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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (201) 645-3926.
A monitor has been appointed to oversee the Hotel Employees
and Restaurant Employees International Union (HEREIU) for at least 18 months to
sever all ties with organized crime.
The court appointment of Kurt Muellenberg as monitor
settles a federal civil racketeering complaint filed against the union. It is
the third action taken against an international union, following settlements
reached with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Laborers
International Union of North America. Muellenberg is former chief of the U.S.
Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.
"The appointment of a monitor establishes a mechanism to
effectively root out corruption in the Hotel and Restaurant Employees
International Union that has continued for 20 years," said Charles C. Masten,
inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department. "This is another milestone in
the government's fight against organized crime. With this agreement, three of
the four international unions identified in 1986 by the President's Commission
on Organized Crime as being controlled by mob elements have agreed to remove
corruption from their ranks."
The federal complaint alleged that between 1970 to the
present, the general executive board of the union cooperated with organized
crime in soliciting bribes from employers, stealing union funds and denying
union members the right of honest service by their officials. The U.S. Labor
Department's Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation cooperated in the investigation of the international union.
Under terms of the consent decree signed late yesterday by
U.S. District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown in Trenton, N.J., the monitor may
seek removal of officials at all levels of the union for:
- violating provisions of the settlement;
- committing any crime involving running a union or overseeing an
employee benefit plan;
- furthering the influence of any organized crime group.
The monitor may also disapprove contracts, the appointment
or discharge of union employees and candidates for elective office at all
levels of the union. All monitor actions are subject to court review.
All union officials and members are barred from:
- racketeering;
- knowingly associating with any member or associate of any crime
organization or any person otherwise barred from participating in union affairs
;
- obstructing the monitor or anyone implementing the consent
decree.
The union agreed in the consent decree that delegates to
its 1996 convention will consider adopting an ethical practices code
prohibiting conflict of interest by union officials and enforcing conduct
required by the decree. Delegates will also consider forming a three-person
public review board to administer and enforce the ethical practices code.
This settlement against the international union follows an
earlier civil racketeering case against its Atlantic City-based Local 54.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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