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Organized labor contributes to the profitability of the high-end cigar industry, federal investigators said Thursday. After a multi-year investigation into widespread corruption in the union's senior ranks, agents arrested UAW Region 5 director Vance Pearson accusing him of embezzlement, mail and wire, money laundering money and conspiracy.
Pearson, 58, took over from Gary Gary, his current president, Gary Jones, last year. Previously, he had been Jones' right hand man at the Missouri Post. The charges against Pearson cite numerous anonymous officials who helped organize embezzlement, according to three sources The Detroit News that one is the great man himself.
Oh, and Detroit Three contracts expire Saturday night.
Sources say that Jones, pictured below, and former UAW president, Dennis Williams, are two of the four unnamed officials. Federal agents raided the two men's homes late last month.
At the presentation of his file, federal prosecutors claimed that Pearson and other personalities had embezzled union funds at conferences in region 5. Reports fraudulent spending would have crept during extended stays in rented luxury villas in Palm Springs, California, and elsewhere, with shopping covering everything you'd expect from obese cats living high in the blood. The image that union leaders want to give to their members is hardly the same
Of The Detroit News:
This criminal case revealed a pattern of corruption from California to Detroit, as well as illegal spending by union leaders who spent over $ 1 million in membership fees in Palm Springs villas, grill dinners, 107 rounds of golf, golf accessories, cigars and 400 bottles of Louis Champagne Roederer Cristal.
Following the arrest of Pearson, the UAW issued the following statement:
"Our top priority is to maintain the trust of United Auto Worker members. While these allegations are of great concern, we firmly believe that the government misinterpreted a number of facts and point out that they are only allegations and not evidence of wrongdoing. Whatever the case may be, we will not let this distract us from the ongoing critical negotiations with GM for better wages and benefits for more than 400,000 members of our union. "
Between 2014 and 2018, union leaders reportedly consumed $ 60,000 worth of cigars, humidifiers and various cigar accessories, while $ 100,000 went towards the purchase of golf equipment and clothing.
In a statement, prosecutors claimed that "Pearson and his co-conspirators used the lectures to disguise the use of hundreds of thousands of dollars in UAW funds to pay lavish entertainment and personal expenses. for the conspirators ".
Nine UAW officials have been sentenced since the beginning of the investigation into corruption in 2017.
The latest arrest comes as negotiations progress before the expiry date of the Saturday night contract. Negotiations for negotiations between the UAW and General Motors have begun. This contract laid the foundation for those working with Fiat Chrysler and Ford. Forging social peace for the next four years should not be easy, certainly for an industry in the midst of rationalization. Yesterday, late, GM issued a statement in which it stated: "Union officials have no excuse for enriching themselves at the expense of the union members they represent."
To say that there is a cloud hanging over these discussions would be a euphemism.
[Images: UAW]
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