MORE UBC EMPLOYEES FIGHT BACK AGAINST UBC PUNKS..ANOTHER LAWSUIT FILED IN NJ..HEY DOUGY MCCARRON...WHAT DO YOUR NUTS AND TWO FLAT ROCKS HAVE IN COMMON

THREATENED!!!STALKED!!TRACKING DEVICES ON THEIR VEHICLES!! PHONES MONITORED

 HEY FEDERAL,STATE AND LOCAL COPS.IS ANY OF THIS LEGAL AND NOT A CRIME!!!

READ THE COMPLAINT

 LAWSUIT:POWERFUL CARPENTERS UNION PURGED REFORMERS

Whistleblower Allies Endured Spying, Tracking, and Intimidation

Newark, NJ, December 1, 2020. Five terminated employees of the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters suffered multiple acts of retaliation and discrimination at the hands of vengeful Union leaders, according to the lawsuit filed today in Superior Court of New Jersey in Essex County.

The illegal acts against the plaintiffs culminated in their termination, according to the complaint. Plaintiffs were all vocal supporters and allies of former Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters (NRCC) Executive Secretary John Ballantyne, whose efforts to reform the Union and root out corruption led to his dismissal (2018) and a federal investigation of Carpenters Funds Administrator George Laufenberg. Laufenberg was subsequently indicted for embezzling $1.5 million from the Union.

The lawsuit claims Union leaders violated the Conscientious Employer Protection Act (CEPA) and the Law Against Discrimination (LAD) through a pattern of retaliation culminating in the plaintiff’s termination because of their relationship with John Ballantyne and their participation in and support of his efforts to rid the union of corruption and discrimination. The plaintiffs are represented by Nancy Erika Smith, Esq., of the Montclair, N.J. law firm Smith Mullin.

“This is textbook retaliation taken to the extreme,” said Smith. “My clients were devoted Union employees who fought to change the Union’s regressive culture of racism and sexism. The bosses cynically used the pandemic to justify their removal. In fact, union jobs continued, and newly hired employees were not terminated while these five long-term dedicated employees were fired.”

The plaintiffs are:

• Anthony Verrelli is a State Assemblyman and a 31-year Union employee who worked with John Ballantyne to expose Laufenberg’s actions. He founded “Carpenters Who Care,” a program designed to aid members who were suffering from addiction and help them achieve sobriety
• Justin Ballantyne, John Ballantyne’s son and a Union employee for more than 15 years, was a vocal opponent of race and sex discrimination within the Union.  He often spoke out against the all-too-common racist and sexist remarks made by his co-workers.
• Alex Lopez is a 20-year veteran of the Union and a close friend to John Ballantyne. He voted to approve the internal investigation into Laufenberg’s activities.
• Vanessa Salazar was a Union employee for almost 15 years and worked with John Ballantyne to expand the Union’s diversity and inclusion programs.  She was Chairwoman of “Shades in the Trades,” which sought to increase the recruitment and retention of people of color and women.
• Susan Schultz was a 41-year employee of the Union and a vocal supporter of John Ballantyne’s efforts to rid the Union of discrimination. She chaired the “Sisters in the Brotherhood” program, a committee within the Union whose mission is to create a network of active female Union carpenters.

“In order to purge the Union of those who wanted more honesty, accountability, diversity, and inclusion, the Union leaders employed tactics against my clients which included spying, defamation and intimidation,” said Smith. “They were verbally threatened and stalked; tracking devices were surreptitiously hidden on their vehicles; their phones were monitored; and their every movement was scrutinized and questioned.”

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs had their budgets cut and were intentionally harassed. Without explanation, some were demoted and received pay cuts. Others were penalized by being assigned distant work locations that added hours to their daily commute. All were forced to relinquish passwords to their digital devices. They were deliberately frustrated in their jobs and set up to fail.

According to the Complaint, the Union’s former political director verbally attacked a plaintiff claiming to be “acting as the voice of the Union.” She lashed out at him, accusing him of being a “traitor to the organization” after seeing a Facebook photo of the plaintiff with John Ballantyne. She demanded the plaintiff end his relationship with John Ballantyne because Ballantyne had called for an investigation into Union activities.

The retaliation and abuse culminated on March 27, 2020 with the abrupt and arbitrary termination of all five plaintiffs, an action falsely and cynically attributed to the impact of COVID-19 on the Union’s work.

“There were no work stoppages caused by the coronavirus, union members with much less seniority were not laid off and members in other related Unions were only temporarily furloughed. The Union leadership saw in the pandemic an opportunity to clean house of troublemakers who wanted to move the Union forward, to change the decades-long white-men-only culture in which no one questioned leadership,” said Smith. “Rather than lead an honest and inclusive organization, these leaders were addicted to their power and to maintaining the self-serving status quo.”

 READ IT HERE

 

 

Carpenters say they were fired for exposing union corruption, file whistleblower lawsuit

By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

George R. Laufenberg, the indicted carpenters union benefits manager and former Port Authority commissioner who was the focus of an apparent internal struggle over allegations of wrongdoing that led to charges of retaliation on Tuesday.Star-Ledger file photo

Five former union members filed a whistleblower lawsuit Tuesday against the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters and its executive secretary, claiming they were ousted after they tried to root out corruption within the politically powerful labor organization.

Among the five were Assemblyman Anthony Verrelli, D-Mercer, a union leader who had been closely associated with John Ballantyne, the former executive secretary-treasurer of the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters. Ballantyne was ousted himself in what he claimed was an act of retribution over his own push back against the union’s leadership.

According to the complaint filed Tuesday in Superior Court in Essex County, even before they were fired, Verrelli and others said they had their budgets cut and were intentionally harassed. Some were demoted and received pay cuts. Others were penalized by being assigned distant work locations that added hours to their daily commute.

Their attorney, Nancy Erika Smith of Smith Mullin in Montclair, said all were fired without warning by email one afternoon in March, calling it “textbook retaliation.” Verrelli, who was elected president of Carpenters Local 254 in 2017, was removed by union officials in August.

“They purged anyone affiliated with John Ballantyne,” said Smith.

Union officials denied there was any retaliation.

“It is unfortunate that former employees would make such accusations about our union,” said Frank Mahoney, a spokesman for the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. “In the midst of a global pandemic, our council had to make the tough and unfortunate decisions many other unions, businesses, and organizations had to make regarding staffing levels.”

Mahoney said the council’s staffing levels decreased in every state it has geographic jurisdiction over, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

“Our goal is to always make decisions that are in the best interest of our hard-working members in the field,” he said.

The influential trade union has been the focus of mounting questions since Ballantyne, now chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, charged in an October 2018 lawsuit that he had been fired from his high-profile job after raising questions about then-Carpenters Funds administrator George Laufenberg.

Not long after, Laufenberg — a former commissioner on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — was hit with a five-count federal indictment mirroring many of the charges in Ballantyne’s complaint. He was accused of embezzlement in connection with $1.5 million in pension funds, deferred compensation payments, excess annuity fund contributions, as well as conspiracy to embezzle with a “low-show” employee, and making a false statement in an annual financial report.

Laufenberg earned an annual salary of about $300,000.

The criminal case has yet to come to trial.

Late last year, meanwhile, a federal grand jury in New Jersey sent out new subpoenas to entities tied to the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, according to an internal memo, and were served on the union, its pension fund, its pharmacy benefit manager, a union accounting firm and a construction company.

Ballantyne’s own civil lawsuit has since been settled, its terms undisclosed.

In the complaint filed Tuesday, Verrelli said he had been called a “traitor to the organization.”

In addition to Verrelli, others named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Justin Ballantyne, the son of John Ballantyne and a union employee for more than 15 years; Alex Lopez, who voted to approve an internal investigation into Laufenberg’s activities; Vanessa Salazar, who sought to increase the recruitment and retention of people of color and women, and Susan Schultz, who chaired a committee to create a network of active female union carpenters.

Smith said all five were long-term employees who had been mentored by Ballantyne, and were fired as other recently hired employees kept their jobs.

“It’s all pretty brazen,” she said.

READ IT HERE

 

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