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Interview with Pipe Trades reformer Frank Natalie

(The following interview was conducted on January 3, 2005, with AUD $100 Plus Club Member Frank Natalie, one of the founders of Pipe Trades for A Democratic Union (P4DU).) We first got to know Frank back in November 2002 at a construction conference organized by AUD. Frank has been a leading voice in the union democracy movement within the UA.

AUD: How did you come to be concerned with union democracy?

I became disappointed with the procedures being followed in my local. My local was the former Local 105 (we merged with Local 7 of the UA) and the transition from that point forward included them allowing the changing of our bylaws without any voting, and all kinds of structural changes were forced upon us. We started to question why votes weren't being taken; and we were forced to have a fund manager; and at that point I started to question if all of this was legal.

I became disenchanted with the leadership because they were lying to us. That's when I started doing research on the internet and that's when I found AUD. From there it all steamrolled, with AUD as my launch pad, I began to read and read LMRDA and court cases until I was bleary-eyed. Then, when AUD had its construction conference in November 2002, there were about 30 other plumbers and pipefitters there, and that's when we caucused and formed Pipe Trades for A Democratic Union (P4DU). P4DU is made up of members of locals all around the country.

AUD: What were you trying to accomplish with P4DU?

By having a website, I could share with people what I was learning, share things that I knew other people would find useful, and share material that was accurate. That still is where we (P4DU) are today. My suspicions about the union came out to be true, as shown by the Diplomat scandal -- the recent allegations of about financial scandal are now proving to be correct. We networked and it worked for us. I can say our membership is more educated and more informed than it has ever been, in my opinion. People have called us up and just said that they have learned so much from our website. I think we have come a long way but we still have got a long way to go.

AUD: What are you doing now?

The latest scandal actually was preceded by retired UA officers accusing Maddaloni of malfeasance, but the Executive Board was unwilling, or did not know how to bring them to justice. This reinforces to me the point that UA members need more power and oversight inside the locals to bring these officials under control, and we don't have these rights. Part of the blame goes to the US Dept. of Labor (USDoL), part to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and part of the blame rests with the members themselves. Even though we have LMRDA it is no good if not enforced. Membership has lost control. Internationals are run by a few fortunate members who know how to keep control away from the members of the organization, and we will never move forward unless someone from the government comes in and says you must give your members true democracy. The work that AUD does is like magic -- with the amount of work it has done and the few resources that it has. You do everything with nothing.

As far as our current focus, it is to call for a federal investigation into the failure of the UA Executive Board. The Board allowed these scandals to occur despite warnings. We are asking UA members all across the country to sign a petition letter to the USDoL calling for this investigation. The letter is posted on the P4DU website, and can be printed out from there. We are asking members to send signed petitions to the Director of the Office of Labor Management Standards in Washington DC, where the UA is headquartered In the letter we tell them who we are are and what the purpose of the petition is. Maddaloni and Patchell are accused of breach of fiduciary responsibilities. And since the UA Executive Board took no action we want the government to come in and investigate, on these grounds. We want to know if there was any criminal wrongdoing, and if so, to find those responsible. Whoever was involved should be brought to justice. We, the rank and file members of the UA, do not have the internal remedies and tools to bring these guys to justice.

AUD: How is the petition drive going?

Local 409 alone has already collected 80 signatures and are getting ready to send them in. As we speak, people in the field are at work gathering more petitions. It seems to me that many are eager to participate.

AUD: Are there any ramifications from the scandal for UA members yet?

Well, the Fund Administrator and the Board of Trustees of the Plumbers and Pipefitters National Pension Plan (PPNPP) just sent out letters dated December 13, 2004 informing us that our future pension credits were cut by 75 percent effective January 1, 2005. The letter says that the pension fund has lost $1.2 billion dollars. It doesn't say why. It just says like many other pension plans, there have been losses. Because of the losses, the letter states, the Trustees have to have a new schedule, which effectively cuts credits by 75 percent. These letters were received right around Christmas. This loss in benefits doesn't affect the current retirees, just future ones, effectively creating a new, lower tier of pension benefits -- a way to divide our membership. Basically, the system works such that the number of hours worked provides so many pension credits per hour. Now, an hour's work will get only 25 percent of the credits it used to get. A former member of the Board of Trustees has told me that much of the pension losses have to do with the Diplomat Hotel by the way, federal pension law makes them mail this kind of thing out, that is the only reason we got this information at all.

AUD: Well, Frank, thanks for your time and Happy New Year. (Selections from the letter Frank Natalie refers to are reproduced below.)

Sometime around Christmas 2004, UA members received bad news from the new Board of Trustees of the UA National Pension Fund. Excerpts from the Board's letter follow:

Dear National Fund Participant:

Like many other pension plans, the National Pension Fund is facing serious financial challenges. A new Board of Trustees took over on August 6, 2004, and we are dealing with the significant investment losses that occurred in 2001 and 2002, when the combined loss exceeded $1.2 billion. Since then investment gains have helped ease the shortfall, but not enough to regain a sound financial footing. In fact, the Fund was projected to fail to meet minimum funding requirements under the Employee Retirement Security Act (ERISA) by June 2007.

For the short term, the changes are dramatic -- but absolutely necessary from a cost standpoint. All other things being equal, the benefit you earn in 2005 will be substantially lower than the benefit you earned in 2004.

Other articles on the UA:
UA's Maddaloni and Patchell ousted after disastrous pension investments in Florida hotel
Interview with UA reformer Frank Natalie
New voices at AUD construction trades conference
Court orders Plumbers and Fitters to remove anti-democratic rule
Pipefitters win points in battle for democracy.
Links to UA member sites.

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