Copyright 1994 PR Newswire Association, Inc.  
PR Newswire
November 15, 1994, Tuesday
SECTION: Financial News

DISTRIBUTION: TO BUSINESS AND LABOR EDITORS

LENGTH: 351 words

HEADLINE: LABORERS' UNION PLACES MASON TENDERS DISTRICT COUNCIL UNDER TRUSTEESHIP;
International Union Removes New York Council Leadership; Appoints Trustee to Handle Operations

DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Nov. 15

BODY:
Arthur A. Coia, General President of the nearly 700,000-member Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), announced that the LIUNA General Executive Board voted on November 9 to place the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York under an emergency trusteeship. The action was imposed today.

The trusteeship comes after the General Executive Board obtained last Wednesday, and had its first opportunity to review the numerous volumes of materials -- including affidavits and other documents -- filed the week before in a civil racketeering case by the Justice Department against the District Council.

According to the LIUNA constitution, a trusteeship may be imposed on a District Council or Local Union when, in the International Union's discretion, action is deemed necessary for the purpose of correcting corruption or financial malpractice.

While under trusteeship, all officers of the Mason Tenders District Council will be relieved of their duties. Coia has appointed an independent attorney, David Elbaor of Washington, D.C., as trustee. Elbaor -- a former federal prosecutor -- will work in cooperation with the U.S. Attorney's Office, initiating a joint effort to clean up the pervasive corruption within the Council and the construction industry. He will be authorized to take full charge of the affairs of the District Council, which has a membership of nearly 7,000 construction workers in the metropolitan New York area.

A LIUNA internal hearing will commence within 30 days to decide whether the trusteeship must continue. The hearing panel's decision must be made within 60 days.

LIUNA has more than 60 District Councils and nearly 650 Local Unions throughout the United States and Canada. The Union represents workers in construction, environmental remediation, health care, maintenance, food service and clerical positions, as well as federal, state and municipal governments and the postal service. CONTACT: Carl A. Fillichio of the Laborers' International Union of North America, 202-942-2271