To the Department of Labor, there was something strange about the way William Drake kept the books. Their suspicions were well-founded. On February 28, Drake, formerly president of United Steelworkers Local 1013T, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York to two years supervised probation, fined $500 and ordered to perform 260 hours of community service for omitting material facts on the union’s DOL annual financial reporting forms for 2001, 2002 and 2003. Drake, 48, a resident of Avoca, N.Y. (near Hornell), had submitted claims to the union for lost time due to a disability. Those claims, however, were in addition to similar ones he’d filed with his employer, Phillips Lighting Company – and hadn’t reported to Local 1013T. In addition to his sentence, he will have to make nearly $3,500 in restitution. Drake pleaded guilty in November. The sentencing follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. (OLMS, 3/18/08).
