Keeping the heat on the union-owned Ullico, under fed. investigation for insider stock trading, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Fndtn. filed charges against the Ullico Board on Aug. 13 with the Natl. Labor Relations Bd. (NLRB)
As reported in previous issues of UCU, a fed. grand jury in Wash., D.C. is investigating allegations that from 1999 to 2001, several intl union presidents used their positions on the Ullico Bd. to sell their personal Ullico stock at a dramatically higher price than its worth, but would not allow larger shareholders such as union pension funds to sell their stock during the same period. As a result, those shareholders were stuck with Ullico’s stock, heavily leveraged in the telecom firm Global Crossing, which rode the wave of the telecom bubble to bankruptcy in 2001.
The Fndtn. charges that as an employer providing financial support to several unions through their presidents, Ullico violated Sec. 8(a)2 of the Natl. Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which bars employers from “domina[ting] or interfer[ing] with the formation or administration of any labor organization or contribut[ing] financial or other support to it…” [NRTWLDF]