Sweetheart Deal in Las Vegas Benefits
Hoffa Aide's Family
The Independent Review Board (IRB), the court-appointed panel responsible for rooting out corruption in the Teamsters Union, issued a blistering 207-page report outlining charges against two top associates of James Hoffa.
The IRB charged that a sweetheart deal engineered by Billy Hogan, Jr., Hoffa's original choice as running mate and current president of the 100,000-member ChicagoTeamster joint council, and Dane Passo, Hoffa's Special Assistant, would have cut wages and benefits in half, lowering Teamster wages to $8 per hour, and devastating the standard of living for some 1,400 Teamsters who work in the convention industry there.
Billy Hogan is also the president of the 100,000-member Chicago Teamster
joint council, and considered the most influential power-broker in the Hoffa administration. Passo is Hoffa's go-to man for Teamster local union officers around the country.
Also charged, in a separate 23-page report, is Ed Jacobson, another Hoffa International Representative, who Hoffa appointed as Trustee of Las Vegas Local 631. The IRB charges that Jacobson obstructed the investigation to cover up the sellout of Teamster members. Local 631 includes some 4,800 members, 1,400 of whom work in the convention industry.
In just one month the Teamster Union's five-yearly convention will open
in Las Vegas, at the Paris and Bally hotels.
Detailed Peek Inside Teamster Politics and Corruption
The IRB report provides a very detailed inside look at corruption in the Hoffa administration, which is lobbying hard to put the IRB out of existence. It is not a pretty picture, but one of secret company deals,"charity" golf tournaments where union officials are bought off, whistle-blowers fired, and union members told to leave town within one week for their own safety. (p. 160, Hogan charges)
Hoffa himself met with Hogan, Passo, and Richard Simon, the president of the nonunion company involved in the sweetheart deal. The meeting took place at a Chicago restaurant partially owned by Simon, who picked up the tab. (p. 100, Hogan charges)
Hoffa and his other top assistant, Carlow Scalf, repeatedly ignored warnings from various union officers about what Passo and Hogan were doing. In fact, the original Trustee of Local 631, the Assistant Trustee and various business agents were fired or removed when they complained about the deals. (pp. 140-1 and elsewhere, Hogan charges)
Passo and Hogan repeatedly hired cronies with no union experience, except one who had been a janitor at a union hall, to replace experienced leaders. (pp. 126-130, and elsewhere) One such crony, Vito Locascio, was a convicted felon (interstate theft of freight and passing forged checks at a casino) from Chicago who was placed in charge of Teamster efforts to "get out the vote" in Nevada, although he himself was not eligible to vote. (pp. 130-1) Locascio was treated to 89 free meals on the union credit card, while other cronies were regularly treated similarly, and hired. The IRB charges note, "It is unquestioned that pleasing Passo's friends was an adequate reason for the IBT to expend resources." (p. 133)
The Hoffa Scholarship Fund Golf Tournament in Las Vegas was used for furthering the illegal sweetheart deal. Simon and Hogan's company paid for $1,200 tickets and gave them to Hogan's relatives and other union officials. It is illegal for a union officer to accept valuable gifts from employers. The employer himself joined the golf tournament as well, to move the scam along.(p. 20)
Hoffa's RISE program, which Hoffa claims makes the IRB unnecessary, was
notified at least nine months ago of what was going on, when a Teamster vice president asked Hoffa's RISE director Ed Stier to investigate.(p. 24) Stier, according to the IRB report, replied that the union should stay away from Simon, but no RISE action followed. In fact, following that date those who were complaining to Hoffa about the corruption were removed or fired, long after RISE was notified of the problem.
Hoffa and Scalf's reasons for placing Local 631 into trusteeship, and throwing out the democratically elected head of the local, Tim Murphy, are shown by the report to be pretextual. It was Murphy who blew the whistle to the IRB, after his complaints were ignored by the Hoffa administration. (See pp. 5-6, where Murphy refuses to join the scam.) The reasons offered by Scalf and Hoffa for firing the first trustee are also flimsy. (The IRB on pp. 26-7 refers to the Hoffa-Scalf reasons as "make weight and after the fact.") One reason offered by Hoffa for the
trusteeship was that an officer of the local union had used an ethnic slur. But in fact Hoffa's Special Assistant, Dane Passo, was actually thrown out of Bally's Casino in Las Vegas for making anti-Semitic remarks. (p. 25)
Passo's stated purpose for his own role in Las Vegas is "to get Hoffa reelected." (p. 67) For this purpose Teamster members have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for Passo, Hogan, their relatives and cronies in the Las Vegas escapade. It is illegal to spend union funds on Hoffa's reelection.
Hoffa's Top Aides Implicated by IRB
Hogan and Passo are not the only top Hoffa associates under fire from the IRB for serious corruption charges. Others include Carlow Scalf, Larry Brennan and Mike Bane.
Larry Brennan is Hoffa's benefactor who put him in power by creating a position to make him eligible for Teamster membership; Brennan, the head of the 60,000-member Michigan Teamster joint council, is the son of Bert Brennan, the crime and business partner of Hoffa's father. Brennan is presently under IRB charges for diverting $30,000 in union funds to his election campaign. The Hoffa administration went to court in a vain attempt to block the IRB from taking action.
Carlow Scalf is identified in the IRB charges against Brennan as the "bagman" who converted the $30,000 to cash and funneled it into their campaign. He was not himself charged because he was not an officer, but an aide.
Mike Bane is the president of Local 614 in Pontiac, Michigan, and another life-long Hoffa associate. He was imprisoned years ago for embezzlement; his brother and father also did time, his father for hiring a Hoffa relative as a ghost employee. He is presently under IRB charges for organized crime association. The Hoffa administration also tried to block the IRB here, but failed.
Hoffa Claims Union All Cleaned Up
The Hoffa administration is engaged in an expensive PR and lobbying campaign with the Bush administration and Congressional Republican leaders to end the IRB and impartial outside supervision of Teamster elections.
"The latest charges against Hoffa's top aides put the lie to Hoffa's claims that he can clean up his own house. His top staffers are charged with selling out members, and he has done nothing but cover up for Hogan and the rest of them," noted TDU National Organizer Ken Paff.
"It's time to end the charade of Hoffa's RISE program, which stands by and cheers for Hoffa while his people engage in this kind of dirty dealing against our Teamster members," Paff stated.
TDU also notes that under the previous Teamster administration, when any appointed official was charged by the IRB, they were suspended from duties pending their hearing. Hoffa has reversed that policy, instead reverting to the old-guard Teamster policy of making heroes out of aides who are caught selling out working Teamsters.
For more on this story see the Leedham Campaign web site updates page. Also the May 25th ChicagoTribune story. To get a plain text copy of this e-mail update, just reply to this message, with the word "text" in the subject line.
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