Although you have consistently refused to meet with us, we think that you should reject the advice that you have been receiving and meet with us to discuss our recommendations to restore this Union to financial strength. The current program of obstruction and harassment only reinforces the strong impression among our membership that you must be hiding something. Re: Trustees' Report on Review of Books & Records Dear Sir and Brother: This will constitute our report and findings with respect to our review of the International Union's books and records for the first half of 1994. First, this was by far the worst six-month period in the International Union's finances that any of us have ever seen. The Union began the period with an alleged net worth of $58.8 million, took in $38 million ($36 million attributable to per capita fees paid by local unions), spent $89.5 million and finished, on June 30, 1994, with an alleged net worth of only $7.3 million. During this sixmonth period alone, the IBT ran a deficit of $51.5 million. The $89.5 million spent during this period includes $36 million in out-of-work benefits, approximately $30 million attributable to the April 1994 Freight strike. Setting the $30 million Freight strike amount to one side as a nonrecurring expense still leaves expenditures of more than $58 million and a deficit of more than $21 million for only a six-month period. As a result of this financial slide, the GEB imposed the $1 per member per month Emergency Assessment effective May 1994, was forced to borrowed $15 million from the AFLCIO, UAW and UMW Strike Fund, and terminated the payment of all out-of-work benefits effective June 1, 1994. General President Ron Carey : Second, our ability to conduct a thorough, accurate and timely review of the Union's books and records was repeatedly obstructed by unreasonable restrictions imposed by you and General Secretary-Treasurer Sever. We were not allowed to have copies of anything, even the most fundamental documents necessary for us to conduct a thorough review. We were denied copies of the minutes of GEB meetings, refused copies of resolutions passed by the GEB, and denied financial reports made by the General SecretaryTreasurer and distributed to the GEB. As a result, we were again forced to copy necessary information by hand. We had. to make repeated requests for some documents and information before they were provided. We wasted a lot of time waiting for members of the General Secretary-Treasurer's staff to produce requested documents or information. Even more time was lost because we were not allowed to examine any of the Union's books and records unless a member of the GST's staff was present to monitor our review. We were refused any access to documents outside the six-month period, even when we asked to review those documents and records for the purpose of making comparisons with expenditures made during the first half of 1994. We made repeated requests for a list of the account numbers that are assigned to each International Union expenditure as it is entered into the Union's computerized accounting system. We hoped that access to these account numbers would speed our review by allowing us to request and review computer-generated lists of expenditures for the particular account numbers that coincided with areas that we believed required careful scrutiny. Initially, we were refused access to these account numbers outright. were told that the list would be useless because it was hundreds of pages long. When, after our repeated demands, the list was finally produced, it was only several pages in length. The account numbers were very useful and considerably facilitated our review. Later we Our review was further obstructed when, for the first time, we were told that we could interview the heads of the Union's various departments only if we submitted the questions we wanted to ask them in advance and in writing. This new restriction appears designed to prevent us from learning how the Union's financial affairs are actually handled and to preclude the candid answers given in previous interviews that identified the lack of any budget or spending controls contrary to a document provided by the General President Ron Carey July 21, 1995 General Secretary-Treasurer that purported to be a "budget." In all the years that we have served as Trustees, this is the first time we have been denied the right to freely question the Union's staff. This limitation only serves to reinforce the impression that you do not want us, the members or any one else to know how the Union is spending the members' dues money. Despite our daily requests, you have refused to meet with us to discuss either our findings or the problems we have encountered. We have been told repeatedly that you are "busy" with some other matter and have no time to speak to us even when we notify you several weeks in advance that we will be in Washington for a particular week and that we would meet with you at any time during that week. We have also been threatened. The Communications Department has issued several press releases that include what can only be characterized as personal attacks on each of us. The use of union funds for such retaliatory attacks is clearly improper. We have been warned that the Union's financial information is "confidential," that we are to submit our report only to General President Carey, and that we are not to discuss our findings with any other union member or officer or with anyone else which would presumably prevent any discussion of our findings with the members of the IRB. You have continued to criticize Local Union officers for failing to fully inform their membership about how their dues money is spent. Any officer who treated a member the way you and General Secretary-Treasurer Sever have treated us would be before the Ethical Practices Committee on charges. The International Union and its officers should be held to the same standard that you apply to Local Union officers. We must remind you that this Union is not supposed to be a secret society run by a small group of insiders. Members and officers have a right to know what the Union is doing and, in particular, what the Union is doing with their dues money. On February 27, 1995, General Secretary-Treasurer Sever threatened to have Trustee DeRusha "investigated" unless he backed off from the vigorous review of the International Union's books and record that was demonstrated by the Report we submitted on January 16, 1995. This harassment, the restrictions imposed on our review, and the threats create the clear impression that you and General SecretaryTreasurer Sever are trying to keep us and the union's |