Reprinted from the online edition of the St Louis Post Dispatch www.stltoday.com linked in title.

Union pension mailer reveals recipient's Social Security numbers

BY MATTHEW HATHAWAY • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > 314-340-8121 | Posted: Thursday, September 2, 2010 12:00 am

A local union pension fund sent mailers that included Social Security numbers of the recipients printed on the outside of the envelopes, according to members of the Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity who received the letter.

The mailer states that there are more than 24,000 beneficiaries of the pension fund. Because union officials could not be interviewed for this story, it is unclear how many mailers were sent.

Several recipients said they worried the union was being careless with personal information that could be used by identity thieves.

District Council officials — including Ron Laudel, the benefit plans administrator, and Terry Nelson, the council's executive secretary-treasurer — did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Union millwright Kevin Sheridan, of Fairview Heights, is no longer a member of the St. Louis carpenters union, but he belongs to its pension plan. He received the mailer on Friday; it was postmarked on Aug. 27.

"Somebody's head needs to roll," said Sheridan, who called the union's Hampton Avenue office to complain.

He said a union official wouldn't name the company that was contracted to send the mailers, but said the company was a union firm. "I told him it didn't matter if they're union if they're doing something like this," he said.

Other recipients of the pension mailer confirmed that their Social Security numbers were printed on the envelopes just above their names and addresses.

Some active members of the union spoke only on condition of anonymity, because they said they feared reprisals from the union.

A union carpenter from Red Bud said he was shocked by the mailer, which he received Monday.

"It didn't say Social Security number, but it was a nine-digit number and anyone who saw it would know what it was," the man said. "I called two different business agents — one didn't know anything about it, the other thought it was no big deal."

A St. Louis carpenter said that he received the pension notice on Saturday, and that since then he has complained to the union, the Missouri attorney general's office, the Social Security Administration and the Federal Trade Commission.

The St. Louis man said the union should notify members as soon as possible, so that those who are unaware of the mistake will make sure to destroy the envelope. He also said that the union should provide credit-monitoring services to members to guard against identity theft stemming from the disclosure.

Beth Givens, the director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said it's common for companies that leak personal information to provide those services for at least one year.

The San Diego-based clearinghouse tracks data breaches, and its tally of disclosed public records hit the half-billion mark last week. Givens said Social Security numbers should never be visible on the outside of a mailer, but she said it is common data breach.

In January, Citigroup accidentally printed Social Security numbers on 600,000 envelopes containing customers' year-end tax statements. Citigroup provide six months of credit monitoring for any affected customers who wanted it.

Laws in Missouri and Illinois require businesses and organizations responsible for data breaches to alert those affected. In Missouri, breaches affecting more than 1,000 people also must be reported to the Missouri Attorney General's office.

A spokeswoman for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said the union has not reported the data breach.

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BCTD will follow committee recommendations

At the 68th convention of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CI0, President Mark Ayers addresses nationwide UBC issues at the 15:50 mark of his keynote address.

Don't have time for the video? The following is a reprint from the BNA CONSTRUCTION LABOR REPORT (56 CLR 781) which details actions taken during the 68^th convention of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO to address UBCJA tactics nationwide.

Building Trades

BCTD Committee Will Develop Strategy

To Deal With Carpenters’ Raiding, Ayers Says

The Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, has established a committee to develop a strategy to deal with what the BCTD says are the ongoing and increased efforts of the Carpenters and Joiners of America to raid the work of other craft unions, BCTD President Mark Ayers announced Aug.

18.

In his keynote address to the 68th convention of the BCTD in Minneapolis, Ayers said the committee is “exploring all options to address this problem.” He added that “whatever measures are adopted by the committee and the [governing] board [of presidents] will be executed by the department and its affiliates to the fullest.”

While Ayers said he is committed to “leaving the door open, to both the Operating Engineers and the Carpenters, to one day rejoin our family,” he added, “but, let me be as clear as I can. No one can and no one will, tolerate or condone what the Carpenters have done, and continue to do,” according to his prepared remarks.

For several years, jurisdictional and organizing disputes have arisen between the Carpenters and several of the building trades unions. The Carpenters left the AFL-CIO in 2001, joined the Change to Win federation in 2005, but disaffiliated from CTW in 2008, and remains an independent union.

Earlier this summer, Ayers headlined a rally in St. Louis, which was billed as the beginning of a media campaign in several cities aimed at pushing back against what rally participants said were efforts by the Carpenters to poach work and members from other unions around the country (56 CLR 527, 6/24/10).

Nearly a year ago, in response to raids by the Carpenters of other building trades unions, delegates to the AFL-CIO convention approved by voice vote a resolution urging the union to reaffiliate with the federation or face the prospect of a new AFL-CIO-certified union for carpentry workers that would compete with the Carpenters. Several general presidents of unions in the BCTD spearheaded the push to urge the Carpenters to return to the federation (55 CLR 913, 9/17/09).

Unions Tired of Talking About Problem

A spokesman for one of the BCTD unions, who asked not to be identified, told BNA Aug. 20 that the construction unions are tired of just talking about the problem, and there is “at least some sentiment” for responding to the CJA attacks and protecting the traditional craft lines. He said he believes that the committee will try to come up with concrete ways to address the raiding.

Spokesmen for both the BCTD and the Carpenters could not be reached Aug. 20 for comment.

However, after the AFL-CIO convention last year, CJA President Douglas McCarron told BNA that his union firmly believes that the energies of the BCTD unions “should first be directed to organizing the craft workers in the markets they used to represent, before they divert their members hard earned dues in efforts to reach out to workers they lack the knowledge to represent and the skills or resources to train.”

Ayers Focuses on Jobs

In his opening speech to the convention, Ayers focused on creating new and sustained job opportunities for BCTDs signatory contractors and members who are being affected by a prolonged economic slump. Currently, the unemployment rate in the construction industry is at least 17 percent or higher.

In his prepared remarks, Ayers outlined the formula for generating new opportunities for the unionized construction industry.

“The key to our success will be predicated upon a simple concept that is central to all human beings. And that is our continued embrace of the power of cooperation and partnership and the ability to establish and nurture relationships. And that includes the relationships among ourselves and our unions, as well as the critical partnerships that we have with industry groups, with construction owners and contractors, with community-based organizations, and with public officials,” Ayers said.

These relationships are vital for the construction unions to “succeed in convincing lawmakers” to support investments and policies that will “create and sustain the job opportunities that our members so desperately need and to position our unions and our industry for favorable growth in the future,” Ayers said.

Noting that in the past the building trades unions failed to accept the fact that “cooperation with employers was the key to protecting the market share,” Ayers said that “today we are achieving success because of our collective embrace of a new way of life for the union construction industry. We have had considerable success in developing new industry partnerships that are leading to new job opportunities for our members.”

Ayers listed several new relationships the construction unions have entered into in the past three years, including ones with the American Petroleum Institute, the National Petroleum Refiners Association, the pharmaceutical industry, the electrical utility industry, and the nuclear industry. In addition, he said, there is a formal cooperative agreement with the Native American Tribal Councils and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is expected to generate over $400 billion of work on or near Indian reservations.

What happened in Canada...

Former UBC local unions were awarded new charters by the CONSTRUCTION MAINTENANCE AND ALLIED WORKERS of Canada after refusing to accept the consolidations and dissolution's similar to the recent STL/KC merger. Remember the LIGHTS OUT MCCARRON Youtube video? Pat Haggarty is now the Secretary-Treasurer of the CMAW. Under the Local Unions tab you will find each local unions original UBC charter date directly above their new CMAW charter issue date. These men stood together to demand a voice and a choice! This link was a surprise to Local 57 Facts and is in stark contrast to McCarrons UBC.

The following is a proposed bumper sticker that is awaiting approval! If you like this bumper sticker please vote for it in our members blog!