Former union president Kenneth Lyons has given up his effort to wrest back control of the national union he was ousted from for ignoring Mass. ethics rules. In Aug., U.S. Dist. Judge Morris Lasker (D. Mass., Johnson) upheld the takeover of the Natl. Assn. of Govt. Employees (NAGE) by its intl. parent, the Service Employees Intl. Union (SEIU).
Lyons founded the NAGE 40 years ago. But SEIU officials concluded in Nov. 2001 that Lyons had spent hundreds of dollars on meals for the state’s chief labor negotiator. Lyons sued to overturn the SEIU ruling, but Judge Lasker entered a summary judgment for the SEIU, ruling that no NAGE officials were pressured into agreeing with the SEIU takeover. Lyons recently withdrew his appeal of Lasker’s ruling. [Quincy, MA, Patriot Ledger 12/5/02]