Two top officials at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 827 believed that they could get away with claiming hours for work not done. It turned out to be a bad guess. That’s why they’re former officials. On July 8, Robert Garris, former chief shop steward for the East Windsor Township (Mercer County), N.J.-based union, was charged in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Passaic County, with theft by deception in the sum of $25,960 for submission of false time claims. Nine days later, on July 17, in the same court, Jason D’Errico, the union’s former secretary-treasurer, was charged with time claim theft in the amount of $58,954 and purchase of a vehicle with funds belonging to the Passaic County Labor Board. The charges in each case follow an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
