Opinion ID: 479187
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trusteeship

Text: 21 Article Three, Section 2(c) of the International's constitution gives the International the authority to suspend local union or council officers, business managers, or business representatives ... while a local is under trusteeship. The International argues that, even if we were to find that Lynn's removal from office would ordinarily violate his rights under the LMRDA, Hawkins was acting within his authority as trustee, and thus Lynn's removal was proper. 22 In enacting the Title III trusteeship provisions of the LMRDA, Congress, while recognizing that trusteeships may be an effective tool for insuring internal union order, clearly intended to correct the abuses of trusteeships investigated by the McClellan committee. S.Rep. No. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1959 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News, 2318, 2333, and in 1 NLRB, Legislative History of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 at 413 (1959). See generally, Beaird, Union Trusteeship Provisions of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, 2 Ga.L.Rev. 469, 485-499 (1968). The imposition of trusteeships as a means of consolidating the power of corrupt union officers, plundering and dissipating the resources of local unions, and preventing the growth of competing political elements within the organization was a particular area of congressional concern. Id. Thus, Congress enacted section 302 of the LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 462, which states that a trusteeship may be imposed only for the purpose of correcting corruption or financial malpractice, assuring the performance of collective bargaining agreements or other duties of a bargaining representative, restoring democratic procedures, or otherwise carrying out the legitimate objects of such labor organization. 23 In giving effect to this expression of congressional intent, the courts have reviewed trusteeships to insure that they were imposed only for legitimate purposes, see, e.g., Benda v. Grand Lodge of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, 584 F.2d 308 (9th Cir.1978), cert. dismissed, 441 U.S. 937, 99 S.Ct. 2065, 60 L.Ed.2d 667 (1979); Jolly v. Gorman, 428 F.2d 960 (5th Cir.1970), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1023, 91 S.Ct. 588, 27 L.Ed.2d 635 (1971). Here, all of the officers of Local 75 asked the International to impose a trusteeship to put this local on a sound financial basis. Because assuring sound financial management was one of Congress's goals in enacting Title III, and because the trusteeship was initiated by the Local, we find that the imposition of the trusteeship was proper. 24 However, just as the International may not impose a trusteeship for illegitimate purposes, such as suppressing dissent, Benda, 584 F.2d at 317 & n. 6, so it may not use the powers inherent in a legitimate trusteeship for similarly illegitimate purposes. Thus, while a trustee may remove an elected local officer for financial misconduct, Mandaglio v. United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (General Executive Board), 575 F.Supp. 646, 649 (E.D.N.Y.1983), or incompetence, see Kinney v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 669 F.2d 1222, 1227 (9th Cir.1982) (as amended), it may not do so in retaliation for the exercise of a right protected by the LMRDA, see id., such as free speech, see Benda, 584 F.2d at 317 n. 6; Brotherhood of Painters v. Local 127, 264 F.Supp. 301 (N.D.Cal.1966). 8 We find that Lynn's allegations of retaliatory removal from his elected office may constitute a violation of his rights under the LMRDA; thus, the district court's grant of summary judgment for the International was improper.