Teamsters leaders named in Las Vegas scandal

Sun Staff and Wire Reports

Friday, May 25, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

A prominent Teamsters official in Chicago tried to steer Las Vegas convention jobs away from the union and to his brother's temporary labor firm, which used non-union workers, a union oversight panel charged.

The union investigators accused William Hogan Jr. and an aide to Teamsters President James P. Hoffa of putting pressure on Local 631 in Las Vegas to shift jobs to lower-paid, nonunion workers supplied by Chicago-based United Services Cos. Hogan's brother Mike was an officer at United Services.

Ed Jacobson, international representative for Local 631, was out of town today and could not be reached for comment. The 5,000-member Local 631 primarily represents freight truck drivers, mechanics and janitors and most of its workers are employed at the Nevada Test Site, Republic Services of Southern Nevada's Silver State Disposal Service Inc., United Parcel Service and the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Turmoil within the union has the potential of affecting Las Vegas's big convention industry.

Earlier this month Manny Cortez, president and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and LVCVA facilities Vice President Tom Smith said they are considering organizing a task force to plan for increased labor demands caused by big expansions of the Las Vegas Convention Center and Mandalay Bay's convention center.

The LVCVA is nearing completion on a 1.3-million-square-foot expansion to its Convention Center while Mandalay Bay announced plans to build a 1.8-million-square-foot conference center on its property.

"With an additional 3.1 million square feet of meeting and convention space, we're looking at a significant increase in the destination's labor needs," Smith said earlier this month. "We want to make sure that plans to accommodate these needs are in place as soon as possible."

But for now, the union is embroiled in its ow controversy.

Investigators claim Mike Hogan and another United official offered to pay thousands of dollars in kickbacks to officials at the local in return.

The Las Vegas local never accepted the deal but did give some work to the firm, according to the oversight panel's 192-page report released Thursday.

If the union's executive board or an independent review board upholds the allegations, Hogan and Hoffa aide Dane Passo could be expelled from the union.

Hogan, 60, called the allegations "ludicrous."

He earns $210,000 a year as the organizing and political director for Local 714 in Chicago, as an international union representative, as the president of Joint Council 25 for Chicago-area Teamsters' locals and as vice president of Local 179 in Joliet.

Passo, 48, ran Hoffa's campaign effort in Chicago and later became Hoffa's special assistant. He lost that title last October but has continued with the same duties, according to the report.

The Chicago Tribune was unable to reach Passo or Mike Hogan for comment. Teamsters officials in Washington also declined to comment on the allegations to the Tribune.

Local 631 in Las Vegas runs a hiring hall for workers who set up conventions and do custodial work at the mammoth shows in Las Vegas. Since Nevada is a right-to-work state, the union hall is also open for non-Teamsters.

Hogan set up a meeting for his brother's firm with officials at Local 631 in June 1999, according to the report.

Hogan told the Tribune he set up the meeting to help out the local because it could not always find enough workers for "big shows.' He also said he had hoped that the nonunion workers would become Teamsters.

But investigators found the local seldom had to go beyond its membership to fill convention jobs.

For Local 631, the investigation is another in a series of controversies. In April 2000, Hoffa placed Local 631 under emergency trusteeship, bringing Jim Wilkerson, a former president of Teamsters Local 14, out of retirement to lead the union after all other local officers were fired.

At the time, Wilkerson said his trusteeship would last until the union could be reorganized and new officials elected. A receptionist with the union today would not say when Jacobson took over for Wilkerson.

Hoffa turned the union leadership over to Wilkerson after members complained that the old leadership failed to file grievances on behalf of its members, negotiated "substandard" agreements with employers and failed to enforce collective bargaining agreements.

At the time, the national office also said officers and representatives of the local union were "inexperienced and unable to provide adequate representation to the members" and that "employment decisions by the principal officer have been motivated by political reasons."

In another union matter a year ago, union trash haulers went down to the wire in approving a seven-year contract with Republic Services of Southern Nevada. After rejecting a contract in May, union members approved the Republic contract a month later, just four days before a threatened strike by trash haulers.

Also in June, Hollywood film industry executives complained that the Teamsters were inflexible and wouldn't negotiate with firms attempting to make movies in Las Vegas. Len Hill, president of Leonard Hill Films, made the allegation at a conference sponsored by the Entertainment Development Corporation of Las Vegas. But Wilkerson said he was unaware of any negotiations between Hill and the union or any problems with inflexibility in negotiations.