K .. no matter how hard I try I cannot find the news article in the Calgary Herald! Dah_oes anyone have a visual aide?
Pension Fund Trustees Busted
According to a report in the Calgary Herald a government-ordered audit has found trustees of the Edmonton Pipe Industry Pension Trust Fund pension fund violated regulations, lost cash on bad deals and took trips with their wives at the fund's expense. Accordng to the audit, the trustees "have jeopardized the future of the plan" and contravened the Employment Pensions Plan Act and the Income Tax Act.
During the course of the audit, it was discovered that the fund's administrator was the CEO of three golf courses owned by the fund, and several trustees were on the board of directors of companies the fund owns.
Auditors discovered that trustees used plan assets as collateral to borrow $14.5 million for a mortgage, and $8 million US for mortgages for two U.S. golf courses.
UA officials weren't in a hurry for members to learn of the results of the audit. Doug Patterson, a member of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Local 488, said he had to ask the government for a copy of the audit after the trust fund's officials refused to give it to him. "They've already been cited for not releasing information to the membership," he said. "They really didn't want anyone to know about this."
[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: news ]
It reads:
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Calgary-Herald, March 18, 2001
Business
News
The-Canadian-PressPension fund trustees censured
A government-ordered audit has found trustees of a union pension fund violated regulations, lost cash on bad deals and took trips with their wives at the fund's expense.
The Edmonton Pipe Industry Pension Trust Fund has been ordered by the government to take corrective action.
The audit says the trustees "have jeopardized the future of the plan" and contravened the Employment Pensions Plan Act and the Income Tax Act.
"They don't appear to be accountable for anything,'' said Doug Patterson, a member of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Local 488.
Patterson, a 39-year-old journeyman pipefitter, said he had to ask the government for a copy of the audit after the trust fund's officials refused to give it to him.
"They've already been cited for not releasing information to the membership," he said. "They really didn't want anyone to know
about this."Auditors discovered the fund's administrator was the CEO of three golf courses owned by the fund, and several trustees were on the board of directors of companies the fund owns.
The Alberta Treasury's superintendent of pensions hired Pricewaterhouse Coopers to do the audit after a check in 1999 revealed the plan breached Alberta regulations.
"The superintendent did inform me that it's very uncommon . . . as it relates to other pension plans," said Megan Parker, a department spokesman.
She said he issued a compliance order to the pension trust fund in June.
The fund's chairman said the union's 3,000 members haven't seen the report, but will be updated.
"We had issued a letter to our members indicating we received the report," said Cliff Williams. "We're just working on every aspect of the report. We were not altogether surprised (by the findings), but a little bit. We had been working on some of the things prior to receiving this report."
Auditors discovered that trustees used plan assets as collateral to borrow $14.5 million for a mortgage, and $8 million US for mortgages for two U.S. golf courses.
Copyright Calgary Herald 2001 All Rights Reserved.
This is really an anomaly. Alberta is a fine place to register your pension (you'll notice these guys were merely told to smarten up). Members aren't supposed to know anything about the various funds machine heads control. The best they can usually hope for is to get a vague report on "union" finances. The different funds aren't "unions" so the members usually don't have any way of getting the information.
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This is really an anomaly.
You mean getting caught misusing/stealing funds is an anomaly, it's epidemic in some machines. 
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Members aren't supposed to know anything about the various funds machine heads control. The best they can usually hope for is to get a vague report on "union" finances. The different funds aren't "unions" so the members usually don't have any way of getting the information.
What kinds of things can the Power Source do to keep track of their pension funds? How do you make the machine accountable when even the law won't? Does the Power Source have to wait 'til the machines are built anew, reformed , or switched?
edit= speak English!
[ 01-19-2002: Message edited by: siggy ]
The anomalies are getting caught and having anybody do anything at all after they are caught. In Alberta, it was just a, "hey guys, stooooop thaaaaat!"
When it comes to getting pension information, all a "participant" is allowed to know is what's on the vague audited financial statement. Who the plan sent to Hawaii is none of your business. As terrible as that may seem, it's a heck of a lot more than you are allowed to see in regard to other funds. How much does your local send to the National Education and Training fund? What happens to that money? What is it spent on? What about your Local E&T fund? How's your money spent that goes to Labour Councils or the CLC?
A person's local may not be able to fund a strike, but it can spend a lot of the Power Source's money funding political parties (not necessarily the NDP) and some of the money that goes to LCs winds up in political coffers and some of the money that goest to the CLC winds up in political coffers. The Power Source may pay three times into a cause but they'll be lucky if their union reports the extent of even one contribution.
When a union says that $2 million went to "organizing" that could mean anything. It could be hefty salaries for flunkies, relatives and friends who are called "organizers."
What's with the $1 million spent on Education and Training? It could very well be a hefty salary, a realy nice SUV and lots of plane trips and hotels for business agents who "learn" lots of stuff at conventions. A hotel room, porno movies and calls to 1-900 numbers could be hidden in that account, but you'll never know.
[ 01-20-2002: Message edited by: weiser ]
The very fact these guys aren't looking at jail time infuriates me to no end. Why do law makers ignor this but punish corporate embezzlement? Pensions are the life blood of people over 65 so it stands to reason the damage done by this kind of activity far outweighs that done by a corporate embezzler.
The labour movement is in decline and union membership is falling like a rock. This kind of thing and the fact it isn't punished only makes organizing the unorganized that much harder.
Perhaps someone can show me the difference between what these guys pulled and what Cliff Evans and his UFCW clan are doing with the UFCW pension fund? Now I could be wrong, but personally I don't see any difference at all.
There's nothing illegal about making a bad investment or a bunch of bad investments. There's nothing illegal about doing a real poor job of running businesses owned by a pension fund. It's the system that allows cowboys, once elected, to do as they please running the union's funds and businesses. That's what a lot of members don't underdstand.
The real money isn't in the union business; it's in the Union's Businesses.
And there isn't a law that gives a member any say in how those businesses are run. They are private affairs that can only be investigated if a formal complaint is lodged. A formal complaint can't be lodged without hard evidence. Hard evidence can't be obtained without direct access to records. The Power Source has no right to direct access to those records.
How does one get direct access? One has to either put a motion on the floor at a General Membership Meeting and have it passed. Likewise, a motion to change a local union's by-laws might also be made. However, changing by-laws, by membershp vote, is deliberately difficult.
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There's nothing illegal about making a bad investment or a bunch of bad investments.
Getting kickbacks from bad investments is that legal too? Conflict of interest?