:: rawblogXport ::

:: Monday, June 14, 2004 ::

Court forces Ironworkers to democratize its constitutions Union Democracy Review June-July 2004
After charging the officers of their Atlanta Ironworkers Local 387 with hiring hall abuses and misusing money, member Carl Bishop and elected trustee Oscar Ingram were found guilty and fined in their local on charges of slander, circulating false reports, and causing dissension. But in March, Federal Judge Gladys Kessler, in the District of Columbia, voided the penalties and ordered them reinstated with full rights. Suit on their behalf had been brought by that eminent defender of union democracy and irrepressible scourge of union bureaucracy: Arthur Fox.

The issues were so clear that the judge needed no trial; she granted summary judgment. Not only did she hold for the two Ironworkers, but she ordered the union to clean up the international constitution and forbade it to enforce those repressive provisions which, a relic of the past, clearly violated the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA).

The offending provisions, now void, are:

Three sections of Article XIX which subject members to discipline for 'slander,' for 'attempting to incite dissatisfaction,' and for 'circulating false reports.'

Article XXVI, Section 18, which forbids any member to 'reveal any private business or proceeding of this Local Union or of the International Association....'

posted 6:43 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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