Downloadable - IA.TSE Local 80

To date, 161 local unions have
cooperated with the request to provide
the International with email addresses
for their members. There are
now over 38,000 members receiving
press releases and other International
communication via email. Additionally,
almost 2,900 members are
now receiving the Official Bulletin in
electronic format.
Local Union Tax Exempt Status
In the spring of 2010, the IRS
changed its policy of how it was going
to handle severely delinquent
filers of the Form 990. A letter was
sent by the IRS advising all organizations
that not filing for a three-year
period would result in the loss of tax
exempt status.
Unfortunately, a number of our
local unions have been notified by
the IRS that their tax exempt status
has been revoked because of delinquent
filing. While it appears that in
a few cases, there is confusion with
the IRS over which EIN number is associated
with a particular local union
and the International has assisted the
affected Locals and rectified the situation
with the IRS, far too many of our
local unions would appear to have
lost their tax exempt status. Each of
these local unions has to go through
a lengthy application process to have
their status reinstated.
The International has been working
with an accountant who is familiar
with the process and has referred
local unions to that firm when
we have been contacted. Each of
the local unions that appear on the
IRS loss of tax exempt status list has
been contacted by the International
to ensure that they are aware of their
tenuous situation and aware of the
assistance available. Some of these
local unions have contacted the International
for assistance and others
have not.
As of December 31, 2012 the ability
to have tax exempt status reinstated
will expire and local unions
will be exposed to paying taxes on
retroactive and future net income.
The International will make one last
attempt this Fall to contact those local
unions that may not be in compliance
and offer assistance, but after
that the consequences will be theirs.
IT Department
New servers have been deployed
in both the General Office and the
West Coast Office because the everincreasing
data storage requirements
were beginning to put a strain on the
old servers. The storage capacity of
these servers has increased from 119
gigabytes in New York and 445 gigabytes
in Los Angeles to 1.5 terabytes
in both offices, the equivalent
of 1,500 gigabytes.
Additionally, these new servers
have the capability to allow Jimmy
Rainey, our IT Supervisor in the General
Office, to deal with a lot more
issues in the West Coast Office by using
remote access technologies.
Jimmy has also been spending a
significant amount of time working
with the consultants hired to assist
the International with its technological
needs in the new General
Office and working to deploy the
new Contracts program designed
to track and coordinate the tremendous
number of contracts held by
the International.
Local Union Online System
The International continues to
encourage local unions to register for
the online system available through
the Finance Department. The number
of local unions that are now using
the online portion of our computer
system has grown to 186 and
those local unions represent over
93,000 members or 79% of the membership
of the International.
These local unions are now using
the system to change member
addresses, submit Quarterly Reports,
order per capita stamps and other
supplies, view/print membership
rosters and now update Officer information
instead of using the old card
system.
In other Finance Department
News,
1. The International continues to receive
royalty payments from both
the AFL-CIO credit card program
and various other Union Privilege
programs. For the year ended
April 30, 2012, royalty payments
in the amount of $163,957 were
received.
2. Since 2003, the International has
been charging to provide consultation
responses for INS Visas.
The present charge is $450 per
consultation for expedited service
and $250 for regular. The monies
received from these processing
fees are deposited in the Building
Fund of the International. In
the most recent fiscal year ending
April 30, 2012 income of $557,175
was received from these consultations.
3. The International has continued
with the ongoing project of attempting
to make our records as
accurate as possible. Many local
unions have been receiving letters
requesting information on
the members listed as Retired in
the International’s database when
those numbers differ from the
numbers being listed on a Quarterly
Report. Thus far the cooperation
of our local unions has
been excellent and we continue
to improve the integrity of our
data.
4. Approximately two months ago
our bank began refusing to take
deposits with checks made payable
to a different payee than
“I.A.T.S.E.”. For years they have
accepted many different variations
of the payee but some regulatory
changes are requiring them
to more closely monitor deposits.
Unfortunately this has resulted in
the International returning checks
to local unions and requesting
new ones be issued with the corrected
payee. This is not the result
of any policy change at the
International.
The Board accepted the Report of
the General Secretary-Treasurer.
REPORT OF THE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
International Trustees George
Palazzo, C. Faye Harper and Thomas
Cleary appeared before the Board
to present a review of their audit of
the books and records of the International
for the period October 1,
2011 through April 30, 2012, pursuant
to the call of the International
President. All records examined were
found to be in order and the Trustees
expressed their appreciation for the
assistance of the staff in the Office
of the General Secretary-Treasurer
in the successful completion of their
review.
The Board accepted the Report of
the Board of Trustees.
APPEAL OF MATTHEW
DeMASCOLO V. LOCAL NO.
283, HANOVER, PA
Brother Matthew DeMascolo,
a member of IATSE Local No. 283,
appealed to the General Executive
Board from a decision of the International
President relative to the election
of officers in Local 283.
The Local’s constitution requires
that members must hold journeyman
status in order to be eligible to run
for office. When the membership
voted on Brother DeMascolo’s status
to become a journeyman, the membership
voted him down. However,
the manner in which the Local conducted
a tally of the votes violated
Article Twenty-one, Section 4 of the
International Constitution, so the Local
was directed by the International
President to admit him into membership
as a journeyman. By way of
background, the Local literally applied
a “black ball” system so that if
an applicant received 3 black balls,
he or she was voted down regardless
of whether a majority of members
voted in favor of membership.
In Brother DeMascolo’s case he received
a favorable majority vote but
because three “black balls” were cast
against him, the Local denied him
membership. Brother DeMascolo
subsequently appealed to the International
President. President Loeb
struck down the unlawful “black
ball” system and directed the Local
to comply with Article Twenty-one,
Section 4 of the International Constitution.
Brother DeMascolo was ordered
into membership and the Local
complied with this directive.
The Local’s election of officers
took place in November 2011 and
Brother DeMascolo’s name was
placed on the ballot for Business
Agent. The election resulted in Brother
DeMascolo losing the election by
two votes. There were no election irregularities.
The International President’s
decision to deny his appeal
dated January 12, 2012 states in part
that the decision was based on the
fact that Brother DeMascolo “…lost
[the election] after a fair and democratic
election.”
In view of the record in this case,
the General Executive Board voted
to uphold the decision of the International
President to deny Brother
DeMascolo’s appeal.
President Loeb did not participate
in the deliberations and did not vote.
APPEAL OF NORMAN BRYN
V. LOCAL NO. 798, NEW YORK,
NY
Brother Norman Bryn, a member
of Local 798, appealed to the General
Executive Board from a decision
of the International President relative
to his request for a waiver of Article
Nineteen, Section 4 of the International
Constitution which was adopted at
the 66th Convention and requires that
a member satisfy the requirement of
having “the minimum of 120 days of
jurisdictional work” within the thirtysix
(36) months prior to nominations
for local union elections.
In a letter dated January 31, 2012
from the Local’s Secretary-Treasurer
to Brother Bryn, it states in part that
the pension records of the Local indicate
his employment record was a)
14 days in 2011, b) 2 days in 2010,
and c) 1 day in 2009. Therefore,
Brother Bryn clearly does not fulfill
the requirement of the International
Constitution.
Brother Bryn, however, requested
a waiver of the constitutional re-
26 Official Bulletin Third Quarter 2012 27