Talk:United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America

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[edit] 100 million dollars "disappeared"

This seems like a major piece of information to be included without a reference:

after 40 million dollars " disappeared " from the Carpenter's International General Fund via questionable loans and real estate investments to family members and friends of the Carpenter's International Executive Board. Knowing that they would be voted out of office at the next National Convention, the Carpenter's International began to consolidate locals into a district council system. Within this new system working Carpenters lost the right to vote on contracts and to vote for their local's Business Agent, thus consolidating all power into the international appointed councils and leaving locals and rank and file members disenfranchised.[1]

The amount was subsequently amended to 100 million dollars. Does anyone have more information on this?--Bookandcoffee 15:17, 1 October 2006 (UTC) I added the parenthetical reference of 90 million because that was my recollection of the documents I reviewed. There were never any loans to family members the issue that brought Paddy Campbell down was when it became known that Paddy’s son was the investment advisor of one of the failed investments they used the fact that Paddy ordered checks issued to those investors without the Treasurers endorsement to place the blame on him in spite of the fact that the investments were approved by the International Executive Board. (Hammerhabit) The restructuring and the loss of the funds have no connection whatsoever so I added the other parenthetical explaining one of the reasons for the restructuring although there were many survival basis’s for shifting power from the Locals to the Councils, demonstrated now that we are the only building craft union that is growing its membership and many of the other trades are trying to restructure similarly. (Hammerhabit)

• • Struck the "wall-to-wall" reference as it appears to be largely either Anti-Union POV or sour-grapes with no researchable evidence it is actually occuring.
  • The diappearance of a large amount of funds from investments made by the Southern California Carpenters Pension Fund appears to have some basis.

Report At least one report that CA Sen. Diane Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, a trustee of the fund - in conjunction with UBC&J President McCarron and his brother who's title is Advisor and Trustee of "special investments" or some such nepotismistic label - have had a lawsuit filed against them for monkey business that apparently involved some $170 million+ in questionable "investment loans". It appears that Blum was receiving a finder's fee, as much as $200,000 in one case, from the companies receiving investment loans, loans originating from a pension fund he was charged with overseeing and to some companies of which he was an actual principle. While the final numbers are hard to determine, it appears of the $170 million+, aproximately $66-$70 million of those loans were not paid back as a result of bankruptcy on the part of the companies who received those loans. Blum did not return any of his finder's fees to the pension fund. The $40 million dollar figure would actually appear to be an underestimate of the losses & the statement that it "disappeared" from the General Fund would appear to also be misinformation. The losses were suffered from the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund for S. Cal. and the UBC Pension Fund. (Coincidentally, NOT the first time UBC&J President McCarron has gotten caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. Refer to the ULLICO scandal.) Conflict of interest statement: I am a dues paying member of Local 314 of the UBC&J in Madison, WI, however I do not feel that corrupts my integrity on this issue as I have fairly pointed out McCarron's foibles as well as defended another part of the entry as unsustainable. i4 23:37, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

The article on Douglas J. McCarron discusses the missing $100 million at length. Feel free to plagiarize...uh, er, "use another Wikipedia article to supplement this one." - Tim1965 21:19, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

I removed the category Category:Woodworkers and Category:Construction workers. Those categories are for distinct jobs, not unions. Instead, I added the category Category:Building and construction trade unions, whichis more appropriate. - Tim1965 21:19, 3 February 2007 (UTC)