Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

HOTEL EMPLOYEES AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION AGREES TO RID ITSELF OF ORGANIZED CRIMEWednesday, Sept. 6, 1995

For more information call: (201) 645-3926.

A monitor has been appointed to oversee the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HEREIU) for at least 18 months to sever all ties with organized crime.

The court appointment of Kurt Muellenberg as monitor settles a federal civil racketeering complaint filed against the union. It is the third action taken against an international union, following settlements reached with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Laborers International Union of North America. Muellenberg is former chief of the U.S. Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.

"The appointment of a monitor establishes a mechanism to effectively root out corruption in the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union that has continued for 20 years," said Charles C. Masten, inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department. "This is another milestone in the government's fight against organized crime. With this agreement, three of the four international unions identified in 1986 by the President's Commission on Organized Crime as being controlled by mob elements have agreed to remove corruption from their ranks."

The federal complaint alleged that between 1970 to the present, the general executive board of the union cooperated with organized crime in soliciting bribes from employers, stealing union funds and denying union members the right of honest service by their officials. The U.S. Labor Department's Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation cooperated in the investigation of the international union.

Under terms of the consent decree signed late yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown in Trenton, N.J., the monitor may seek removal of officials at all levels of the union for:

• violating provisions of the settlement;
• committing any crime involving running a union or overseeing an employee benefit plan;
• furthering the influence of any organized crime group.

The monitor may also disapprove contracts, the appointment or discharge of union employees and candidates for elective office at all levels of the union. All monitor actions are subject to court review.

All union officials and members are barred from:

• racketeering;
• knowingly associating with any member or associate of any crime organization or any person otherwise barred from participating in union affairs ;
• obstructing the monitor or anyone implementing the consent decree.

The union agreed in the consent decree that delegates to its 1996 convention will consider adopting an ethical practices code prohibiting conflict of interest by union officials and enforcing conduct required by the decree. Delegates will also consider forming a three-person public review board to administer and enforce the ethical practices code.

This settlement against the international union follows an earlier civil racketeering case against its Atlantic City-based Local 54.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.