On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 10:50:33 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

P Fritz wrote:

TEAMSTERS (IBT)

Virginia Beach Ex-Bookkeeper Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement

For nearly a half decade Marcia Huizenga thought nobody would figure out how
all those extra paychecks managed to get cashed. But in the end somebody
did figure it out. Huizenga, 48, formerly bookkeeper for Teamsters Local
822, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on November 4 to embezzling more
than $47,000 in union funds. A routine audit by the local discovered that
from January 1999 to August 2003 she had prepared and cashed 77 extra
paychecks for her own personal use. Huizenga did not dispute the charge
when confronted with the evidence. Local 822 represents about 2,000 meat
cutters, barbers, warehouse workers and other tradesmen in the Virginia
Tidewater area. (Associated Press, 11/5).


Most of these people get caught, indicted, and then convicted not
because of "the law," but because union officials who handle money or
who can direct expenditures are required by union bylaws to be "bonded."
When I was a union officer many decades ago, I was "bonded" for $1
million, even though the budget under my direct control was only about
10 per cent of that amount.

If there is even a suspicion of wrongdoing, the bonding company steps
in. It has to make good the losses (that's the real purpose of the
bond), AND it makes damned sure the local prosecutors go after the
perpetrators AND go for the throat.

Thus, union officials who engage in financial crookedness go to jail
usually, and the money that was lost is either recovered or the losses
are made good by the bonding company.

Because of the aggressiveness of bonding companies, you hear more about
the occasional union thief than you do the far more common corporate thief.

But, of course, if you are a simple-minded rightie, as most who post
here are, you believe corporations are honest and unions are not.

All the union official "theft" in history doesn't not add up to one
week's thievery committed by publicly held corporations.




Most of them were corrupt as hell. Actually, there are no bigger crooks
than the corrupt union officials in this country.
--
John H

"It's not a *baby* kicking, beautiful bride, it's just a fetus!"

A Famous Hypocrite