Cleaning Up ATU 'Busfellas'

Razzle Dazzle
Cleaning Up ATU 'Busfellas'


In making the argument that just because the top two officials of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 had been organized-crime functionaries didn't mean the rest of the school bus-drivers union should be marked rotten, Tommy Mullins cited Bernie Kerik.

Referring to the ex-Police Commissioner's guilty pleas to state misdemeanor charges and his current indictment in Federal court for allegedly selling his office while having mob-linked businessmen provide $255,000 in home renovations, Mr. Mullins asked rhetorically, "Does that mean the whole police force is corrupt? People in positions of leadership sometimes do bad things, but that doesn't taint the whole administration."

He was right, up to a point. Because he comes from an ATU local in Virginia, Mr. Mullins, who is one of the two trustees overseeing Local 1181, could be excused for not knowing how Mr. Kerik's larcenous ways had affected his subordinates when he was Correction Commissioner - which was also the time when those pricy home renovations were being done.

A Low-Grade Crime Crew

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow MAKING UP FOR LOST CRIME: Tommy Mullins, one of two trustees at Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, says in response to criticism that the ATU was slow to act after the local's leaders were linked to organized crime in a labor-racketeering indictment, 'You may be able to accuse us of being late getting here. You're not going to be able to accuse us of leaving too soon.'

Long before Mr. Kerik wound up in the criminal dock, one of his top chiefs at Correction had been convicted of misusing department personnel and supplies to run a lucrative political operation and spruce up his home. His hand-picked successor as Commissioner was forced to resign after he was discovered to have had two subordinates install a liner in his swimming pool. And the Bloomberg administration made several six-figure settlements of cases in which mid-level Correction supervisors were subjected to trumped-up charges, denied promotions or given undesirable work assignments because they refused to go along with Mr. Kerik's corrupt style of management.

And so invoking his name does not have the impact Mr. Mullins was clearly aiming for in explaining why nine members of Local 1181's board during the gangster-dominated regime of ousted President Sal Battaglia and his late and unlamented secretary-treasurer, Spike Bernstein - including Mr. Battaglia's son, Anthony - have remained as union delegates who handle the local's day-to-day operations.

"Nothing came up to indicate that he did anything different than the other board members," Mr. Mullins said of the younger Battaglia during a Feb. 13 interview. "The corruption was not within the union. The corruption was outside the union."

He meant that while Sal Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein were serving the interests of Genovese Crime Family leader Matty "The Horse" Ianniello, their corruption had involved shaking down bus company owners based either on the number of routes they had or their desire not to have certain employees unionized. Mr. Mullins contended that at no point did the illicit arrangements lead to a plundering of Local 1181's benefit funds.

If true, this would suggest Mr. Ianniello had made a distinction between ripping off the workers and bleeding their bosses, the sort of labor empathy not generally exhibited by Mafia leaders. But Mr. Mullins insisted that the International ATU had hired outside firms to probe Local 1181's service providers and its money managers to "ensure that the welfare fund and the pension fund are economically sound and there's no missing funds."

He continued, "We came in and we looked and investigated. We secured every computer in that building and backed up these computers" to make sure there were no shady transactions.

And so, Mr. Mullins said, while the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan had accused Mr. Battaglia of misappropriating $2.4 million, it was inaccurate to say that this money was missing from Local 1181's coffers.

So Why Are Pensions So Light?

On the other hand, Local 1181 members contribute more than 50 percent more to their pension funds than their counterparts in two ATU locals representing New York City Transit employees, but receive significantly smaller pension allowances. Was it possible that in return for the kickbacks the corrupt union leaders were receiving from some school bus company owners, they had not overtaxed themselves to negotiate better pensions for Local 1181's rank and file?

Mr. Mullins conceded that the pension benefit for local members "probably is not as lucrative as some of the others." But he claimed that a recent "growth period" in the number of Local 1181 members joining the pension plan had limited the extent to which benefits could increase.

He also noted that, in contrast to the NYC Transit locals - whose members pay 1.5 percent of their earnings towards their health coverage - Local 1181 members have no employee premiums.

That could change, under a contract negotiated in the summer of 2006, if benefit use exceeds a certain level. But Mr. Mullins said, "It's my duty and the other trustee's duty to maintain benefits. We've been able to do very well in keeping those costs within guidelines."

A dissident group known as Members for Change has asserted that by keeping most of the board members who served under Mr. Battaglia, the trusteeship has perpetuated the status quo and left the local vulnerable to renewed mob domination in the future. The group's suspicions are fortified by the elapsing of 16 months between the time in July 2005 that the U.S. Attorney first brought indictments against Mr. Battaglia, Mr. Bernstein, and more than a dozen alleged Genovese mobsters led by Mr. Ianniello and the imposing of the trusteeship. In other cases involving union corruption over the past decade, leaders have been removed by their parent bodies even before they were indicted; sometimes even if they weren't indicted but were deemed to be culpable in allowing the corruption to flourish.

'Horse' Plea Not Spur

Criticism of the International ATU intensified when it did not act after a superseding indictment in June 2006 charged Mr. Bernstein with shaking down a bus company owner not to organize his members. The inaction of ATU President Warren George became stupefying when Mr. Ianniello that September admitted in open court that he had controlled Local 1181's operation. It was not until a new indictment was brought against Mr. Battaglia in November of that year - and like Mr. Bernstein, he was forced by Federal prosecutors to resign his union position as a condition for having bail set - that a trusteeship was finally imposed.

"We may have been slow in getting here," Mr. Mullins acknowledged, but then added, "I don't see that as the really relevant issue. It's what we've done since we got here that should be of importance."

He said that during the 15 months that the trusteeship has been in effect, the local has recouped more than $200,000 in back pay for workers who were wrongly disciplined, got 75 percent of such cases dismissed and another 10 percent settled with reduced charges.

"We're providing on a daily basis representation for our membership," Mr. Mullins said. "We're negotiating contracts."

He is generally well-regarded, and even some of the dissidents have credited him with listening to their complaints about the local's operation. But Members for Change stopped viewing Mr. Mullins as a positive force once he made clear the trusteeship would not remove most members from the old board. (Two officials have departed, a union spokeswoman previously noted, but she declined to say that it was related to wrongdoing.)

Ducked Union's Probe

Questions remain about the way that board members were able to avoid being questioned by an attorney, Richard Mark, who had been retained by the International ATU before the trusteeship was imposed. In a report issued 13 months ago, Mr. Mark stated that two board members told him they wanted to consult International President George about whether they were required to appear before Mr. Mark under oath, and he was subsequently notified that other board members would also ask for direction from the Washington-based union leader. None of them subsequently appeared, Mr. Mark noted. The fact that nine of them remain on the board would seem to indicate that their stonewalling came with at the least the tacit consent of Mr. George. If so, it would represent an astonishing example of a union interfering with an investigation that it had commissioned.

When Mr. Mullins was asked about the matter, he responded, "I wasn't at all happy with Mr. Mark's [report]. Fifty or sixty percent of it was newspaper reports. When he asked the dissidents to come in, he didn't ask them to be put under oath. I don't understand the difference" in the treatment of those union members and the local's officers.

Mr. Mark did not return a call seeking comment. It seems possible, however, that the discrepancy stems from the fact that only the board members would have had direct knowledge of corrupt actions by Sal Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein.

Bound to Be Tainted?

As one union official who's knowledgeable about labor corruption put it, "This union was run by organized crime for four decades. I just don't think you can be part of that environment and not be part of it."

Two former board members, Anthony Rinaldo and Salvatore Ingoglia, gave statements to the FBI late last year in which they admitted that one of their duties was collecting payoffs from bus company owners and bringing them to Sal Battaglia, who then gave them $500 or $1,000 for each collection. Mr. Rinaldo also stated that he had heard that cash payments were being made by bus company owners to two of those who have continued as union delegates "in exchange for favorable treatment from Local 1181," according to an FBI Agent's summary of their interview last Oct. 9.

The dissidents had hoped that they could ride the anger of Local 1181 members over the corrupt dealings of Mr. Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein to victory in elections that had been due to be held in late spring.

But Mr. Mullins said that those elections will not take place. At that point, the trusteeship will have been in effect for 18 months, but he said he had no timetable on when he would recommend that it be lifted.

Votes for Stewards

Local 1181 is, however, holding shop-steward elections that will be concluded next week, something Mr. Mullins said was ordered in response to complaints by the dissidents that some of the incumbent stewards had tried to harass and intimidate those who looked to enroll other employees in Members for Change.

The postponing of officer elections may reflect his belief that the union is not ready to have its independence restored. But each passing month increases the distance from the guilty pleas of Mr. Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein and cools the rank-and-file discontent that Members for Change hoped could lead to a major shakeup at the top of the union.

Mr. Mullins views the dissident group in a less-than-flattering light. In a membership newsletter last fall, he raised questions about who he thought was worse - the union officials engaged in criminal behavior or those who drew attention to their misdeeds - by writing, "... when you see or hear someone badmouthing or disrespecting this Union, they are talking about YOU."

He said last week that at the time he was exercised about flyers that the dissidents were circulating accusing the International ATU of being corrupt.

"I think they may have initially been concerned about the way the local was being operated," he said of Members for Change. "But now I think they have turned into a political group with the sole intention of electing someone to office."

Pension Jump Unrealistic

He cited a flyer he said was being circulated by Members for Change that was promising Local 1181 members pension allowances of up to $2,200 a month, calling that figure unrealistic given the union's finances.

"That's a political thing," Mr. Mullins said. "That's what people want to hear, but there's got to be a [financially feasible] way of doing it."

On the other hand, campaign promises that might prove extravagant fall much more within the mainstream of union democracy than having each new president get the blessing of Matty the Horse. Mr. Bernstein's qualifications for his job as Local 1181 secretary-treasurer boiled down to his long friendship with Mr. Ianniello and past experience as a truck hijacker that proved useful in shaking down bus-company owners.

Mr. Mullins said the International ATU, determined to rid the local of its organized-crime influence, had adopted one of Mr. Mark's recommendations at its convention last year, amending its constitution to permanently ban from holding office any union members who were proven to have organized-crime associations.

That represented significant progress from the stance taken by Joseph Welch, the International Vice President who served as a liaison between Local 1181 and the national union throughout Mr. Bernstein's three decades in office. Mr. Mark in his report said that Mr. Welch had told him "he does not know who Battaglia may have been associated with in the past [with organized-crime ties], and made it clear that he does not care to know."

'Won't Excuse That'

"I'm not trying to excuse ... anything Mr. Welch said," Mr. Mullins remarked when asked about that.

Unions that have been taken over by organized crime until their activities drew the notice of national unions or prosecutors in more than a few instances endured brief periods of reform only to have the corruption return. When the histories of the city longshoreman's and carpenters' unions were mentioned to Mr. Mullins, he volunteered another example.

Noting that the indictments of 62 alleged organized-crime figures two weeks ago included charges that some of them had misappropriated funds from Teamsters Local 282, he noted that at the time of the alleged embezzlement, "The IBT Local 282 was under Federal monitoring.

"It can happen," Mr. Mullins said of the possibility of keeping the Genovese Family from muscling its way back in at Local 1181 and ensuring that it is run honestly. "It's our job to do everything we physically and legally can do to make it happen."

He declined to offer a timetable for holding officer elections, the first step toward ending the trusteeship and returning Local 1181's autonomy. And he scoffed at the suggestion that if enough time elapsed before a vote was held, members might wind up electing leaders who would return the local to its former status as a subsidiary of the Genovese Family.

"Even if we pack up and officers are elected, we're not just going to leave and not look back," Mr. Mullins said.