On June 8, Kathy Oatman, former secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 228, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin to embezzling $4,662 in funds from the Eau Claire union. She also will have to make full restitution. The local belongs to a breakaway faction of UNITE (textile and laundry workers), Americans United, which affiliated in 2009 with the Service Employees International Union. The guilty plea follows a probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
