Stamping Out Union Corruption

Two things about union corruption. First, whenever there is money and power, there will be corruption. It is sad, but true. And it requires vigilance. Second, whenever people talk about union corruption, if they don’t talk about corporate America as infinitely more corrupt, they are also dishonest actors. But damn it, when you see union corruption stamp it out like a spark that can cause a forest fire. As we are seeing with the Boilermakers.

The longtime president of the Boilermakers union, with international headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, has been ousted by his own executive council, accused of misappropriating union funds for personal use. Newton B. Jones, who has led the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers since his father retired in 2003, was removed from office following a hearing last week. The action came after the union’s executive council found he had violated a section of the Boilermaker’s constitution dealing with the misuse of funds. Jones was ordered to reimburse the union “all of the funds which he misspent as reflected in these charges” and to immediately resign from all of his other positions, including serving as a trustee of all funds in which the union participates.

“The drastic action of removing President Jones immediately and directing other actions is clearly necessary because of the seriousness of these allegations and the harm to our membership,” three executive committee members said in their formal document issued Thursday. “This misuse is shocking.” The action to remove Jones comes as a federal criminal investigation into union activities is underway, The Star has learned. Several sources confirmed that they have been interviewed by the FBI in recent weeks. The union’s executive committee found that Jones ordered the union to pay his wife, Kateryna, more than $100,000 plus benefits “for apparently no union purpose while she was living in the Ukraine” and spent more than $20,000 in union funds for flights to Ukraine “to visit his wife and to go to the home which he owns in the Ukraine.” Jones and his wife also turned in about $40,000 in receipts for meals in North Carolina — some “quite lavish and expensive” — with no justification for the expenses.

Also, union presidencies should never, ever, under any circumstances, be passed down from parent to child (though who am I kidding, it’s always father to son).