More Ohio Teamsters accused of misusing of union funds
Cincinnati.com
January 15, 2016
A Cleveland labor union has been recommended for trusteeship by a federal investigative panel after it was named in a report, citing misuse of funds and potential violations of the Federal Labor Standards Act.
According to a Nov. 24 report by the Washington D.C.-based Independent Review Board, Teamsters Union Local 400 and its principal officers spent member dues on gifts when the organization was in debt, submitted inaccurate financial reports and have an officer in place in violation of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Constitution.
The organization's secretary general and principal officer, Charles Cimino, who is accused of breach of fiduciary duty in the report, has recently resigned as secretary-treasurer of the Cincinnati-based Ohio Conference of Teamsters, an organization also in turmoil.
Cimino did so after a Sept. 25 report showed he received payment from the Ohio Conference, although he was ineligible to hold office at either the conference or the local because he is not employed by any local employer.
While the report did not indicate how long Cimino was involved with the local, his involvement with the Teamsters goes back to the 1970s, including where he was named in a 1978 White House report on organized crime in labor unions. Cimino did not return Enquirer phone call requests for an interview.
Galen Munroe, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said "someone has been appointed to the local," adding the organization has not yet gone under trusteeship. Trusteeship means the international would take over administration of the local.
"It's an ongoing process," he said.
The November report was based on examination of more than 51 sets of union records.
Its findings:
The officers abolished the members’ pension plan, under the Food Terminal Employees Pension Fund, then failed to make the required payments on the withdrawal liability ($697,482) to the fund.
Officers submitted inaccurate financial and trustee reports.
The organization spent members' dues on gifts and grants, including golf tournaments and donations to the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, while the union was in debt.
The local approved a resolution giving Cimino 30 weeks of vacation.
The organization failed to comply with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters constitution.
The three-member Independent Review Board was set up in 1992 under a consent decree between the national Teamsters union and the government. Its job is to investigate and take appropriate action with respect to "any allegations of corruption," "any allegations of domination or control or influence" of any part of the union by organized crime and any failure to cooperate fully with the board, according to the national Teamsters website.
For the current board, the federal government designated Benjamin Civiletti, who served in the Carter administration as attorney general. The union designated Joseph diGenova, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration. The third member, picked by the government and union designees, is William Webster, who was FBI director in the Carter administration before becoming CIA director in the Reagan administration.
Charles Carberry, head investigator for the Washington D.C.-based Independent Review Board said, "this is a local that can no longer really be supported by the Ohio Conference."
"Their filings were inaccurate, and they have a large debt they can't pay back."
The Cleveland local represents roughly 400 employees in the retail grocery, cold storage, cigarettes, candy, tobacco, drivers and warehouse, and other industries.
"These people put a stain on organizing and provide ammo for union busting," said Rick Kepler, a Teamsters organizer who spent 10 years under Cimino at Joint Council 41.
The Ohio Conference of Teamsters, which includes all 27 traditional IBT locals and Division Three of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, is divided into two joint councils. One of them, Joint Council 26, is based in Bond Hill; Joint Council 41 is in the Cleveland suburb of Garfield Heights.
The news of Local 400 comes after the Independent Review Board recommended the Ohio Conference of Teamsters be placed under trusteeship after it was found that the organization's officers spent more than 70 percent of member dues on parties, golf clubs and salaries for officers. Two of the officers named in the report are based in Cincinnati; the conference's offices are in Bond Hill.
“The one function specified in its bylaws for the conference to do: review all the bargaining agreements entered into in the state, has not been performed, if ever, for decades," the report concluded. The conference's "officers do not perform their duties," the 59-page report issued last fall stated.
The international, headed by James P. Hoffa, has not yet taken action on the Ohio Conference, which has had a history of corruption detailed in multiple past reviews of its actions.
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