The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) is a construction-industry labor union.  The IUOE has about 400,000 members in 123 local unions in the United States and Canada and is the 10th largest union in the AFL-CIO. ¹

The union and its locals have histories of corruption, ² criminal convictions, ³ and violence ⁴ with alleged connections to organized crime ⁵ over its 127-year history. In 1958, the union was called a “national disgrace” during a U.S. Senate hearing on racketeering. ⁶ In 2003, federal prosecutors alleged that organized crime families in New York had taken over two IUOE local unions and stole millions. ⁷

The union has predominately supported Democrats with its federally reported political donations, according to OpenSecrets. ⁸

Background

The International Union of Operating Engineers was formed on Dec. 3, 1896 as the National Union of Steam Engineers of America. ⁹ In 1928, the International Union of Operating Engineers name was adopted. ¹⁰

The union represents workers who operate or maintain heavy equipment in the construction industry and who conduct machine operations and maintenance work in building complexes. ¹¹

People

James Callahan is the president of the International Union of Operating Engineers and had a base salary of $434,082 in 2021. ¹² He was elected to his first full term in May 2013. ¹³

James Sweeney is the general secretary-treasurer of the International Union of Operating Engineers. ¹⁴ In 2021, former IUOE Local 150 employee Eva Trudeau filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing Sweeney of retaliating against her and demoting her for filing the complaint. Trudeau claimed in the lawsuit that Sweeney knew of a female employee’s report that a union supervisor forced her to perform sex acts. ¹⁵ The union denied the claims. ¹⁶ IUOE Local 150 reached a settlement in 2022. ¹⁷

Kuba Brown is the chairman of the International Union of Operating Engineers’ Trustees Board. He is the business manager of the IUOE Local 94 and was elected as a trustee in 2006. ¹⁸

Finances

The International Union of Operating Engineers headquarters had $84 million in revenues and $66.7 million in expenses in 2021. ¹⁹ The IUOE had $645.5 million in total assets in 2021. ¹⁹ IUOE spent more money on lobbying and political activity than representing its members at the national level in 2022, according to its annual report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. ²⁰ The union headquarters spent $11.5 million on representational activities in 2022 and $16.2 million on political activities and lobbying. ²⁰ The cost of “union administration” and “benefits” has increased from $36.3 million in 2018 ²¹ to $56.5 million in 2022. ²⁰

Political Donations

From 1990 to 2022, the International Union of Operating Engineers and affiliated political committees made $71.6 million in political contributions, according to OpenSecrets. ⁸ The IUOE has spent $10 million on lobbying from 1998 to 2022. ⁸ During the 2022 election cycle, the IUOE spent $13.1 million. ⁸ Political contributions have increased significantly during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. During the 2020 election cycle, IUOE set its organizational record for contributions at $13.1 million, exceeding the 2022 total by about $13,000. ⁸

In the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, about 80 percent of IUOE political contributions sent to political parties or candidates affiliated with parties went to the Democrats. ⁸

In 2022, the IUOE national reported contributions to the following organizations: $100,000 to the left-of-center lobbying and advocacy coalition America Votes; $55,000 to the 13^th Ward Democratic Organization; $25,000 to the Democratic Governors Association; $50,000 to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee; $55,400 to Democratic Majority; $55,400 to Democratic Party of Illinois; $250,000 to the Fight Back Fund, which does public relations work to combat “anti-union initiatives”; ²² $50,000 to the left-of-center political advocacy organization Kansas Values Institute; $20,000 to Senate Democratic Campaign Committee in Chicago; $55,400 to Senate Democratic Victory Fund in Illinois. The union also contributed $25,000 to the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group that supports moderate Republican members of Congress and that has supported labor unions, especially in the construction industry. ²⁰

Corruption and Misconduct

William Maloney

William Maloney was the president of the International Union of Operating Engineers from 1940 to 1958. ²³ Maloney resigned when the IUOE was investigated by a Senate committee on racketeering. ²³

The Senate committee alleged that Maloney was corrupt and in 1958 and called his union a “national disgrace.” ⁶ The AFL-CIO Executive Council then ordered the IUOE to make reforms or be expelled from the AFL-CIO. ²³

Mafia Control of Locals

Federal prosecutors claimed in 2003 that the Genovese and Colombo crime families in New York took over two IUOE local unions and stole $3.6 million from construction projects. ²⁴ Then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (D) alleged that International Union of Operating Engineers’ Local 14 and Local 15 were “held captive for decades by a greedy joint venture” between the Genovese and Colombo crime families. ⁵

Manhattan prosecutors secured 18 guilty pleas in a 2004 case that investigated the Genovese crime family’s influence over International Union of Operating Engineers local unions. ²⁵ Mob captain Ernie Muscarella and mob soldier Louis Moscatiello were among those who pleaded guilty. Moscatiello oversaw the Genovese crime family’s construction interests. ²⁵

U.S. prosecutors alleged in 2008 that since at least 1981 the Columbo and Genovese crime families had “corrupt influence” over Local 14. The crime families accepted bribes from construction contractors and provided no-show jobs to crime family associates. ² Local 14 agreed to a deal with federal prosecutors under which the union admitted, “For some time, the construction industry in New York City has been infiltrated, controlled, influenced and corrupted by La Cosa Nostra families.” ²

The New York Times reported in 2009 that some union members and law enforcement officials contend that the Genovese and Colombo crime families “influence the management of the union.” ²⁶ A federal judge appointed a former prosecutor George Stamboulidis to investigate mob influence on the IUOE’s Local 14-14B. ²⁶ Stamboulidis expelled about 30 union members for acts of corruption including labor racketeering related to the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese crime families’ control over Local 14-14B. ²⁷

Violence

In 1974, a former business agent for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 791 told a jury that former IUOE business agent Yvon Duhamel was ordered to do “labor violence” against a project work site in Montreal. ⁴ Duhamel did about $2 million worth of damage and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. ⁴

Nonunion construction contractors that did not cooperate with union organizing efforts by International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 allegedly had their work sites damaged from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. ²⁸ Examples of alleged acts included acid poured into engine parts, a bulldozer and front-end loader thrown into a quarry, and a pipe bomb set off at an asphalt plant. ²⁸ In one incident, more than 100 people allegedly ransacked a nonunion work site: equipment was shot and set on fire, they broke windows and slashed tires, and tipped over a job trailer that contained three men. Local 150 denied wrongdoing. ²⁸

GFP Mobile Mix employee Tanner Bradigan filed unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board in March 2023 against International Union of Operating Engineers Local 542 alleging that union officials said they would attack anyone who refused to support the union. ²⁹ Bradigan and other co-workers went to a union meeting to get information on contract negotiations. When they told union officials at the meeting that they would not be supporting the union, the union officials began screaming at them and threatened to fight anyone who did not support the union. ²⁹

Convictions of Union Officials

Scott Wilson, former director of information technology for the International Union of Operating Engineers Operating Engineers Local 3 pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges in 2021. ³ Wilson was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay back more than $4 million in restitution to the union. ³

Wilson embezzled from 2011 to 2017 by setting up front companies that he used to pay himself. ³ The front companies were used by Wilson to fraudulently charge the union for information technology related goods and services that were never delivered. ³ He used some of the money to buy land and build himself a home. ³

John Hamilton, the top elected official of the International Union of Operating Engineers’ Operating Engineers Local 324, was sentenced to 24 months in prison in March 2018 for conspiring to commit extortion. ³⁰

Federal prosecutors stated that Hamilton coerced business agents and employees of Local 324 to pay him kickbacks of over $5,000 from their salaries every year. ³⁰ Hamilton threatened to fire employees who complained about the kickbacks. ³⁰ Hamilton used some of the money for personal expenses such as meals and alcohol and a $5,000 wedding present for his daughter. ³⁰

Steven Minella, the former Local 324 president, and David Hart, the former Local 324 financial secretary, both pleaded guilty to felonies for helping conceal Hamilton’s scheme. ³⁰

2007 Kickback Lawsuit

Six members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed a lawsuit in 2007 claiming that then-union president and business manager William Dugan was receiving kickbacks. ³¹ The lawsuit stated that for 15 years Dugan demanded that 125 of his employees make $100 a month contributions to a fund that Dugan called his “Christmas Fund.” ³¹ The lawsuit contended that Dugan had the sole authority to hire and fire people and set the salaries for the union. ³¹ Dugan said many employees did make $100 monthly contributions to the fund and the money was used for members’ legal expenses and internal campaign costs. ³¹

Local 12 and Local 501 Lawsuits

Several Union members filed two class-action lawsuits in 2013 against International Union of Operating Engineers Locals 12 and 501. ³² The lawsuit against Local Union 501 claimed the former national leader Vince Giblin made death threats in a phone call against some of the rebellious local union leaders. ³² The national union denied the accusations.

Members of Locals 12 and 501 claimed the local union bosses “engaged in embezzlement, kickbacks and intimidation.” ³² The lawsuits asked for the return of union funds and the appointment of a receiver to manage both local unions. ³²

The Freedom Foundation filed a different federal lawsuit in California in 2022 representing a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 501 who repeatedly tried to opt-out of the union. ³³ Union member Terry Klee sent more than 20 emails to union officials in a 13-month period requesting his release from membership and dues. ³³ The lawsuit claimed that the union refused to acknowledge his emails and then stated Klee could not leave the union but the request was not done during the specified two-week time period union members were allowed to opt out. ³³

Local 3 Lawsuit

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 3 filed a lawsuit in 2013 against the national parent union claiming it cavorted with international crime syndicates, illegally spent union money and intimidates unhappy members with threats of violence. ³⁴ The Local 3 union claimed that IUOE bosses forced members to contribute 1 percent of their salaries to union’s political action committee or face termination. ³⁴

Notable Strikes

In May 2000, 59 IUOE Local 150 workers went on strike against employer Moline Consumers Co. ³⁵ The workers complained about health benefits and wages. Moline Consumers Spokesman Robert Imler said he thought the real reason for the strike was to stop Moline Consumers from selling products to Brandt Construction, a non-union company. ³⁵ In 1992, IUOE Local 150 workers went on strike against Moline Consumers and refused to load Brandt Construction trucks. ³⁵

In November 2021, 600 IUOE Local 39 workers went on strike against health care company Kaiser Permanente which triggered what was called the largest “sympathy strike” in the U.S. in 127 years. ³⁶ The IUOE Local 39 workers were joined by unions representing 62,000 workers in sympathy strikes. ³⁶ Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West said the protest was the largest sympathy strike since 1894. ³⁶

Policy Advocacy

Opposition to Right-to-Work

Then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed legislation in March 2015 that enacted right-to-work in the state. ³⁷ The law prohibited employers from making their employees join or financially support a union. ³⁷ The International Union of Operating Engineers filed a lawsuit in federal court that stated unions had a constitutionally protected “property interest” in the dues paid by non-members and the government was not allowed to take that away without offering something in return. ³⁷

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right-to-work law and denied a petition for rehearing in September 2017. ³⁸

Prevailing Wage

The International Union of Operating Engineers lists prevailing wage as one of the critical issues that it supports. ³⁹ Prevailing wage is a law that guarantees that higher union-level wages will be paid while working on taxpayer-funded projects. ⁴⁰

In Michigan, the prevailing wage law was repealed in 2018 when the Republicans had control of both the House, Senate and had a Republican governor. ⁴¹ Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reinstated the prevailing wage law in 2021. ⁴¹ The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324 praised Whitmer in 2021 for restoring the prevailing wage law. ⁴¹

Janus v. AFSCME

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 27, 2018 in Janus v. AFSCME that non-union government workers could not be forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment. ⁴²

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed a lawsuit in February 2018 against then-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R). ⁴³ The union filed the lawsuit in anticipation that the Supreme Court would rule against union powers in the Janus case. ⁴³ The IUOE Local 150 lawsuit focused on the “duty of fair representation” stated in the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. ⁴³The union’s stance was that if the Supreme Court ended mandated dues as a condition of employment, then unions should not have to represent workers who do not pay their dues. ⁴³

City of Hamilton, Ohio employee Timothy Crane filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 20 over “agreement administration fees.”⁴⁴ IUOE officials forced Crane to pay the “agreement administration fees” as a condition of employment. The lawsuit claimed that the “agreement administration fees” were just renamed forced fees outlawed by the Janus Supreme Court decision. ⁴⁵ The IUOE officials rescinded the “agreement administration fees” in 2021 and gave Crane back all the money he paid. ⁴⁵

Employee Work Email

In 2021, an administrative law judge ruled that the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 3 inappropriately used record requests to read union members’ email correspondence. ⁴⁶ Three field technicians who were covered by the union and wanted to leave it filed the complaint. The IUOE Local 3 union leaders had filed open records requests to get the work emails of employees whose emails contained the words “decertify”, “decertification”, “union” and “Public Employees Relation Board.” ⁴⁶ The judge ordered the union must stop requesting its members’ emails. ⁴⁶

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