Carpenters Union discovers $300,000 shortage - By Steve Walsh, Gary Post Tribune, IN
Paul Hernandez, Nannenga's replacement at the powerful Local 1005, in Hobart, was indicted this year for diverting $143,000 from a state training grant to his own accounts. The International recently took over Local 1005, eliminating Hernandez' last leadership position with the union, as head of the local.
Though the Tharp letter said the fired bookkeeper took money from several funds, the latest federal probe seems concentrated on the market recovery program, begun under Nannenga in 1995. The program is funded by a 10-cent-an-hour deduction from the hourly wages of union Carpenters members. It was designed to level the playing field, by providing grants to union employers bidding against non-union contractors, Carlberg said.