 1961(1).
n284 Id. § 1951(b)(2). Although it has a much broader
reach, combating labor racketeering was one of the Hobbs Act's major legislative
purposes. United
States v. Brecht, 540 F.2d 45, 51 (2d Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 429
U.S. 1123 (1977).
n285 Title I is the "Bill of Rights of Members of Labor
Organizations." See 29
U.S.C. § 411 (1982).
n286 The violent deprivation of a union member's Landrum-Griffin
Act rights is in fact a crime, see Landrum-Griffin Act § 610, 29
U.S.C. § 530 (1982), but not one designated by Congress as a RICO predicate
act.
n287 United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp 279, 333
(D.N.J. 1984), aff'd, 780
F.2d 267 (3d. Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986); see also United
States v. Local 560, 550 F. Supp. 511 (D.N.J. 1982). The requisite effect on
interstate commerce was present because when the membership's participation
rights were extorted, "the actions of Local 560 were affected, which, in turn,
resulted in affecting interstate commerce through businesses involved in
interstate commerce." Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 281 n.15.
n288 See, e.g., Northeast
Women's Center, Inc. v. McMonagle, 868 F.2d 1342, 1349-50 (3d Cir.)
(protesters at an abortion clinic violated the clinic's "property" right to
conduct business under the Hobbs Act), cert. denied, 110
S. Ct. 261 (1989); United
States v. Zemek, 634 F.2d 1159, 1174 (9th Cir. 1980) ("The right to make
business decisions and to solicit business free from wrongful coercion is a
protected property right."), cert. denied, 450
U.S. 916 (1981); United
States v. Santoni, 585 F.2d 667, 673 (4th Cir. 1978) ("property extorted was
the right . . . to make a business decision free from outside pressure
wrongfully imposed"), cert. denied, 440
U.S. 910 (1979); United
States v. Tropiano, 418 F.2d 1069, 1075 (2d Cir. 1969) ("concept of property
under the Hobbs Act . . . is not limited to physical or tangible property or
things"), cert. denied, 397
U.S. 1021 (1970).
n289 708
F. Supp. 1392, 1402 (S.D.N.Y. 1989); see also Rodonich
v. House Wreckers Union, Local 95, 627 F. Supp. 176, 178-79 (S.D.N.Y. 1985)
(rights under Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act classified as
property rights within Hobbs Act).
n290 483
U.S. 350 (1987).
n291 18
U.S.C. § 1341 (1982).
n292 Teamsters,
708 F. Supp. at 1397-99; see also United
States v. Local 560 (I.B.T.) (Local 560 II), 694 F. Supp. 1158, 1188 (D.N.J.
1988).
n293 Dusing
v. Nuzzo, 177 Misc. 35, 37, 29 N.Y.S.2d 882, 884, modified on other
grounds and aff'd, 263
A.D. 59, 31 N.Y.S. 2d 849 (1941); see also United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267, 281
(3d Cir. 1985) (citing United
States v. Enmons, 410 U.S. 396, 406 n.16 (1973)), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n294 108
S. Ct. 316, 320 (1987).
n295 See McNally,
483 U.S. at 377 & n.10 (Stevens, J., dissenting); see also Local 560
II, 694 F. Supp. 1158, 1188-89 (D.N.J. 1988); cf. United
States v. Runnels, 833 F.2d 1183 (6th Cir. 1987) (union official who took
kickback to steer members' workers compensation business to particular lawyer
was guilty of mail fraud, since bribe was characterized as property belonging to
the union). But see United
States v. Holzer, 840 F.2d 1343, 1347-48 (7th Cir. 1988) (rejecting the
Runnels analysis).
n296 McNally,
483 U.S. at 360.
n297 Teamsters,
708 F. Supp. at 1399.
n298 105 CONG. REC. 6485 (1959), 1 LMRDA LEGISLATIVE HISTORY,
supra note 64, at 1111 (remarks of Sen. Carroll during debate over
addition of title I to the bill) (emphasis added); see also Rodonich
v. House Wreckers Union, Local 95, 627 F. Supp. 176, 179 n.2 (S.D.N.Y. 1985)
("[I]t would appear that LMRDA rights provide many union members with a source
of livelihood.").
n299 108 CONG. REC. 6472 (1959) (remarks of Senator McClellan).
n300 See Summers, The Privatization of Personal
Freedoms and Enrichment of Democracy: Some Lessons From Labor Law, 1986
U. ILL. L. REV. 689, 712. See generally Summers, Democracy in a
One-Party State: Perspectives From Landrum-Griffin, 43
MD. L. REV. 93 (1984).
n301 See National Labor Relations Act, as amended, § 1
(codified as amended at 29
U.S.C. § 151 (1982)).
n302 Id. § 7, 29
U.S.C. § 157 (1982). Section 7 also gives workers the right to refrain from
any of these activities. Id.
n303 See id. § 8, 29
U.S.C. § 158 (1982).
n304 See id. § 10, 29
U.S.C. § 160(a) (1982 & Supp. V 1987). In San
Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236 (1959), the Court held
that "[w]hen an activity is arguably subject to § 7 or § 8 of the Act,
the States as well as the federal courts must defer to the exclusive
competence of the National Labor Relations Board if the danger of state
interference with national labor policy is to be averted." Id.
at 245 (emphasis added). Two clear statutory exceptions to this general rule
are section 302 of the amended Act, 29
U.S.C. § 186 (1982 & Supp. V 1987), which criminalizes employer payoffs
to unions or union officials, and section 303, id. § 187, which creates
a civil cause of action for victims of unlawful secondary boycotts. On labor law
preemption generally, see Cox, Recent Developments in Federal Labor Law
Preemption, 41 OHIO ST. L.J. 277 (1980); Cox, Labor Law Preemption
Revisited, 85 HARV. L. REV. 1337 (1972).
n305 See San
Diego Building Trades, 359 U.S. at 245.
n306 Cf. 1 THE DEVELOPING LABOR LAW, supra note
35, at 174-75 (violence or threats of violence may be an unfair labor practice);
id.
at 253 (misconduct in administering hiring hall may be an unfair labor
practice); 2 id. at 1328-37 (breach of duty of fair representation in
grievance handling may be an unfair labor practice).
n307 See supra note 304. As one court put it, "Congress
gets to make the rules -- and change them. Congress could, and did, create the
NLRB as the exclusive forum for consideration of certain conduct, but can and
does create exceptions to that exclusivity." Butchers'
Union, Local 498 v. SDC Inv., Inc., 631 F. Supp. 1001, 1006-07 (E.D. Cal.
1986).
n308 See supra text accompanying note 253.
n309 But see Local
335, Hotel, Motel, Restaurant & Hi-Rise Employees Union v. Pier 66 Co.,
599 F. Supp. 761, 763-65 (S.D. Fla. 1984) (action based on alleged
violations of LMRA section 302(a)(3), 29
U.S.C. § 186(a)(3) (1982), as RICO predicates preempted where conduct also
constituted unfair labor practices, at least where the union's only damages were
attorneys' fees and costs incurred by decertification efforts).
n310 See supra text accompanying notes 272-300.
n311 R. GORMAN, BASIC TEXT ON LABOR LAW: UNIONIZATION AND
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 768 (1976) (regulation of criminal activity is within
exception to federal preemption of state law).
n312 See supra text accompanying note 252.
n313 See Note, supra note 245, at 235-36.
n314 See United
States v. Boffa, 688 F.2d 919, 933-34 (3d Cir. 1982), cert. denied,
460
U.S. 1022 (1983); Butchers'
Union, Local 498 v. SDC Inv., Inc., 631 F. Supp. 1001, 1010-11 (E.D. Cal.
1986). See generally Note, supra note 245.
n315 See infra note 652 and accompanying text.
n316 410
U.S. 396, 401 (1973).
n317 See supra text accompanying notes 282-88.
n318 But see United
States v. Thordarson, 646 F.2d 1323, 1329-30 (9th Cir. 1980) (use of
explosives to damage an employer's truck not necessarily exempt from RICO
charges even though the action was purportedly taken for a legitimate union
purpose); see also Yellow
Bus Lines v. Drivers Union, Local 639, 839 F.2d 782 (D.C. Cir. 1988)
(allowing RICO action against union for strike activities without addressing the
preemption issue).
n319 See supra note 164.
n320 See supra text accompanying notes 166-71.
n321 Section 403 of the Act provides in pertinent part, "The remedy
provided by this title for challenging an election already conducted shall be
exclusive." 29
U.S.C. § 483 (1982).
n322 See United
States v. Local 560, International Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d
267, 295-96 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986); United
States v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 708 F. Supp. 1358, 1395 (S.D.N.Y.
1989).
n323 Local 560 III, 780 F.2d at 280 n.13. "Put another
way," the Teamsters court explained, "the alleged deprivation of union
rights are symptoms; the complaint in this case alleges a wide-spread disease in
the Union. The labor statutes are designed to treat these symptoms. RICO was
enacted by Congress specifically to cure the disease." 708
F. Supp. at 1394.
n324 708
F. Supp. at 1394.
n325 See infra text accompanying notes 573-609.
n326 29
U.S.C. § 483 (1982).
n327 As the Senate Report explained:
There is great need
for uniformity in the laws governing union elections. International and national
unions operate in many States. It would be confusing, unduly burdensome, and
often impossible for them to comply with a variety of election laws. . . . It is
easier to enforce one uniform rule than a crazy quilt of State legislation and
court decisions. Illconsidered State laws would interfere with the national
labor policy . . .
Accordingly, section 203 provides that no labor
organization subject to the bill shall be required by State law to hold
elections with greater frequency or in a different manner than is provided in
the act.
S. REP. NO. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 21-22 (1959), printed
in LMRDA LEGISLATIVE HISTORY, supra note 64, at 417-18 (emphasis
added); see also Summers, supra note 168, at 135-36.
n328 Section 1964(a) provides for the availability of injunctive
relief in civil RICO litigation, and section 1964(b) authorizes the Attorney
General to institute proceedings "under this section," without mentioning
private plaintiffs, while section 1964(c) authorizes private plaintiffs to sue
for treble damages and attorneys' fees, without mentioning equitable relief:
(a) The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction to
prevent and restrain violations of section 1962 of this chapter by issuing
appropriate orders . . . .
(b) The Attorney General may institute
proceedings under this section . . . .
(c) Any person injured in his
business or property by reason of a violation of section 1962 of this chapter
may sue therefore in any appropriate United States district court and shall
recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a
reasonable attorney's fee.
18
U.S.C. § 1964 (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n329 Compare Bennett
v. Berg, 710 F.2d 1361, 1365-66 (8th Cir. 1983) (McMillian, J., concurring)
(injunctive relief available to private plaintiffs) and Chambers
Dev. Co. v. Browning-Ferris Indus., 590 F. Supp. 1528, 1540-41 (W.D. Pa.
1984) (same) with Religious
Technology Center v. Wollersheim, 796 F.2d 1076, 1082-88 (9th Cir. 1986)
(injunctive relief not available to private plaintiffs), cert. denied,
479
U.S. 1103 (1987) and Kaushal
v. State Bank of India, 556 F. Supp. 576 (N.D. Ill. 1983) (same).
n330 See Blakey & Cessar, supra note 254, at
528 (failure to recognize equitable relief for civil RICO plaintiff
"inconsistent with the text, legislative history and purpose of RICO"); Strafer,
Massumi, & Skolnick, Civil RICO in the Public Interest: "Everybody's
Darling," 19 AM. CRIM. L. REV. 655, 709-15 (1982) ("actions brought by
private parties to prevent and restrain racketeering activity thus further
congressional intent"); Note, The Availability of Equitable Relief in Civil
Causes of Action in RICO, 59 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 945, 945 (1984)
(narrowing scope of RICO by precluding equitable relief for civil litigants
contrary to "the express language of RICO and its liberal construction
directive").
n331 A national union trying to free one of its own locals from
Mafia domination, however, might be a more likely civil RICO plaintiff: it could
easily have a legitimate use for a RICO structural injunction to supplement the
remedies available pursuant to its own constitution, and if mob infiltration had
not reached the International, it might be willing to seek such an injunction.
See supra text accompanying notes 87-92.
n332 Carter
v. Berger, 777 F.2d 1173, 1178 (7th Cir. 1985).
n333 Cf. Bass
v. Campagnone, 838 F.2d 10, 12-13 (1st Cir. 1988) (individual union members
lacked standing to assert RICO treble damage action where the injuries alleged
were sustained by all union members collectively and not by plaintiffs
individually).
n334 29
U.S.C. § 501(b) (1982); cf. Nordberg
v. Lord, Day & Lord, 107 F.R.D. 692, 700 (S.D.N.Y. 1985) (Civil RICO
"may . . . be used by shareholders as an effective tool against racketeers. The
only qualification is that the corporation must decide in the first instance
whether to employ that tool. . . . If the corporation refuses to employ [RICO]
after a proper demand has been made, and that decision is not made in good faith
because the corporation itself is run by racketeers, Rule 23.1 permits the
shareholders to assert the corporation's claims derivatively.") (dictum).
n335 See M. MALIN, supra note 71, at 315-20.
n336 RICO designates criminal violations of title V, 29
U.S.C. § 501(c), as predicate acts. 18
U.S.C. § 1961(1)(c) (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n337 Both RICO and Landrum-Griffin are remedial statutes intended
to be liberally construed in order to effectuate their purposes. Moreover, both
have as important legislative goals the elimination of union corruption and
labor racketeering. The availability of RICO remedies, including treble damages,
in appropriate title V cases thus would further both the RICO goal of deterring
racketeering regardless of the setting and the title V goal of deterring corrupt
unionism in particular. And by maximizing the transfer of wealth from labor
racketeers to the unions they have victimized, the treble damages remedy would
further advance the Landrum-Griffin Act's general goal of enabling unions to
more effectively and honestly represent their members. Finally, without the
hybrid RICO/section 501 action, the prospect of RICO civil relief ever
being available when title V violations constitute RICO predicate acts would be
seriously undermined, a result inconsistent with Congress' express designation
of title V violations as RICO predicates. Cf. Bass,
838 F.2d at 12-13 (individual union members lack standing on their own
behalf to maintain action under section 1964(c) of RICO because injury is to
union as a whole).
n338 See supra note 318.
n339 See supra text accompanying notes 315-18.
n340 29
U.S.C. §§ 101-15 (1982 & Supp. V 1987).
n341 Texas
& N.O.R.R. v. Brotherhood of R.R. Trainmen, 307 F.2d 151, 155 (5th Cir.
1962), cert. denied, 371
U.S. 952 (1963). Cf. Burlington
N. Ry. v. Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, 481 U.S. 429 (1987)
(Norris-LaGuardia Act bars injunctions against secondary boycotts in railroad
industry).
n342 But see Hotel
Employees Local 54 v. Read, 832 F.2d 263 (3d Cir. 1987) (upholding New
Jersey Casino Control Act's disqualification of union officers with criminal
backgrounds); International
Longshoremen's Ass'n v. Waterfront Comm'n, 642 F.2d 666 (2d Cir. 1981)
(upholding New York Waterfront Commission Act disqualification of union officers
with criminal backgrounds); In
re Hotel & Restaurant Employees Local 54,203 N.J. Super. 297, 496 A.2d
1111 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 102
N.J. 352 (1985), cert. denied, 475
U.S. 1085 (1986) (upholding Casino Control Act disqualification of union
officers with criminal backgrounds or association).
In United
States v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 708 F. Supp. 1388, 1393 (S.D.N.Y.
1989), the court avoided a ruling on the first amendment issues, but stated:
[W]hen . . . association is part of a plan to commit a crime it is no
longer protected. Otherwise, it is apparent that any RICO enterprise or
conspiracy could never be prosecuted because they all involve "association."
"Freedom of association" is not, however, a talisman that will ward off all
government attempts to proscribe or regulate activity. It is only
lawful association that is protected, not association for a criminal or
unlawful purpose.
n343 Cf. NAACP
v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 907, 916 (1982) (NAACP boycott of
white Mississippi merchants was constitutionally protected expression absent
violence, so antitrust damages unavailable); NAACP
v. Alabama ex. rel. Flowers, 377 U.S. 288 (1964) (Alabama may not
use either procedural technicalities or corporation laws to stifle freedom of
association); NAACP
v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 428 (1963) (NAACP has standing to seek redress of
claimed infringements of the associational rights of the organization and its
members); NAACP
v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U.S. 449, 466 (1958) (NAACP need
not comply with Alabama law requiring "foreign corporations" to file membership
lists).
n344 See United
States v. Local 560 (I.B.T.) (Local 560 II), 694 F. Supp. 1158 (D.N.J. 1988)
(Debevoise, J.) (enjoining certain individuals with criminal associations from
running for union office); United
States v. Local 560 (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267 (3d Cir. 1985) (Garth, J.)
(affirming liability findings and the imposition of RICO trusteeship); United
States v. Local 560 (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279 (D.N.J. 1984) (Ackerman,
J.) (making findings of liability and imposing RICO trusteeship); United
States v. Local 30, United Slate, Tile, and Composition Roofers, 686 F. Supp.
1139 (E.D. Pa. 1988) (Bechtle, J.) (making liability findings and imposing
RICO "decreeship").
n345 Pope, Labor and the Constitution: From Abolition to
Deindustrialization, 65
TEXAS L. REV. 1071, 1074 (1987).
n346 See, e.g., Lyng
v. UAW, 108 S. Ct. 1184, 1189 (1988) (first amendment associational rights
encompass "the combination of individual workers together"); Roberts
v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 637-38 (1984) (O'Connor, J.,
concurring) (citing cases limiting state's power to require association with
union engaged in ideological activities); Smith
v. Arkansas State Highway Employees, Local 1315, 441 U.S. 463, 464-65 (1979)
(first amendment "protects the right of associations to engage in advocacy on
behalf of their members"); Abood
v. Detroit Bd. of Educ., 431 U.S. 209, 233 (1977) (first amendment protects
the freedom of an individual to associate in a union context); UMW
v. Illinois State Bar Ass'n, 389 U.S. 217, 225 (1967) (first amendment
rights violated by Illinois state law against union's use of in-house counsel);
Railroad
Trainmen v. Virginia, 377 U.S. 1, 5-6 (1964) (first amendment association
rights protect the union's policy of recommending lawyers to members).
n347 Association for purely commercial purposes may be entitled to
less protection than association for purposes of political advocacy.
See Roberts
v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 634 (1984) (O'Connor, J.,
concurring). Unions, of course, are organized to further both political and
economic (as well as social) goals, but their "commercial purposes of engaging
in collective bargaining," id.
at 638, cannot easily be separated from their political activities,
cf. Eastex,
Inc. v. NLRB, 437 U.S. 556 (1978) (workplace distribution of union
newsletter protected under NLRA where newsletter addressed both issues of
immediate workplace concern and state and federal legislation that would have
only indirect effect on workplace). As a result, unions targeted for intrusive
structural injunctions in union reform cases should be entitled to the highest
levels of first amendment protection.
n348 Roberts
v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 623 (1984).
n349 See supra text accompanying notes 263-81.
n350 See United
States v. Local 560 Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267, 296
n.39 (3d Cir. 1986) (appointment of a temporary trustee "protect[s] rather
than forfeit[s] the members' rights"); Benson, supra note 115 (same);
Comment, Union Receiverships Under RICO: A Union Democracy Perspective,
137
U. PA. L. REV. 929, 960 (1989) (same).
n351 In Local 560, for example, government prosecutors
sought and obtained a RICO injunction barring certain individuals from running
for union office. See infra text accompanying notes 414-16.
n352 Hotel
& Restaurant Employees Local 54 v. Read, 832 F.2d 263, 267 (3d Cir.
1987); cf. NLRB
v. International Union of Operating Eng'rs, Local 501, 806 F.2d 1405 (9th Cir.
1986) (NLRB order reinstating improperly expelled members does not violate
union's freedom of association); Vicksburg
Firefighters Ass'n, Local 686 v. Vicksburg, 761 F.2d 1036 (5th Cir. 1985)
(city's ban on fire department captains and lieutenants joining union held not
to violate union's freedom of association).
n353 29
U.S.C. § 504(a) (1982).
n354 Brown
v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees Int'l Union Local 54, 468 U.S. 491, 505
(1984).
n355 Read,
832 F.2d at 267.
n356 Examples might be the removal of Cesar Chavez from his
position in the United Farm Workers Union or, in another setting, the removal of
Jesse Jackson from the Rainbow Coalition.
n357 See In
re Hotel & Restaurant Employees Int'l Local 54, 203 N.J. Super. 297,
326, 496 A.2d 1111, 1127 (App. Div.) (balancing the state's interest in
policing organize crime with the union's rights of association), certif.
denied, 102
N.J. 352, 508 A.2d 223 (1985), cert. denied, 475
U.S. 1085 (1986); cf. Trade
Waste Management Ass'n v. Hughey, 780 F.2d 221, 236 (3d Cir. 1985)
(upholding a state ban against persons with "bad reputations" from participating
in the waste disposal business). See also B. Lee & J. Chelius,
Organized Crime and Unions: An Examination of the Freedom of Association
Conflict 23-24 (unpublished manuscript).
n358 United
States v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 708 F. Supp. 1388, 1393 (S.D.N.Y.
1989). See also NAACP
v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 916 (1982) ("The First Amendment
does not protect violence . . . . When such conduct occurs in the context of
constitutionally protected activity, however, 'precision of regulation' is
demanded.") (quoting NAACP
v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 438 (1963)).
n359 The Supreme Court has applied freedom of association analysis,
primarily on privacy rather than freedom of expression grounds, to protect from
undue state intrusion "choices to enter into and maintain certain intimate human
relationships," such as those relating to "the creation and sustenance of a
family." Roberts
v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 618, 619 (1984).
n360 Cf. Trade
Waste Management Ass'n v. Hughey, 780 F.2d 221, 237-39 (3d Cir. 1985)
(keeping waste disposal industry free of people with questionable integrity
advances New Jersey's interest in keeping organized crime out of this sensitive
industry). In Hughey, the court stated:
The state has
identified the waste disposal business as one that is particularly sensitive to
infiltration by organized crime. Its choice to exclude persons having bad
reputations from participating in that industry is a necessary element of
preventing the criminal infiltration that the licensing scheme is designed to
prevent. It is the risk of infiltration that is the state's compelling interest,
and exclusion on the basis of bad reputation appears to be the only means of
avoiding that risk.
Id.
at 239.
n361 Brown
v. Hotel & Restaurant Employees Int'l Union Local 54, 468 U.S. 491, 509
(1984) (quoting De
Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 155 (1960)) (upholding against a pre-emption
challenge state legislation disqualifying from union office individuals with
criminal background or associations)
n362 Gewirtz, Remedies and Resistance, 92
YALE L.J. 585, 591-92 (1983).
n363 As Professor Gewirtz correctly stated:
To be of
the law, as opposed to philosophy and economic theory . . . one must take
reality as the primary realm of activity. Law moves beyond articulation to
implementation, and legal scholarship therefore must address the complexities of
acting within an imperfect, resisting, often vulgar real world. In law, reality
is not a footnote to theory or an appendix to the ideal. The claims of reality
are a central intellectual imperative as much as a practical one.
Id.
at 680.
n364 The district court first ordered the trusteeship in 1984, but
stayed the remedy pending appeal. United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279,
337 (D.N.J. 1984), aff'd, 780
F.2d 267 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n365 Id.
at 282, 304.
n366 See supra text accompanying notes 26-47.
n367 See infra text accompanying note 539.
n368 Fitzsimmons denied that the Local 560 executive board's
selection of Tony Provenzano's daughter, Josephine, as Tony's replacement might
suggest that Local 560 was still under Tony's influence. Far from disciplining
the Provenzano Group, the IBT's top leadership repeatedly welcomed one
Provenzano or another into its own inner circle of International Vice
Presidents. See Goldberg, supra note 89, at 9.
n369 In 1963, Provenzano was convicted of taking "labor peace"
payoffs from an employer; in 1978 he was convicted of taking kickbacks relating
to a benefit fund loan; also in 1978 Provenzano was convicted for the 1961
murder of union rival Anthony Castellitto; and in 1979 he was again convicted of
taking "labor peace" payoffs. United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279,
289-90 (D.N.J. 1984), aff'd, 780
F.2d 267 (3d Cir. 1985), cert. denied, 476
U.S. 1140 (1986).
n370 The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 amended section
504 of the Landrum-Griffin Act to authorize debarment periods of up to thirteen
years, increase the number of crimes for which debarment is available, and
prohibit convicted union officials from remaining in office while their appeals
are pending. Pub. L. No. 98-473, § 803, 98 Stat. 2133-34 (codified as amended at
29
U.S.C. § 504(a) (1982 & Supp. V 1987)). See generally Panter,
The Changes Accomplished by the Labor Racketeering Amendments of the
Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, 36 LAB. L.J. 744 (1985).
n371 Local
560 I, 581 F. Supp. at 293. As the court of appeals elaborated, "During
periods in which Anthony Provenzano was either incarcerated or subject to
statutory disability, he sought and received his increased salary and pension
payments, received the Romano Loan kickbacks, and received his Seatrain labor
peace payoffs." United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, (Local 560 III), 780 F.2d 267, 293
(3d Cir. 1986).
n372 Local
560 I, 581 F. Supp. at 293. The court continued:
Although
several key associates of the Provenzano Group are incarcerated . . . the
resilience which it demonstrated during the late 1960's -- while three key
associates (Anthony Provenzano, Nunzio Provenzano and Salvatore Briguglio) were
incarcerated -- . . . lead[s] inescapably to the conclusion that various
nominees and successors will continue the Provenzano Group's "criminal business"
as usual. Yet another generation of extortionists can be expected to be
recruited to fill-out the slightly depleted ranks of the Provenzano Group --
unless and until the conditions within Local 560 which spawned and nurtured the
events of the last twenty-two years are dramatically altered.
Id.
at 319.
n373 See Order Appointing Trustee, United States v. Local
560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, C.A. No. 82-689 (D.N.J. June 23, 1986)
[hereinafter Order Appointing Trustee].
n374 Jacobson had held numerous offices in the International Ladies
Garment Workers Union, the United Automobile Workers, and the New Jersey CIO and
AFL-CIO. Penn, Mob's Legacy: Teamster Local Greets Court Trustee Angrily
After He Takes Reins, Wall St. J., Feb. 10, 1987, at 1, col. 6.
n375 Jacobson also served on New Jersey's public utility ommission
and headed the state's energy department. Id.
n376 Early in his career, Ackerman had worked with Jacobson in the
New Jersey labor movement, and for a time they were related by marriage.
See Galen, Union Suits, NAT'L L.J., Aug. 31, 1987, at 1, 29.
n377 Order Appointing Trustee, supra note 373, at 2.
n378 Id. at 2-3. The costs of the trusteeship were thus
borne by the union's treasury, but given the union's past spending patterns, the
treasury actually came out ahead. Under Jacobson, the union's paid staff grew
from eleven to fourteen, and cost the local $ 1500 less in weekly payroll
expenses. See Prial, U.S. Court Runs a Jersey Union in Test,
N.Y. Times, Mar. 28, 1987, at 29, col. 2.
n379 In non-factory locals like Local 560, business agents are the
backbone of the union's paid bureaucracy. They process grievances, often
participate in negotiations, and generally spend much of their time visiting job
sites to handle difficulties that arise. Shop stewards are ordinary workers
elected or appointed to serve as the union's spokesperson at the job site and,
often, as their co-workers' representative within the union. Stewards usually
help process grievances through the first steps of the grievance procedure. J.
WALLIHAN, supra note 69, at 8, 82, 104-06.
n380 The court's order gave the trustee that power, subject to any
limitations created by the local's bylaws or the IBT constitution, and the
local's bylaws in turn gave the local president the power to appoint and remove
stewards and, with the consent of the executive board, appoint and remove
business agents. See Const. and Bylaws of Local 560 § 6.02 [hereinafter
Bylaws].
n381 See Jacobson, "Guilty Until Proven Innocent": How
the Teamsters Trusteeship Turned Sour, N.J. Reporter, Mar. 1988, at 15.
n382 Remedies for such breaches of the union's duty of fair
representation are theoretically available but "extremely difficult to enforce."
United
States v. Local 560 (I.B.T.) (Local 560 II), 694 F. Supp. 1158, 1190 (D.N.J.
1988). See generally Goldberg, The Duty of Fair Representation:
What the Courts Do In Fact, 34 BUFFALO L. REV. 89 (1985).
n383 See Letter from Joel R. Jacobson to Judge Harold A.
Ackerman (Oct. 23, 1986), reprinted in 560 Free Press, Dec. 1987, at 6
[hereinafter cited as Jacobson Letter]. For a description of the newspaper, 560
Free Press, see infra text accompanying note 403.
n384 See Galen, supra note 376, at 30.
n385 See Jacobson, supra note 381, at 18.
n386 Bylaws, supra note 380, § 6.02.
n387 See infra text accompanying notes 392-419.
n388 See Jacobson, supra note 381, at 18.
n389 Id. at 19.
n390 Sciarra was named president of Local 560 by the local's
executive board on October 29, 1984, following the conviction of his
predecessor, Salvatore Provenzano, for defrauding a local benefit fund and for
receiving kickbacks with respect to the local's dental plan. See United
States v. Local 560 (I.B.T.) (Local 560 II), 694 F. Supp. 1158, 1160 (D.N.J.
1988). Sciarra, one of the original defendants in the Local 560
case, had served as a Local 560 business agent since 1972 and as a trustee of
the Local from 1981 until he was named president in 1984. See United
States v. Local 560, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters (Local 560 I), 581 F. Supp. 279,
288 (D.N.J. 1984). Sciarra's loyalty to the Provenzanos was evidenced by
Sciarra's own testimony at the Local 560 trial, see id.
at 302-03, and was subsequently confirmed by government wiretaps, which
indicated that the Genovese crime family, of which Provenzano was a member,
"controlled" Sciarra. Local 560 II, 694 F. Supp. at 1172. See
infra text accompanying note 414.
n391 Sheridan had been vice president of the local from July, 1981
until the start of the trusteeship. Previously, he had served as a local
business agent from 1976 to 1978 and as trustee from 1978 to 1981. See Local
560 II, 694 F. Supp. at 1162.
n392 See Penn, supra note 374, at 26, col. 6;
New Trustee Installed in Jersey Local 560, CONVOY DISPATCH, June-July
1987, at 10 [hereinafter New Trustee].
n393 See Local 560 II, 694 F. Supp. at 1185.
n394 McGarrigle v. Stier, C.A. No. 88-1738 (D.N.J. filed Apr. 15,
1988); Local 560 II, 694 F. Supp. at 1185.
n395 See Local 560 II, 694 F. Supp. at 1185; Galen,
supra note 376, at 29; Storm Erupts Over Vote During Six Hour
Marathon Meet, 560 Free Press, Feb.-Mar. 1988, at 4; Shop Stewards at
Raucus Meeting Elect Steering Committee of Ten, 560 Free Press, Oct. 1987,
at 2.
n396 As Judge Ackerman later explained:
Seeing Sciarra
coming down the aisle like Rocky with his arms up and being led by two business
agents still on the payroll, and seeing no one get up to denounce Sciarra's
criticism of the trusteeship. . . . [W]hen I saw that, I realized that I had to
move in high gear to purge this union of these nefarious elements.
Quoted in Galen, supra note 376, at 29.
n397 Id. at 30 (quoting Herman Benson, Executive Director
of the Association for Union Democracy).
n398 See id. at 29.
n399 See Prial, supra note 378, at 29, col. 2.
n400 See Local 560 II, 694 F. Supp. at 1191.
n401 See United
States v. Local 560, 126 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2190, 2191 (D.N.J. 1987). Jacobson
later asserted that his discharge resulted from his refusal to support Judge
Ackerman's view that "when it comes to members of Local 560 they're guilty until
proven innocent." United
States v. Sciarra, 851 F.2d 621, 624 (3d Cir. 1988) (quoting Jacobson
affidavit). Sciarra and Sheridan subsequently used Jacobson's affidavit to that
effect in support of an unsuccessful motion to force Judge Ackerman to recuse
himself from further participation in the case. See id.
n402 Frank Jackiewicz, the associate trustee, was a longtime
official of New Jersey Teamsters Local 843 and a former secretary and chief
negotiator of the Brewery Worker's Joint Local Executive Board of New Jersey. Local
560, 126 L.R.R.M. (BNA) at 2191.
n403 See Letter from Edwin H. Stier to Judge Harold A.
Ackerman (Dec. 4, 1987), reprinted in 560 Free Press, Dec. 1987, at 6
[hereinafter Stier Letter].
n404 See Kiely, Cleaning Up Teamsters Local 560,
The Record (Hackensack, N.J.), May 15, 1988, at A1.
n405 Stier Letter, supra note 403.
n406 Id.
n407 Id.
n408 Letter Opinion and Order, United States v. Local 560, C.A. No.
86-0689 (Dec. 17, 1987), reprinted in 560 Free Press, Dec. 1987, at 5.
n409 See United
States v. Sciarra, 851 F.2d 621, 632-33 (3d Cir. 1988).
n410 See Noble, Vote Set to End U.S. Control Over
Jersey Teamsters Local, N.Y. Times, Feb. 15, 1988, at B3, col. 1.
n411 See Kiely, supra note 404.
n412 See id.; Noble, supra note 410.
n413 See supra text accompanying notes 392-406.
n414 United
States v. Local 560 (I.B.T.) (Local 560 II), 694 F. Supp. 1158, 1169, 1172
(D.N.J. 1988).
n415 Id.
at 1169, 1172.
n416 Id.
at 1179, 1181.
n417 See Noble, Union Vote Could Change
Tradition, N.Y. Times, Dec. 4, 1988, at 52, col. 4; Sullivan, Teamsters
Elect Slate Linked to Mob, N.Y. Times, Dec. 8, 1988, at B1, col. 5.
n418 See Sullivan, Local 560 Says It Helped to Set
Stage for Accord, N.Y. Times, Mar. 14, 1989, at D28, col. 5.
n419 Id. Although the government had opposed the newly
elected executive board's decision to hire Sciarra, Judge Debevoise, who had
barred him from running for office, refused to bar his appointment as a BA.
See U.S. Senate Permanent Subcomm. on Investigations, Comm. on Gov't
Affairs, Hearings on the Federal Government's Use of Trusteeships Under the RICO
Statute, 101st Cong., 1st Sess. 11-12 (Apr. 6, 1989) (statement of Edwin H.
Stier) [hereinafter Trusteeship Hearings].
n420 Kiely, Teamster Election Goes to Sciarra, The Record
(Hackensack, N.J.), Dec. 7, 1988, at A1. On several occasions during the
campaign, reform candidates received death threats, and there was evidence of
ballot tampering by stewards. See Moran, Risking Death for Local
560, the Record, Oct. 16, 1988, at A1; Democracy in Local 560, The
Record, Dec. 8, 1988, at B8.
n421 Jacobson Letter, supra note 383. Unlike the
Provenzanos, who were virtually never seen at early morning worksite or "barn"
meetings, Sciarra "was diligent in visiting the various terminals every morning
where the members saw him, liked him, and appreciated him." Id. As the
court noted in the very ruling disqualifying Michael Sciarra and Joseph Sheridan
from running, "for many union members [they] may have performed substantial
services . . . and acted at times as dedicated trade unionists." Local 560
II, 694 F. Supp. at 1191.
n422 See Penn, supra note 374, at 1.
n423 See Summers, supra note 300, at 95-98.
n424 See Teamsters for Liberty, Letter to the Editor, 560
Free Press, Apr. 1988; Lazare, Feds Out, Mob Back in After Teamsters
Vote, In These Times, Dec. 21, 1988, at 8; Raskin, Teamster Local, Once
Run by Mob, Tries the Ballot Box, N.Y. Times, Nov. 20, 1988, at E6, col 4.
n425 See, e.g., United States v. Gigante, Civ. No. 88-4396
(D.N.J. filed Oct. 13, 1988) (seeking to void a sweetheart contract affecting
Local 560 members).
n426 663
F. Supp. 192 (S.D.N.Y. 1986).
n427 United
States v. Persico, 646 F. Supp. 752 (S.D.N.Y. 1986), aff'd in part,
rev'd in part, 832
F.2d 705 (2d Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 108
S. Ct. 1995 (1988). The Cement Workers litigation was also based on
United States v. Salerno, 85 CR 139 (S.D.N.Y. 1986), in which one of the
convicted defendants was Ralph Scope, then president of the union's district
council.
n428 See Barnes, Suit Seeks Federal Trusteeship Over
Cement Workers Local, UNION DEMOCRACY REV., Nov. 1986, at 8. Local 6A, an
affiliate of the Laborers International Union, was only one of many unions in
the New York City construction industry that allegedly had been taken over by La
Cosa Nostra. See N.Y. TASK FORCE, supra note 34, at 73-79.
n429 Cement
Workers, 663 F. Supp. at 193.
n430 The "union defendants," as opposed to the "Colombo Family
defendants," were the two labor organizations and 25 of their officers and
members. See id.
at 194.
n431 Judgment (On Consent) Against Union Defendants, United States
v. Local 6A, Cement & Concrete Workers, 86 Civ. 4819 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 18,
1987) Concret Workers, 86 Civ. 4819 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 18, [hereinafter Consent
Judgment]. The union defendants were running out of funds to pay their attorneys
when they agreed to the consent judgment. Remarks of Eugene Anderson, Local 6A
Trustee, Union Trusteeship Conference of New York Organized Crime Task Force
(Jan. 29, 1988) [hereinafter Anderson Remarks].
n432 Seven officers were permanently enjoined from any further
dealings with the union, six were permanently enjoined from holding union
office, and three were barred from union office only until the end of the
trusteeship. Id. at 3-7.
n433 Id. at 7; Galen, N.Y.-Based Union Agrees to
Less-Radical Approach, NAT.'L L.J., Aug. 31, 1987, at 1, 30, col. 1.
n434 Consent Judgment, supra note 431, at 7-12.
n435 Id. at 16-17, 20.
n436 Id. at 18-19.
n437 See Galen, supra note 433.
n438 See Trusteeship
Hearings, supra note 419, at 5 (statement of Eugene R. Anderson).
n439 Id. On the other hand, Justice Department
investigation of Local 6A continued even after the trusteeship was established.
See id. at 15 (statement of Floyd I. Clarke, FBI Executive Assistant
Director).
n440 Anderson Remarks, supra note 431; see also
Trusteeship
Hearings, supra note 419, at 6 (statement of Eugene R. Anderson).
n441 Telephone interview with attorney Robert Gaynor, assistant to
the trustee (Mar. 24, 1989).
n442 Trusteeship
Hearings, supra note 419, at 3 (statement of Eugene R. Anderson).
However, a number of black union members, previously unrepresented among the
officers, were included on the new Local 6A and District Council executive
boards, perhaps because of discussions Anderson held with the union's officers.
Id. at 8 n.9.
n443 Id. at 3-4.
n444 See Buder, Civil Suit Is Filed by U.S. to Curb a
Crime Family, N.Y. Times, Aug. 27, 1987, at A1, col. 1.
n445 Civ. No. 87-2974 (E.D.N.Y. filed Aug. 25, 1987).
n446 See Buder, supra note 444, at B2, col. 6;
Jennik, Federal Judge Imposes Trusteeship Over Teamsters Local 814,
UNION DEMOCRACY REV., Jan. 1988, at 4.
n447 See Buder, supra note 444, at B2, col. 6.
n448 See Order to Show Cause for Preliminary Injunction
and Order for Expedited Discovery at 6, United States v. Bonanno Organized Crime
Family, Civ. No. 87-2974 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 26, 1987).
n449 Id. at 8-9.
n450 Consent Judgment with Local 814, Local 814 Executive Board,
Local 814 Funds, Ignatius Bracco and Vito Gentile at 10, United States v.
Bonanno Organized Crime Family, Civ. No. 87-2974 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 8, 1987)
[hereinafter Consent Order].
n451 Id. at 11; Trusteeship
Hearings, supra note 419, at 20 (Apr. 12, 1989) (statement of Peter R.
Ginsberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney). One former officer, former recording
secretary Robert Corbett, was made interim president, and the second, former
trustee James O'Connor, was made interim secretary-treasurer. See
Jennik, supra note 446, at 4. Two members were also selected, after
Justice Department and FBI screening, to comprise an interim Board of Trustees.
See Trusteeship
Hearings, supra note 419, at 20.
n452 Consent Order, supra note 450, at 4; Buder,
Decree Approved to Help Rid Union of Mob, N.Y. Times, Oct. 10, 1987, at
35, col. 4.
n453 Consent Order, supra note 450, at 4-9.
n454 Id. at 7.
n455 Id. at 9.
n456 See Trusteeship
Hearings, supra note 419, at 2 (statement of Arthur Eisenberg).
n457 Telephone interview with Arthur Eisenberg (Mar. 31, 1989).
n458 Trusteeship
Hearing, supra note 419, at 5-6 (statement of Arthur Eisenberg).
n459 For example, fund audits and new collection procedures brought
in nearly $ 500,000 in delinquent employer contributions, and new fund
investment managers were retained at a savings of $ 267,000. One of the local's
funds, which had been in the red two years earlier, contained almost $ 600,000
by early 1989. See id. at 2-4.
n460 See id. at 4; telephone interview with Arthur
Eisenberg (Mar. 31, 1989).
n461 See Trusteeship
Heraing, supra note 419, at 4-6 (statement of Arthur Eisenberg).
n462 See id. at 5; id. at 14 (statement of Peter
R. Ginsburg). As of this writing, however, challenges to the conduct of the
election were still pending with the DOL, and the trusteeship's duration had
been extended. See Trusteeship
Hearing, supra note 419, at 5 (statement of Arthur Eisenberg).
n463 686
F. Supp. 1139 (E.D. Pa. 1988), aff'd, 882
F.2d 512 (3d Cir. 1989). In a fifth case, involving alleged Mafia corruption
of New York City's Fulton Fish Market, the court, pursuant to a consent decree,
appointed an administrator to monitor the market's cleanup. Consent Judgment,
United States v. Local 359, United Seafood Workers, Smoked Fish & Cannery
Union, 87 Civ. 7351 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 15, 1988). The union defendant in that case,
however, Local 359 of the United Seafood Workers, refused to join in the consent
decree. Following an August 1988 trial, the court dismissed the civil RICO case
against the union and its officers on the grounds that the government had failed
to prove its claim that the union had been taken over by the Genovese crime
family. United States v. Local 359, United Seafood Workers, Smoked Fish &
Cannery Union, 87 Civ. 7352 (S.D.N.Y. slip. op. Jan. 24, 1989).
n464 United States v. Traitz, Cr. 86-451 (E.D. Pa. 1987),
aff'd, 871
F.2d 368 (3d Cir. 1989).
n465 Roofers
Local 30, 686 F. Supp. at 1162.
n466 Id.
at 1150-51.
n467 Id.
at 1155.
n468 Id.
n469 Id.
at 1158.
n470 See id.
at 1157.
n471 See id.
n472 See id.
at 1162.
n473 See id.
at 1159-61.
n474 Id.
at 1162.
n475 Id.
at 1167.
n476 Id. In light of the court's own findings regarding
the level of intimidation operating within Local 30, the degree of actual
rank-and-file support for the local's leadership would seem debatable. On the
other hand, it is true that in Roofers Local 30, unlike Teamsters Locals 560 and
814 and Cement Workers Local 6A, some of the illegal conduct directed at
employers was intended to benefit the union's membership, not just its corrupt
officers.
n477 Id.
n478 Id.
at 1168. The court left open the possibility that the newly elected business
manager and an executive board member who had invoked their fifth amendment
privileges at the trial would be removed from office pursuant to the AFL-CIO
Codes of Ethical Practices, see id.
at 1161-62, 1170, 1172, but the AFL-CIO subsequently informed the court
liaison officer that it considered the relevant Code provisions defunct.
Telephone interview with Robert E. Welsh, Jr. (July 27, 1989) [hereinafter Welsh
interview].
n479 Roofers
Local 30, 686 F. Supp. at 1171-74.
n480 Welsh interview, supra note 478.
n481 Trusteeship
Hearing, supra note 419, at 3 (statement of Robert E. Welsh, Jr.).
n482 See id.; Welsh interview, supra note 478.
Less encouraging was the inability of union and employer negotiators to agree on
the adoption of the contractual grievance procedure mandated by the court.
Welsh, therefore, drafted one himself, and the court imposed it on the industry.
Although the arbitration clause has yet to be invoked, Welsh believes that its
existence has faciliated the resolution of numerous grievances. See Roofers
Local 30, 686 F. Supp. at 1172; Welsh interview, supra note
478.
n483 See Trusteeship
Hearing, supra note 419, at 2-3 (statement of Robert E. Walsh, Jr.).
n484 Id. at 3.
n485 Roofers
Local 30, 686 F. Supp. at 1173.
n486 Welsh has indicated that reform of the union's hiring hall is
on his and the court's agenda, but as of this writing no such reforms have been
announced or implemented. Welsh interview, supra note 478.
n487 The election procedures were established by Welsh, with
assistance from the DOL, and the balloting itself was overseen by the American
Arbitration Association. Id.
n488 Id.
n489 Id.
n490 See infra at text accompany notes 573-609.
n491 Cunningham
v. English, 175 F. Supp. 764 (D.D.C. 1958), aff'd, 269
F.2d 517 (D.C. Cir. 1959), aff'd as modified, 269
F.2d 539 (D.C. Cir. 1959), cert. denied, 361
U.S. 905 (1959).
n492 This subsection is drawn in substantial part from Goldberg,
supra note 162. The author would like to thank the Clerks' Offices of
the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia and Western District of
Pennsylvania for making available to him eleven boxes of original files from
Cunningham v. English, the Board of Monitors litigation.
n493 Beck had been thoroughly discredited by the McClellan
Committee and was later convicted of tax evasion and embezzling union funds. The
conviction for tax evasion was later overturned on the grounds that embezzled
funds are not taxable. See J. HUTCHINSON, supra note 34, at
333-34; R. JAMES & E. JAMES, supra note 2, at 19-20 n. *.
n494 The McClellan Committee began its hearings on February 26,
1957, and over the next two years it took testimony from over 1500 witnesses
during 270 days of public testimony. Thirty-four of the fifty-eight volumes of
testimony generated at these hearings were devoted to the Teamsters union.
See J. BELLACE & A. BERKOWITZ, supra note 87, at 3 n.10.
n495 See Senate Committee's "Indictment" of Hoffa,
40 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 37 (1957). See also INTERIM REPORT OF THE SELECT
COMM. ON IMPROPER ACTIVITIES IN THE LABOR OR MANAGEMENT FIELD, S. REP. NO. 1417,
85th Cong., 2d Sess. 249-54 (1958) [hereinafter McCLELLAN COMMITTEE INTERIM
REPORT]; SECOND INTERIM REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON IMPROPER ACTIVITIES IN
THE LABOR OR MANAGEMENT FIELD, S. REP. NO. 621, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. 106-13
(1959) [hereinafter McCLELLAN COMMITTEE SECOND INTERIM REPORT]; FINAL REPORT OF
THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON IMPROPER ACTIVITIES IN THE LABOR OR MANAGEMENT FIELD, S.
REP. NO. 1139, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. pt. 3, 723-31 (1960) [hereinafter McCLELLAN
COMMITTEE FINAL REPORT].
n496 See C. MOLLENHOFF, supra note 7, at 192-200,
205-15/; W. SHERIDAN, supra note 7, at 47. 205-15; W. SHERIDAN,
supra note 7, at 47.
n497 See Teamsters
Told to Get Rid of Corrupt Officers, 40 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 44, 44 (1957);
Report
of AFL-CIO Committee on Teamsters Union, 40 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 46, 57, 64
(1957).
n498 Evidence in the subsequent litigation indicated that
compliance with the union's constitution would have disqualified a majority of
the convention's delegates. Cunningham
v. English, 41 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2022, 2024-25, 2029 (D.D.C.), modified on
other grounds, 41
L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2044 (D.C. Cir. 1957).
n499 Complaint at 23, Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57
(D.D.C. filed Sept. 19, 1957) [hereinafter Complaint]. Named as defendants were
the IBT and its twelve International officers, including Beck and Hoffa.
n500 Cunningham
v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 40 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2650 (D.D.C.),
stayed, 40
L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2653 (D.C. Cir.), petition to vacate denied, 355
U.S. 19 (1957).
n501 Amended Complaint, Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57
(D.D.C. filed Oct. 14, 1957). The Amended Complaint sought the appointment of a
"receiver or master in equity" authorized to 1) devise fair election procedures
for the election of delegates to a new convention at which a fair rerun election
would be held; 2) supervise compliance with the IBT constitution during the fair
rerun election be held; 2) supervise comliance delegate selection process and
the convention itself; and 3) maintain "surveillance" over the defendants'
"hold-over officers," in order to ensure compliance with the IBT constitution
and protect the rights of members and subordinate bodies under that
constitution. Id. at 28.
n502 See C. MOLLENHOFF, supra note 7, at 228.
n503 Cunningham
v. English, 41 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2022, 2029 (D.D.C.), modified, 41
L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2044 (D.C. Cir. 1957).
n504 For a discussion of these settlement negotiations and the
motivations behind them, see Goldberg, supra note 162, at 567-68.
n505 Consent Order, Cunningham v. English, C.A. 2361-57 (D.D.C.
Jan. 31, 1958), reprinted in English
v. Cunningham, 269 F.2d 517, 532-35 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 361
U.S. 905 (1959) [hereinafter Consent Order].
n506 For some contemporaneous accounts, see Mandelbaum, The
Teamster Monitorship: A Lesson for the Future, 20 FED. B.J. 125, 137-43
(1960) (the author had served on the monitorship's staff); Romer, The
Teamster Monitors and the Administration of the International Union, 12
LABOR L.J. 604 (1961); Note, Monitors: A New Equitable Remedy?, 70 YALE
L.J. 103, 118-24 (1960).
n507 Consent Order, supra note 505, 269
F.2d at 533 P2; Mandelbaum, supra note 506, at 127.
n508 Consent Order, supra note 505, 269
F.2d at 535 P10, 12.
n509 Id.
at 534 P8.
n510 Id.
at 533 P4. As many as 400 Teamster locals had no bylaws. Initial Report of
the Board of Monitors 10, Cunningham v. English, C.A. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Aug. 6,
1958) [hereinafter Monitors' Initial Report]. The Landrum-Griffin Act now
requires affiliates of labor organizations to have constitutions or bylaws
meeting certain minimum standards. Landrum-Griffin Act § 201(a), 29
U.S.C. § 431(a) (1982).
n511 Consent Order, supra note 505, 269
F.2d at 534 P7.
n512 Id.
at 533-34 P5.
n513 Id.
at 535 P9(c).
n514 See supra text accompanying notes 93-104.
n515 These included the right to fair elections, the right to run
for office, and the right to speak at union meetings. Consent Order,
supra note 505, 269
F.2d at 533 P3.
n516 Id.
at 535 P11.
n517 Id.
at 533-34 PP5-6.
n518 See Monitors' Initial Report, supra note
510, at 3.
n519 Id. at 5-7.
n520 Id. at 169-93 (Supplemental Report of Member
Schmidt).
n521 Order, Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. May 27,
1958).
n522 O'Donoghue was a union lawyer who had represented Hoffa and
the IBT during earlier stages of the litigation. See Romer,
supra note 506, at 606-07.
n523 Memorandum of Member Schmidt Concerning the Written Dissent of
Member Wells From Orders of Recommendation Numbered 16 and 17, Voted by a
Majority of the Board of Monitors at 1, Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57
(Oct. 3, 1958) [hereinafter Schmidt Memorandum]. In support of this
interpretation, Schmidt cited not only the defendants' agreement to eliminate
financial conflicts of interest and abide by accepted fiduciary standards,
Consent Order, supra note 505, 269
F.2d at 533-34 PP5-6, but also Hoffa's 1957 pledge to the McClellan
Committee that if elected General President he would clean up the union. Schmidt
also relied on IBT lawyer Edward Bennett William's 1958 testimony before the
same Committee in which he stated that the monitors had "'been given the
jurisdiction . . . to police intra-union democracy.'" Schmidt Memorandum,
supra, at 2-4. As Schmidt explained, "The Monitors could have no
genuine jurisdiction to police intra-union democracy if they had no power to
eliminate gangster domination and corruption from the union." Id. at 4.
n524 See, e.g., Memorandum of Member Wells Concerning
Issuance of Orders of Recommendation Nos. 16 and 17, Cunningham v. English, Civ.
No. 2361-57 (Sept. 17, 1958).
n525 Among those targeted was International Vice President Owen B.
Brennan, a close friend of Hoffa's who, along with Hoffa, had been implicated by
the McClellan Committee in a scam to receive employer payoffs through their
wives' interests in a trucking company. See Order of Recommendation No.
16 (Aug. 15, 1958), Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Sept. 17,
1958).
n526 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law at 67, Cunningham v.
English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Feb. 9, 1959) [hereinafter Findings of Fact];
see also W. SHERIDAN, supra note 7, at 84-87, 105.
n527 For example, complaints from several locals under trusteeships
where elections were to be held revealed that many members -- in one local, all
but thirty-one of 3000 members -- were denied the right to run for office
because of technical difficulties in complying with requirements concerning the
timely payment of their dues. See Findings of Fact, supra note
526, at 12.
n528 See, e.g., Order of Recommendation Nos. 11 & 20
(June 27, 1958 and Aug. 19, 1958), Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57
(D.D.C. Sept. 17, 1958).
n529 See S. ROMER, THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF
TEAMSTERS: ITS GOVERNMENT AND STRUCTURE 4 (1962).
n530 See McCLELLAN COMMITTEE SECOND INTERIM REPORT,
supra note 495, at 377-517; Order of Recommendation No. 4 (June 13,
1958), Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Sept. 17, 1958).
n531 Findings of Fact, supra note 526, at 15, 16.
n532 Petition for Construction, Reformation and/or Modification of
the Consent Decree and for Instructions and Orders of Compliance, Cunningham v.
English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Sept. 17, 1958).
n533 Cunningham
v. English, 175 F. Supp. 764, 767-69 (D.D.C. 1958), aff'd, 269
F.2d 517 (D.C. Cir.), aff'd as modified, 269
F.2d 539 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 361
U.S. 905 (1959). The court ruled that all powers "reasonably necessary to
effect the basic purposes of the order are implied and available" to the
monitors as "officers of the Court." Id.
at 767-68.
n534 English
v. Cunningham 269 F.2d 517, 517 (D.C. Cir.) aff'd as modified, 269
F.2d 539 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 361
U.S. 905 (1959).
n535 Id.
at 523.
n536 Id.
at 522. While it was understood that the monitors could not "command," id.
at 522, they could make recommendations related to the defendants'
obligations under the order and report any failures to comply to the district
court. The district court, in turn, could order the defendants to take "any
necessary action within the scope of its decrees," including the investigation
and discipline of corrupt union officials. Id.
at 525, 528.
n537 See id.
at 520. The defendants had agreed, however, to postpone any convention
during the pendency of their appeal. Id.
at 524.
n538 For example, the IBT conducted a perfunctory investigation of
Philadelphia's Local 107 but refused to impose an intra-union trusteeship,
despite the overwhelming evidence of corruption that had been uncovered by the
McClellan Committee and the Board of Monitors themselves. See PERMANENT
SUBCOMM. ON INVESTIGATIONS, SENATE COMM. ON GOV'T OPERATIONS, JAMES R. HOFFA AND
CONTINUED UNDERWORLD CONTROL OF NEW YORK TEAMSTERS LOCAL 239, S. REP. NO. 1784,
87th Cong., 2d Sess. 31-36 (1961).
n539 See id. at 29.
n540 Interim Report at 5-6, Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57
(D.D.C. Sept. 14, 1959). Monitors O'Donoghue and Lawrence T. Smith, who had
replaced Schmidt as the plaintiffs' monitor on July 13, see infra text
accompanying note 547, signed the Interim Report. Daniel B. Maher, who had
replaced Wells as the defendants' monitor on March 18, issued a separate report
dissenting in most respects from the Interim Report. Separate Report of Monitor
Maher to Interim Report of the Majority Filed September 14, 1959, Cunningham v.
English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (Oct. 9, 1959).
n541 See Goldberg, supra note 162, at 576-77.
n542 Hoffa
v. Letts, 282 F.2d 842, 845 (D.D. Cir. 1960) (dictum).
n543 Petition of John Cunningham for Removal of Godfrey P. Schmidt
as Monitor, Cunningham v. English, C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Apr. 28, 1958)
[hereinafter Cunningham Petition].
n544 See Hearings before the Permanent Subcomm. on
Investigations of the Senate Comm. on Gov't Operations, 87th Cong., 1st
Sess. 140, 149 (1961) (testimony of Martin F. O'Donoghue) [hereinafter 1961
Hearings]; W. SHERIDAN, supra note 7, at 92, 148-49.
n545 English
v. Cunningham, 269 F.2d 517, 526 (D.C. Cir.), aff'd as modified, 269
F.2d 539 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 361
U.S. 905 (1959). The IBT filed a similar petition, which made the additional
charge that Schmidt had made public statements on the right-to-work laws that
were "so adverse, inconsistent and incompatible with the position taken by all
organized labor as to destroy the confidence of the members of the (IBT) in his
motivations." Motion of Defendant International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America For Removal of Godfrey P.
Schmidt as Monitor at 4-5, Cunningham v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Sept.
29, 1958).
n546 Letter from Godfrey P. Schmidt to Judge F. Dickenson Letts
(June 26, 1959). Schmidt continued in the case as counsel for the remaining
plaintiffs, although in April of 1960, another group of the original thirteen
plaintiffs split off and retained their own counsel See infra text
accompanying note 450.
n547 See, e.g., Affidavit of John Cunningham, Cunningham
v. English, Civ. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Sept. 2, 1959); Motion of Intervenors Coar
et al to Vacate the Order of Court Confirming the Appointment of
Lawrence J. Smith as a Member of the Board of Monitors, Cunningham v. English,
C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. July 21, 1959).
n548 See, e.g., Goffen, Monitors vs. The
Teamsters, THE NATION, Apr. 9, 1960, at 316 This article was reprinted in
the May, 1960 INTERNATIONAL TEAMSTER, the IBT magazine sent to every member.
n549 See Order, Cunningham v. English, C.A. No. 2361-57
(D.D.C. May 4, 1960).
n550 See Milone
v. English, 282 F.2d 832 (D.C. Cir. 1960) (holding that Smith's dismissal
was improperly based on ex parte representations of Godfrey Schmidt).
n551 See Letter from Daniel B. Maher to Judge F. Dickenson
Letts (Mar. 28, 1960); Order, Cunningham v. English, C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C.
May 12, 1960).
n552 McCLELLAN COMMITTEE INTERIM REPORT, supra note 495,
at 227, 243; McCLELLAN COMMITTEE FINAL REPORT, supra note 495, at 613.
Judge Letts had initially refused to accept the Bufalino nomination, calling it
an insult to the court. However, when the defendants refused to make another
nomination, and the continued absence of a monitor representing the defendants
became the subject of inquiry in the court of appeals, he apparently concluded
that he had no alternative. See Plaintiffs' Motion for Disqualification
and Removal of William E. Bufalino as Defendants' Monitor at 4, Cunningham v.
English, C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. July 13, 1960).
n553 See Letter from Martin F. O'Donoghue to Judge F.
Dickenson Letts (July 11, 1960); W. SHERIDAN, supra note 7, at 152-55.
n554 See, e.g., Dorsey
v. Cunningham, 282 F.2d 842, 842 (D.C. Cir. 1960); San
Soucie v. Schmidt, 282 F.2d 833 (D.C. Cir. 1960); Westenberg
v. English, 278 F.2d 275, 275 (D.C. Cir. 1960); Distini
v. Cunningham, 272 F.2d 528, 528-29 (D.C. Cir. 1959).
n555 1961 Hearings, supra note 544, at 147 (testimony of
Martin F. O'Donoghue); Note, supra note 506, at 119. The subjects of
these proceedings ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Among some of the
less earthshaking matters litigated were the location of the monitors' offices
and the right of the monitors to issue press releases.
n556 See, e.g., Gaw
v. Higham, 267 F.2d 355 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 360
U.S. 933 (1959); Thomas v. O'Donoghue, C.A. 60-303-F (D. Mass. 1960); Quirk
v. O'Donoghue, C.A. No. 2863 (D.R.I. 1960); Grace v. International Bhd. of
Teamsters, C.A. No. 3949 (Pa. Common Pleas 1959); Smith v. International Bhd. of
Teamsters, C.A. No. 34, 875 (Tenn. Ch. Ct. 1958).
n557 See, e.g., H.R. 11,845, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. (1960);
S. 3444, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. (1960).
n558 See Mandelbaum, supra note 506, at 139.
n559 See, e.g., Defendants' Motion for a Convention,
Cunningham v. English, C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Mar. 31, 1960).
n560 Another year has passed and it now appears that 'the
desirability of early transition from court supervision to normal organizational
management' . . . is not being realized . . . . It is not clear to us that a new
convention must await compliance with all defendants' obligations under the
Consent Decree . . .; that is, that all those obligations necessarily relate to
the ability of the membership to elect their officers with reasonable assurance
such election would accord with their rights under the Teamsters' constitution.
Hoffa
v. Letts, 282 F.2d 842, 846-47 (D.C. Cir. 1960).
n561 Id.
at 847.
n562 Letter from Martin F. O'Donoghue to Judge F. Dickenson Letts
(July 11, 1960).
n563 English
v. McFarland, 285 F.2d 267 (D.C. Cir. 1960).
n564 Letter from Judge F. Dickenson Letts to Edward Bennett
Williams, et al. (Aug. 8, 1960).
n565 See Stipulation, with Exhibits, Cunningham v.
English, C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Dec. 9, 1960).
n566 Order, Cunningham v. English, C.A. No. 2361-57 (D.D.C. Feb.
28, 1961).
n567 W. SHERIDAN, supra note 7, at 177-80. Hoffa held
office until 1967, when he began serving a federal prison sentence following his
convictions for jury tampering and, perhaps ironically, the same abuse of union
funds for which the Board of Monitors had sought his removal. See id.
at 413.
n568 See supra text accompanying notes 554-58.
n569 See supra text accompanying notes 543-50.
n570 See supra text accompanying notes 560-61.