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From the January-February 2005 issue of Union Democracy Review #154
Rank and file give IATSE local 798 a makeover (updated 4/13/05)
by Rachel Padgett
A formidable reform group is rapidly emerging as a powerful force in Local 798 of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees [IATSE]. This is the 1,200-member east coast local of hair stylists and makeup artists. It was only last October that concerned members in New York addressed an "impartial letter" to all local members calling attention to a "rumor that the government has been investigating our union's office activities since June 2004." They requested members to attend the October local meeting.
The response was prompt; even overwhelming. They formed a caucus: Concerned Members of Local 798. The New York Post ran three articles on the shenanigans charged against the business manager. The caucus opened its own website and announced that it was running Joe Cuervo for business manager when the incumbent's term expired in February. All signs pointed to a reform victory. But then came the roadblock.
The IATSE international office announced that it would impose a trusteeship over the local on January 21, thereby putting everything on hold. At this point, the international's motive is not clear to the Concerned Members. Is it to help clean up the local? Or, is it to prevent the victory of Joe Cuervo and the Concerned Members? Their misgivings are based on the record. The international acted only after the problems threatened a public scandal and only after it became obvious that the members were determined to restore the union's integrity.
The scandal begins long before the international announced its trusteeship of the local. It begins somewhere back in late summer of 2004 when rumors of government investigation and financial double-dealings by Vincent Callaghan, the business manager, began to circulate. Members curious about the rumors started to ask questions of both their union leaders and each other. They were shocked by what they discovered and what the union refused to acknowledge.
The caucus, Concerned Members of Local 798, formed and began holding regular meetings. One of the first things the group did was set up a website to inform the membership at large and create an open forum to discuss the rumors. By early November Concerned Members sent a letter to the membership with thirty-eight signers, describing the problems in the union and calling the members to action. In December members of the caucus met with AUD to discuss the legal issues of running a candidate for business manager and how they could best protect their rights.
As Concerned Members gained momentum so did the stories of financial corruption and on December 27th Bill Sanderson reported in the New York Post that Vincent Callaghan "tried to sell more than $1 million worth of real estate bought with members' dues to his brother and brother's girlfriend at sweetheart prices." A week later on January 4th, Sanderson reports again on Vincent Callaghan, this time on his "elaborate plot to rob" the family of retired Local 798 member Barbara Brigham of her entire estate. According to the Post, Vincent sent a friend to "live with Brigham in her Hicksville home during the last two years of her life-and then got Brigham to sign a will giving that pal her house and other assets when she died." And as a bonus for Callaghan, the friend "signed a promissory note agreeing to fork over to Callaghan $100,000 from the old woman's estate." Two days later, the Post had another piece on the Local, this time reporting that Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the New York DA Robert Morgenthau, had confirmed the rumors of government investigation: "We are taking a look at a range of allegations involving activities at Local 798."
Concerned Members had their work cut out for them. Two of the Callaghan brothers, Ed and Vincent, have held the office of business manager for more than forty years, and a third brother, Richard, is the one named in the Post article as the potential purchaser of the Local's building. This was to be the first election in years where the position of business manager was contested.
In addition to this, the local's president, Sharon Ilson-Burke, was apparently willing to look the other way even though the Local filed suit against Vincent Callaghan. In a letter to the 1,200 plus members of 798 she says "...Vincent Callaghan, continues to do his job representing us with our employers. And Vince has been co-operating fully with the attorneys." She also made several postings on Concerned Members of Local 798's on-line forum. In one she refers to the rank and file reformers as "assholes" in another she says the website is run by "ignorant dissidents" who are "uneducated and obnoxious...who do not believe in democracy." But in the Local's January newsletter she really takes the cake; she calls the reformers terrorists referring to them as "our own little Taliban" and then reminds them, "You, and you know who you are, are exactly the word I use to describe you on your ridiculous website." In addition to this, Vincent Callaghan used the front page of the newsletter to blatantly campaign for his own re-election.
The January 10th general membership and nomination meeting attracted more than one-hundred members; not bad for a membership of 1,203 of which only 609 are in the tri-state area. Members traveled from as far as Delaware, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and North Carolina just to have their voice heard and to see for themselves how things are done in their local.
Concerned Members organized a pre-meeting, which almost fifty members attended. At this pre-meeting they explained the evolution of their group, fine-tuned their strategy for the general meeting, and answered questions. At the actual meeting reformers donned specially made t-shirts which read "truth and democracy for the rank and file-www.798members.com," distributed reprints of the Post's stories, the group's mission statement, and their agenda for the membership meeting. Reports deemed the meeting a success, with Concerned Members achieving all that they had set out to do (including successfully nominating Joe Cuervo for business manager). Rank and file members even stayed on for almost an hour to discuss the future of their union after President Sharon Ilson-Burke abruptly ended the meeting and stormed out.
Feelings of optimism over Cuervo's tangible success in the upcoming election were cut short. The very next day rumors flew that the IATSE international was placing the local under trusteeship. At the time of going to print the International had not made an official statement regarding the trusteeship but it seems like it will go ahead. While the Concerned Members are hopeful that the reason for the trusteeship is to correct the blatant financial mismanagement in their local, they fear that there could be other, undisclosed, reasons for the International to trustee 798. Either way, they are committed to continuing their campaign to reform local 798 and are determined to see Cuervo elected business manager.
IATSE Local 798 Update (4/13/05)
Last month's UDR reported on the rise of the Concerned Members of Local 798, a rank and file reform group in IATSE Local 798, the local that represents hairstylists and make-up artists up and down the east coast. The International had just placed the local under trusteeship consequently, postponing the business agent election for which Concerned Members candidate Joe Cuervo had just been nominated.
Allegations of officer misconduct, especially by Vincent Callaghan, the local's business agent, turned out to have substance when Callaghan, as reported by the New York Post, was indicted on fraud charges for allegedly trying to sell union-owned real estate to his brother and his brother's girlfriend. In a later article the Post reported that Callaghan "took a no-jail pleac, copping to cooking the books to cover his plans to swindle members out of union owned real estatecand pleaded guilty to making a false entry in the books of Local 798..."
While the Concerned Members remain guarded about the trusteeship, there
are some optimistic signs. The entire executive board, including Vincent
Callaghan, around whom the bulk of rumors swirled, was removed by the
trustees. Five members of the Concerned Members were picked to serve on
a six person committee put in place by the trustees to help restructure
the local. Trustee John Hall Jr. (whose father started Local 798) has
made a commitment to fix the health insurance. The reformers question
whether they can trust the apparent good intentions of the trustees while
continuing, either way they will keep members informed and run candidates
for the executive board once the international lifts the trusteeship.
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