10 Indicted in Carpenters Union Corruption Investigation
Michael Forde, executive secretary-treasurer of the district council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and other key union officials are accused of helping individual contractors – which are not named in the 29-count indictment – steal “millions of dollars” from union benefit funds by allowing them to pay union member cash below union rates without benefits, employ undocumented and non-union workers and forgo contributions to the union’s benefit funds, a violation of the union’s collective bargaining agreement. In exchange for looking the other way, Forde and eight others – John Greaney, business manager and president of Local 608, the largest local in the district council; Local 608 officer Brian Hayes; shop stewards Michael Brennan, Brian Carson, Joseph Fuocco, John Stamberger and Michael Vivenzio; Joseph Olivieri, executive director of the Association of Wall, Ceiling and Carpentry Industries of New York – allegedly accepted bribes valued at approximately $1 million. Another man, contractor Finbar O’Neill, is accused of helping to deliver the illegal payments.
Forde, Greaney and Hayes were fired Wednesday by national union officials and the New York City District Council was put on supervision.