IBB leaders set record straight on Kansas City Star attack

Officers blast Star’s blatant yellow journalism

LODGE LEADERS ATTENDING the Construction Sector Conference at Marco Island, Fla., sat down with International officers March 7 for a forthright discussion of allegations raised in attack articles published by the foundering Kansas City Star over the past 10 months.

During the two-hour meeting, International President Newton B. Jones presented a point-by-point rebuttal to the Star’s allegations. Business managers and senior staffers listened intently and at the conclusion rose repeatedly in sustained ovations to show their solidarity and support of the International officers. Some stood to voice their anger at certain members who have developed blogs to exploit, for their own agendas, the sensationalized and distorted reporting by Judy Thomas, the Kansas City Star’s apparent specialist in the dark art of yellow journalism.

IP Jones opened the discussion by telling the lodge leaders, “You may agree with us on some things and disagree with us on others, but we felt it was important to address the Kansas City Star’s contrived allegations with you face to face in this forum. We’re going to be absolutely straight with you, and you are free to ask questions on any topic.”

One of the first items discussed was who is behind the Star’s trashing of our union. It is clear that Thomas relied on anti-union, conservative “watchdogs” for many of the biased opinions expressed in her articles. Other top union leaders were being attacked in the media over compensation on the same day that the Star released its first article against the Boilermakers. These attacks continued as the weeks progressed. The president of the AFL-CIO was singled out, and an accompanying photo of him showed President Obama in the background in an obvious attempt to cast aspersions on both men. One story stressed a labor leader’s Italian name, as if to insinuate a mafia connection. There were other examples, too, suggesting that right-wing organizations orchestrated the attacks, seeking to divide organized labor during a presidential election year.

We strongly suspect that other sources for Thomas’s articles involved disgruntled former employees of the Brotherhood and the National Funds Office who had been terminated for various reasons. A decision to save the health and welfare fund approximately $20 to $30 million a year by switching to CIGNA left some former fund employees (members of the OPEIU) irate — even though trustees of the fund were legally bound to save the fund such a large sum of money and promote the best interest of the fund participants with their joint decision.

Star articles reek of innuendo, twisted facts

IP JONES WALKED lodge leaders through the litany of suggestive headlines Thomas used to construct a dark, sinister picture of International officers. He noted that the use of terms like lofty pay, plum jobs, dubious links, rumbles of discontent, shady deals, nepotism, and grand jury are all hallmark descriptors of yellow journalism and are intentionally used to arouse suspicion and inflame emotions — even when the facts behind the allegations do not support such unprofessional journalistic characterization.

“They are code words that imply dishonest, unethical, or illegal behavior. Ms. Thomas used them for a specific purpose, to divide the membership from its leaders and to feed into anti-union public sentiment. You use these terms to suggest wrongdoing when you can’t back up what you’re saying. We are seeing this kind of tactic used more and more against labor across the country. It’s a classic example of yellow journalism, a gutter journalistic practice first seen in the late 1800s.”

Yellow journalism intentionally uses inflammatory headlines, exaggeration, and innuendo to manipulate the perceptions of readers in an attempt to sell more newspapers or to accomplish a political agenda.

Some of the very anti-union sources used by the Kansas City Star purposely mischaracterize the salaries of union officers by adding business expenses and benefit contributions to the actual salaries.

“It’s just deceitful,” IP Jones said.

“My salary is set by delegates during convention. I get paid what the delegates say I get paid. In fact, due to the drop in construction man-hours since the economic collapse and the more recent implementation of hyper-restrictive EPA rules, the International officers voluntarily reduced their own salaries by 15 percent. We’ve also lowered staff salaries by 10 percent until we can get through the impact of the EPA dictates.”

He pointed out the hypocrisy of the Kansas City Star in going after the salaries of union leaders while the chairman of its parent company, The McClatchy Newspapers, pulled in millions of dollars annually — even though the company’s common stock value has plummeted by more than 90 percent and the Kansas City Star has seen round after round of layoffs.

Perhaps the company’s stockholders should stand up and demand the McClatchy Company bigwigs take some salary cuts of their own.

IP Jones made it clear that the Boilermakers do not own any jets. The International did purchase four shares (similar to timeshares) in two separate propeller-drive planes to ensure they could travel where they needed to be in a timely manner, something that cannot be guaranteed by commercial airlines. International officers travel throughout most of the year to perform union business. That travel can be nearly every week for most, and officers spend many hours in the air catching up on work, responding to emails, and preparing for the next meeting or presentation.

“The use of this type of air travel service is simply a tool to get our jobs done better,” said IP Jones, “no different than the tools our members may use to get their jobs completed better and quicker. Are you more efficient and effective walking up 200 feet of stairs to the boiler penthouse, or are you more efficient taking the more costly freight elevator up in the morning? It’s all relative.” International Secretary-Treasurer Bill Creeden added, “No nonemployee family member flies on the Brotherhood’s nickel on any commercial flight or air service. If you bring your wife along, you’re on your own.” IP Jones said reports by the Star that indicated otherwise were “unequivocally false.”

He also said there was no “shady deal” involving a loan made by Local 83 (Kansas City, Mo.) to the International involving the union’s bank. In fact, the loan purchase agreement with the bank received the pre-approval of both the FDIC and the Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner prior to the transaction. Furthermore, it was entirely legal and ethical for the former business manager to approve investing the lodge’s assets in an instrument that paid higher interest on behalf of the members.

“The facts of this transaction are that we preserved the Brotherhood’s financial investments; we preserved the investments of all stakeholders in the bank, including the International and some lodges; we achieved over a nine percent return on the loans as we divested the International of them; and we used borrowed money at extremely cheap interest rates to accomplish this instead of cashing in Brotherhood investments at a potential loss in a down market.”

IP Jones passionately defended the long practice of encouraging family members to become a Boilermaker or serve the union on staff, whether at the local level or the International level. “This is not nepotism; it’s following in footsteps. It is a time-honored tradition dating back to our founders, who passed the trade and the pride on from generation to generation. It is a practice that dates back to the very founding of our nation.”

He said many current local lodge leaders were helped by their family members and they themselves seek to encourage their relatives to pursue a career with the union.

“I hired exactly two family members in the nine years I have been president,” IP Jones stated. “Unfortunately, I had to let one of them, my son, go, because he was low man on the totem pole during a time when cutbacks have become necessary. And, for the record, I hope to rehire him. The other one is my brother Charles, who, with a 40-year membership history as a working Boilermaker and a university degree in art, is more than qualified to lead our History Preservation Department and has done a spectacular job.”

Regarding the Star’s reference to a grand jury, IP Jones stated unequivocally that the International is not aware of any investigation directed against the Boilermakers union.

IP Jones went on to address numerous other allegations in depth, demonstrating that they were inaccurate, distorted, twisted, or exaggerated by Ms. Thomas. He urged construction business managers to take an interest in social media, as members are increasingly sharing their concerns on blogs and other Internet sites, and that those concerns may be misguided, thanks to the misinformation put out by the Kansas City Star.

“We have leaders that lead”

AS THE DISCUSSION wrapped up, business managers and staff members addressed the group to express their feelings. Local 154 Business Manager Ray Ventrone told the group, “This is the greatest organization in the country. We’re Boilermakers; we go out and get it done. And we were taught by this group of guys [the International officers].

Ventrone said C.W. Jones, the late International President Emeritus, was “one of the greatest guys I’ve ever known. I can tell you that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. You don’t even know what [Newton B. Jones] has been up against. These guys shouldn’t even be up here dealing with this. It’s just bullshit.”

Gary Evenson, Director of Construction Recruitment Services, recounted his decades-long association with the elected officers. “Every one of these guys has always been driven by what’s good for the members of this organization,” he said. “It’s time everybody stands up to back them.”

Others, like Local 29 BM-ST Tom Saccoach, said they wished it were possible for IP Jones or the International vice presidents to come to their locals and make a similar presentation. Some offered that business managers could spread the word to their executive boards and through face-to-face meetings with members.

“We have leaders that lead,” Dale ‘Skipper’ Branscum, D-CDS, told the group. “Now sometimes leaders make decisions that not everybody likes. Sometimes the message is not what we want to hear. It’s a crying shame that President Jones and the other officers had to come here and make this presentation. But I want to thank them for doing it. I think, for all of us here, it means a lot to know we have leadership that will be forthcoming and honest and tell us what we need to hear — maybe not what we want to hear — but what we need to hear.”

IR Clay Herford stated: “You got a problem? Bring it to the convention. Our forefathers knew that if we start fighting against each other, it takes away from the battles that need to be fought.”

District 57 BM-ES Ed Vance told the conference, “These people are trying to tear our organization apart. We are not going to let them do it!”

IP Jones agreed, stating, “That is exactly what the right-wing, conservative movement and their obedient media attack dogs want. They want to pit union members against their union leaders in a calculated effort to manipulate our unions into self-destruction. But they will not succeed. Boilermakers fight back.”