Labor union trusts that provide a variety of benefits for workers must disclose detailed financial information under new federal rules designed to root out corruption, officials said Monday.
In announcing the requirement, the U.S. Labor Department cited several cases in recent years of union officers stealing from trusts established for retirement funds, job training and disaster relief.
It was not immediately clear how the rules might apply to a Service Employees International Union local in Los Angeles, whose spending practices are the subject of a criminal investigation. The United Long-Term Care Workers has a related health trust and worker-training charity and is associated with a housing corporation that was founded as a nonprofit to help low-income workers.
Meanwhile, Willis Edwards, vice president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood chapter of the NAACP and a member of the organization's national board, said the FBI has questioned him about $25,000 in consulting fees the local paid him last year.
Edwards said the payments were for work on a website and the NAACP had not been involved. "I earned every penny of it," he said. "I did nothing wrong."
He appears in a brief video extolling the work of Tyrone Freeman, president of the United Long-Term Care Workers, who later was removed from the union payroll because of internal corruption allegations. Freeman has denied any wrongdoing.
Edwards said the $25,000 had nothing to do with his participation in the video, which has been posted on YouTube.
The video also features tributes to Freeman from the Rev. Eric P. Lee, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, and Charisse Bremond Weaver, president of the Brotherhood Crusade.
In 2007, the local made $11,000 in donations and non-itemized payments to the Brotherhood Crusade and about $15,700 to the SCLC Dream Foundation, according to the union's financial filings with the Labor Department.
Earlier this month, Weaver said her role in the video was unrelated to any union money her group received. She also said she would withhold judgment about Freeman until more information about his actions becomes public.
"I've had a good working relationship with Tyrone and the union," Weaver said. She could not be reached late Monday.
Lee has not returned phone calls seeking comment. Freeman has told The Times that all the local's consulting payments, such as the one made to Edwards, were proper.
