Options_SLAVE
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2007
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Title III of the LMRDA has defined limits within the RLA. Trusteeship has a much higher bar for RLA dedicated labor organizations.
http://www.laborers.org/UnionRights.html
LMRDA
Title III – Trusteeships
Title III of the LMRDA provides controls on the use of trusteeships. Under the Act, a "trusteeship" is "any receivership, trusteeship, or other method of supervision or control whereby a labor organization suspends the autonomy otherwise available to a subordinate body under its constitution or bylaws." Simply put, a trusteeship means an international administrator is sent in to run the affairs of the local union.
A trusteeship is one of a number of disciplinary devices by which the international union can control the actions of the local and its members. In their original form, trusteeships were imposed by parent unions to remedy corruption by union officials at the local level. However, the use of trusteeships became so widely used and subject to enough abuse that the McClellan Committee included them in its investigation. Obviously, legitimately utilized, a trusteeship can be indispensable to cleaning up a local and keeping the union strong, while a trusteeship imposed for improper or abusive reasons deeply violates the democratic rights of a local’s membership and takes away their voice in union matters.
Title III was designed to prevent abuses of the trusteeship remedy. Under Title III, trusteeships may be established over subordinate unions only in accordance with the constitution and bylaws of the union imposing the trusteeship, and for one or more of the following purposes:
0. Correcting corruption or financial malpractice;
0. Assuring the performance of a collective bargaining agreement or other duties of a bargaining representative;
0. Restoring democratic procedures; or
0. Otherwise carrying out the legitimate objects of such labor organization.
[It is illegal to establish a trusteeship simply to throw out a local leadership that does not go along with the international, or to suppress insurgency, or to get control of the local’s money, etc.]
Unions which impose trusteeships must file with the Secretary of Labor special reports within 30 days of the establishment of a trusteeship and must report semiannually thereafter. In the initial report, the union must include, among other information, the date the trusteeship was established, a detailed report of the reason or reasons why the trusteeship was established, a complete account of the financial status of the trusteed organization at the time the trusteeship went into effect, and statements regarding the extent to which members of the trusteed organization take part in electing the officers of the union which has assumed the trusteeship, as well as in selecting delegates to represent them at union conventions or other policymaking meetings.
Under Title III, a trusteeship is presumed valid for 18 months from the date it is established, and cannot be attacked during that year and-a-half except upon "clear and convincing proof that the trusteeship was not established or maintained in good faith for a purpose allowable under [Title III]." When the 18 months has expired, the trusteeship is presumed invalid in any proceeding and will be discontinued unless the union shows by "clear and convincing" proof that the continuation of the trusteeship is necessary for an allowable purpose.
In administering a trusteeship, two practices are specifically prohibited: 1) It is unlawful to count votes of convention delegates from the subordinate organization unless they were elected by secret ballot in an election where all members in good standing could participate; and 2) It is unlawful to transfer any funds from a subordinate to a supervisory organization, except normal per capita taxes and assessments payable by other subordinate bodies.
Title III provides two enforcement alternatives:
0. A union member, or a subordinate body affected by a violation, can file a complaint with the Department of Labor, which must investigate. If the Department of Labor upholds the complaint and the union refuses to lift the trusteeship, the Department can file a civil action in district court [if the Department files suit, the court’s jurisdiction is exclusive]; or
Any union member or subordinate body of a union affected by a violation of Title III can bypass the Department of Labor and file suit directly in district court.
Tell it to the judge. The auditor found reason to suspect that there may have been a considerable amount of money misappropriated for NJASAP activities. Under section 6 of the IBT constitution that is all the GP needed to invoke emergency trusteeship. Spew all the caselaw here you want. We'll see what happens in the real court room, if you want to take it there. Or if the IBT wants to take it there.
No NJA pilot wants to answer the question of what they wanted continued access to those accounts for. What were you planning? What did you get stopped doing that has you so upset?
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