U.S. union to oversee troubled Metro local

10 January 1995
The Toronto Star
Jack Lakey


The head office of the Labourers' International Union of North America will be stepping in to "supervise" the day-to-day operations of its powerful Local 183 in Metro.

The union's headquarters in Washington, D.C., has also dispatched a special auditor to Metro to examine Local 183's books after numerous allegations of financial irregularities.

A union official in Washington yesterday confirmed that the measures were taken after charges of financial wrongdoing were filed against the boss of Local 183, business manager Michael J. Reilly.

Auditor Robert Garofano of Providence, R.I., will begin a probe of Local 183's books tomorrow and will focus on charges filed Dec. 29 against Reilly under the union's constitution.

Just how much control Washington will exercise over the daily operations of Local 183, which has 15,000 members, will depend on the evidence found by Garofano, say union officials in the United States.

"Supervising" the local means the international headquarters can become as involved as it believes is necessary in its daily business decisions. But more important, Washington can "remove any particular officer of (the local executive board) but not the whole board," a union official said.

The union wanted to move into Local 183 in a trusteeship arrangement, where headquarters would automatically remove the local's entire executive board, sources say.

For now, it settled for an accounting investigation and a supervisory arrangement that will begin after Garofano's probe is completed. "Whether we go in right now (or later) is a moot point; we're in," said the union official, who asked not to be named.

"Action probably won't be taken until the end of the month because Garofano has to do his investigation, file a report and we've got to look at it and make a recommendation. We need two or three weeks."

Reilly yesterday said that Local 183 "invited" Washington in to supervise the union "for a number of reasons. Generally, they are political reasons."

When asked to elaborate on the reasons, Reilly said he "would prefer not to do that."

Reilly tried to resist supervision in a Jan. 2 letter to the union's regional office in Hamilton, and blamed allegations of financial improprieties on a rival union faction trying to gain control of Local 183.