“Going out golfing and getting paid for it” was how Michael “Mickey” Annucci described the requirements of his job. He spoke prematurely. Annucci, 54, an organizer and shop steward for Local 157 of New York’s United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, had embezzled at least $10,000 from his union, according to an indictment by a Manhattan federal grand jury unsealed in mid October. The sum represents wages, pension and health benefits denied to members because of Annucci’s time-sheet underreporting.
Annucci was a shop steward for five years at a Madison Avenue building where L&D Installers had a contract to install furniture. Each week the L&D foremen prepared a computer spreadsheet showing actual hours worked by Carpenters union members, according to an affidavit by a U.S. Department of Labor investigator. The company owners, with Annucci’s full cooperation, reviewed the spreadsheet and decided which hours to report to the union and pay at the union rate. During one week, for example, L&D records showed that 14 carpenters worked 365 hours. Yet Annucci sent the union a report listing only four carpenters working a combined 186 hours. The difference translated into lower payments by L&D into the Local 157 pension and benefits fund. (New York Post, 10/22/06).