Over 4,500 rank-and-file workers have been hung out to dry by their union local in New York City.

The Village Voice had an intriguing editorial about the Carpenters Local 157 union. Apparently the local is infested with corruption, and not just recently either. The editorial reports:

“…the Carpenters union has been unable to climb out of a 30-year-long quagmire of corruption.”

But just as troubling, William Callahan, the union’s court-appointed independent investigator, had this to say to Carpenters union chief, Douglas McCarron:

“…Local 157 as ‘a mismanaged mess where [business agents] come and go as they please, following few, if any, rules.’”

Sadly, in an instance like this when the union hierarchy turned its back on its own, it goes to show that union bosses are more concerned about their own well-being than actually respecting the rights of the workers they claim to “represent.”