A Feb. 22 hearing to consider extending the Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters’ trusteeship of Local 456 turned into a raucous rally in support of two brothers accused of nepotism, bribery and financial mismanagement.
In January, IBT president James P. Hoffa responded to a finding by the fed. Independent Rev. Bd (IRB) that Edward and Bernard Doyle had mismanaged the financial affairs of Local 456 in Elmsford by imposing a temporary trusteeship. The three-member IBT panel arrived in Elmsford on the 22nd to consider an IBT takeover of the Local. Over 1,000 of the Doyles’ supporters met them, warmed up by State Sen. Nicholas Spano (R-Yonkers), who urged them to support the Doyles. To hoots and hollers, the panel entered a union hall draped with a banner saying, “Say no to the IRB and Trusteeship.”
Local president Bernard Doyle, accused by the IRB of arbitrarily choosing union members and misusing a union credit card for personal expenses, addressed the hearing from the crowd of supporters. “[T]hey [the IRB] knock the Doyle name all over,” he said: “I’m proud to be a DoyleÖObviously we did pretty well,” Doyle said to repeated cheers and ovations.
Several other speakers spoke in the Doyles’ support. Finally, Edward Doyle Sr., forced to resign the presidency of 456 due to a bribery charges in 1999, spat curses at the IRB investigator there at the hearing. Doyle Sr., in the fifth year of his suspension, referred to his return as the IRB’s “worst nightmare.”
The IBT panel has 60 days to recommend whether to uphold the charges and force new officer elections, or return the union leadership to Bernard Doyle, to Hoffa, who will then have 15 days to make a decision. [White Plains Journal News 2/23/03]