LV Teamsters’ turmoil boils over into suit

Grace Leong

Monday, Dec. 30, 2002 | 11 a.m.

A former president of Teamsters Local 631 in Las Vegas, who was embroiled in events leading up to the local being placed under emergency trusteeship in 2000, has leveled wrongful termination and racial discrimination claims against the union and several Teamsters officials.

Frank Christian, who said he was elected to a three-year term as president in January 1999 and was a Local 631 business agent for the Nevada Test Site, sued the union, former local Secretary-Treasurer Tim Murphy and International union Vice President James Santangelo in U.S. District Court this month. His suit alleges violations of the U.S. Civil Rights Act.

Christian said Murphy and several other Teamsters members made "inappropriate racial remarks" including accusing "all blacks (of being) dishonest" and fired him as business agent for the Test Site after wrongfully accusing him of making a job assignment to a union member with less seniority than others and using the union's credit card for personal expenses.

But Murphy denied making inappropriate racial remarks about Christian and other blacks.

"The (allegations) are absolutely false. I've never made such remarks," he said. I've employed several different minorities after I fired Frank (including) two other blacks who worked for me until the day of the (emergency) trusteeship, several women, an Indian and (several) Hispanics."

Christian said these charges were investigated by the International union and dropped in October 2000. He now wants damages for Local 631's alleged failure to reinstate him as business agent for the Nevada Test Site with backpay.

Christian, who said he was terminated as a business agent in September 1999, said he was allowed to remain a figurehead president until April 5, 2000, when Local 631 was placed under emergency trusteeship by the International union, said Judith Braecklein, Christian's attorney.

But Christian, who became an ordinary Local 631 member after he was terminated as a business agent, said he was unemployed for most of the time until he left Local 631 in 2001 because the defendants would allegedly, without notifying him, claim that he wasn't available when prospective employers requested for him by name for potential jobs, she said.

"The local union kept giving him the runaround (that is, refusing to dispatch him to jobs.) Christian later left Local 631 and joined Teamsters Local 14 and (he) started getting (dispatched to) more jobs," she said.

But Murphy, who is now a Local 631 member, disagreed.

"The International (union's) Constitution and local bylaws state that the secretary-treasurer (the principal officer) has sole rights to hire and fire all employees and business agents," he said. "Christian was dispatched to jobs according to his qualifications and eligibility. If he had any grievances about jobs he was dispatched to, he should have filed charges with the NLRB. But he never did."

"Christian was an at-will employee," he said. "He was terminated for cause for misusing a union credit card and for getting someone from Republic Services a job at Nevada Test Site without going through the proper dispatch channels."

Christian said he was reduced to being a figurehead president after Murphy allegedly removed his presidential powers by stopping him from signing checks for the local union, denied him access to the union office and assigned another member to his office space.

Braecklein said Christian continued to act in name as the local's president until the International union took over the operations of Local 631 and removed the local executive board including Murphy.

But Murphy disputed Christian's claims his rights were violated.

"His rights as president were never violated or taken away from him," he said. "Because he was terminated as a business agent, he tried to destroy the credibility of my administration by getting members to disrupt meetings. He filed constant complaints to (International President James) Hoffa and Santangelo, yet he was never hired back. Hoffa must have thought he wasn't much of a business agent or he would have hired (Christian) back."

Christian said he wrote to Hoffa in September 1999 about his problems and those affecting the union's operations but was allegedly accused by Murphy of trying to curry favor with Hoffa and other Teamsters officials.

Nonetheless, Christian was named by Hoffa in an April 5, 2000, letter declaring emergency trusteeship of Local 631, as an example of how employment decisions made by Murphy were "motivated by political animus."

"Local President Frank Christian had his full-time representative status terminated for allegedly dispatching a member to work out of seniority order," Hoffa wrote. "The (International Brotherhood of Teamsters) representatives investigating this matter determined, however, that Christian was terminated for expressing opinions different from those of the Principal Officer (Murphy.)"

Hoffa, in his letter, said the dispute between Murphy and Christian compounded the problem of representation.

Local members complained that officers and representatives were "inexperienced and unable to provide adequate representation to the members. ... The officers are not working together, thus compounding the problem," Hoffa wrote. "As a result of the local's "failure to provide the representational services to which members are entitled, general membership meetings have become hostile, chaotic and counter-productive."

Local 631, which represents nearly 5,300 workers in Las Vegas, was placed under the emergency trusteeship of Jim Wilkerson in April 2000 by Hoffa following an internal investigation triggered by complaints of mismanagement from Local 631 members including Christian.

The investigation uncovered evidence that the local's former management failed to file grievances on behalf of its members, negotiated "substandard" agreements with employers and failed to enforce collective bargaining agreements.

Hoffa, in his letter, said "membership discontent is at a dangerous level" and that members are "discussing decertification and becoming members of other unions that have approached them" because the local's "general administrative functions have suffered from the inexperience of the officers and agents."

But Ed Burke, Local 631's secretary-treasurer, disputed Christian's and Hoffa's allegations.

"Frank (Christian) wasn't reinstated because the entire local executive board then was removed when the local union was put into trusteeship. That had nothing to do with Murphy's charges against Frank. That's a separate issue altogether," Burke said.

Burke, who said the emergency trusteeship of Local 631 will end Wednesday after a new seven-member Local 631 executive board, which was elected on Dec. 13, is sworn in today.

Burke, who said he was elected the local's secretary-treasurer, said the local will be headed by its new president Ricky Knight.