Testimony of Richard Dorrough.

I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak. I would like to give my
testimony for the record and ask that it be entered in to the record as an exhibit.

I would like to speak about business as usual at the Empire Council. In your hearing notice the
bulk of the allegation against the Empire Council and its Trustees is discriminatory treatment of
members in relationship to the Welfare, Annuity and Pension funds.

You go on to give specifics and ask the question how can you treat the members differently if
they are all in the same fund.

You question actions against a fund that is merged and suggest that the merger agreement was
violated. You accuse the Council of discriminatory actions against trustees and taking actions
against trustees that may be illegal in their nature.

All these may I say are true but are not unusual and isolated incidents but business as usual for
the Empire Council and Patrick Morin as is was for John Fuchs and Jack Simmons before him.

I can present you with evidence of merger violations of other funds the Empire Council has
seized against the will of the membership.

I can give you evidence that the Empire Council is running merged funds separately and not
producing 5500 financial statements as required by law.

I can give you evidence that the Empire Council is right now discriminating against merged
members by giving them different accrual rates while they are members of the same Local in the
same Pension Fund.

I can give you evidence that the Empire Council has and is using Council bylaws to remove and
seat trustees.

They are using these By Laws that have no merit and do not supersede plan documents, trust
agreements or seated trustee votes.

I can present evidence that the Empire Council has seated Council Officers and other so called
“appointed Trustees” to gain control of any and all funds.

I believe you will find one these cooperative appointees, William Weir, the same one you refer to
in the hearing notice as conspiring with Morin to defraud other trustees and the membership.

I can give you evidence that the Empire Council and other councils are using sections they put in
Collective Bargaining Agreements to allocate and reallocate fund monies at their discretion.
These Sections of the CBA have no merit and do NOT supersede Plan Documents and Trust
agreements.

As you will see this is business as usual for the Empire Council and none of these actions are in
the best interest of the membership.

The same interests that these elected Officers are sworn to protect.

You will find the funds and Empire Council itself are run and manipulated by greedy men who
believe our funds and futures are their private play things to do with as they see fit regardless of
ERISA Laws, the UBC Constitution, the LMRDA, Fund Trust Documents and most importantly
regardless of the rights of the rank and file members.

You indicate that the Empire Council refused to provide members and signatory contractors with
information they were entitled to in regards to the Madoff losses.

You will find that the Empire Council had the loss numbers as far back as April 2009 as these
losses appear on the 5500 they filed in April 2009.

It was at this time that Morin and the Council Trustees as well as our own Local President
William Weir lied to the membership over and over by telling us on numerous occasions that
they did not have the losses and refused to give us the numbers they had the entire time.

These actions have created an atmosphere of distrust and animosity between our contractors and
the council as well as between our members and the council.

Again this is business as usual for the Empire Council and dedicated paid employees such as
Local 370 President William Weir.

In my opinion Mr. Weir conspires with the Empire Council to defraud the membership and
impose the will of the Empire Council on Local 370.

Mr. Weir without hesitation violates our rights under the UBC Constitution, the LMRDA, ERISA
and any other set of rules and laws that protect the rights of our membership.

He follows the command of the Empire Council to the letter and has no regard for the rights and
concerns of the membership and repeatedly fails in his duty to act in the best interest of the
membership of Local 370.

It is our belief Mr. Weir is one of the “appointed Trustees” who is accused of conspiring to
defraud.
If these allegations are proven we must ask that Mr. Weir be removed from all funds on which he
is a seated trustee and that he be investigated for the purpose of removing him from office under
Section 51 of the UBC Constitution as allowed for mismanaging monies in a subordinate body.

For the record I would like this committee to know that we have had an investigation that is
ongoing to this day, by the EBSA Boston Office into the practices of the Empire Council and its
discriminatory practices in regards to merged funds.

This investigation also includes the practice of moving funds without the vote of seated trustees,
removing and seating trustees using the Council Bylaws in violation of the Trust Agreements and
many other possible Title 1 Violations.

Please be advised that due to a large amount of phone calls and letters from Upstate UBC
members the New York Office of the EBSA has initiated an investigation as well.

We initially expressed our concern to Mr. Hicks and Mr. Morin in November 2006.

Due to the lack of response by Local 370 and the Empire Council, we filed our complaint with
the EBSA in February of 2007.

That investigation is still ongoing.

I have included the complaint, correspondence with the EBSA, a summary of the possible Title 1
violations, letters to Mr. Weir and Mr. Morin and Mr. Stewart asking for help, letters to Local
politicians asking for help, a monthly follow up notice from the EBSA and court case reference
material that ruled that the Plan Trust agreement is not supersede by Council Bylaws or a CBA.
These are marked Item 1.

A brief summary of our complaint is as follows.

We were told in 2006 that the Empire Council had taken our Health and Welfare Fund.

This was done so not only without the membership’s approval, but also according to then Trustee
Fred Dykeman of General Drywall, that it was taken without a vote of the seated Trustees and
that the Empire Council went around the Trustees and just took it.

Trustees such as Mr. Dykeman who attempted to fight the issue were removed by Mr. Morin.

Mr. Hicks and William Weir conspired with Mr. Morin to defraud the Trustees and membership.
Mr. Morin seated himself as Trustee on our Pension fund as well, which has not yet been taken
by the council and is presently a Trustee on our fund.
You will find that both Morin and Fuchs seated themselves and other agreeable council
employees as Trustees on all local funds that required a vote for merger so that they could
maintain the required votes for merger.

We were also warned at this time that the Empire Council planned to merge the destroyed Local
229/1042 Adirondack Pension Fund with ours.

Since merging the 370 Health Fund the Empire Council has continued to run it as a separate fund
despite it “ceasing to exist” per the merger agreement and is not producing a 5550 for the
“separate but” merged fund as required by law.

We have been repeatedly assessed fund contributions that are discriminatory and our allocations
and benefits are not the same as the rest of the fund we are merged with.

Mr. Weir has repeated for the record on many occasions that we are not merged with the Empire
Council Welfare Fund despite the agreement that says we are and that is why we are not
receiving the same treatment and benefits as the other Locals in the Empire Council Funds.

You will find the same situation exists for the Local 229 Health Fund and Adirondack Pension
Fund which were intentionally destroyed by the Empire Council in what turned out to be a power
struggle between Fuchs, Weir and removed Local 229 President Phil Allen.

We have full time working ex 229 Carpenters whose children are in child health care plus
because they cannot afford the cost of Insurance offered by their own Union.

Despite the Empire Council taking $135 million of their fund money and despite being merged
in the Empire Council Fund and despite no longer existing they are still running the fund
separate.

Members who worked on the Global Foundries Job in Saratoga County just found out they had
their money put into HRA accounts they do not have and into a fund that does not exist.

As per the Job PLA the Non Union are forced to pay into this fund as well and it does not exist.

How I must ask you is this possible.

Their local was taken, as I am sure you are aware, in Trusteeship and closed in December 2003.

The International at the request of Fuchs and Morin pulled their charter and gave it to Local
1042.
Local 1042 had its charter dissolved not more than a month before this and they were merged
into Local 229.
Suddenly they were again a viable local and the 229 charter was given to them.

The majority of the 229 members are in Local 370 and have been since December 2003.

The Local 370 Pension Fund is one of, if not the only, Pension fund not taken by the Empire
Council in its jurisdiction.

Why?

Because they are using it to try and repair the Local 229/Adirondack Pension Fund they
intentionally destroyed.

When they seized this Fund it was at $83 a credited year.

When it was merged with the Local 370 Fund it was at $20.

This was because for 2 years the Empire Council spent hundreds of thousands in legal fees trying
to seize this fund and the other 229 funds from the seated trustees.

They took the issue to court and lost. Here we have a court decision that has ruled that the
Council Bylaws or CBA do NOT superseded Fund Trust agreements. Reference pages are
included in Item one for the court case and dismissal.

Mr. Fuchs and the Empire Council tried to remove a seated trustee and install Mr. Fuchs.

The Empire Council declared that it had the right to do so using the same premise they have
given you in the Upstate Fund allocations.

The Adirondack/229 Fund Plan document had a section that said ”You may not be a seated as a
Trustee unless you have been a member of the fund for 2 years” The Empire Council, told the
court their CBA and Council bylaws superseded the Plan documents.

The court ruled they do not.

The Empire Council then insisted they had directed the trustees to change their Trust agreement
and the court ruled they did not have that right either.

So as you can see the claim made now by the Empire Council and Morn is without merit.

The Empire Council appealed the decision but dropped the appeal in return for the Trustees
giving up the fund.
In 2007 Morin and the Empire Council got the funds by shutting down payments into the funds
and choking off monies due to the funds.

“Closing the circle” as they called it.

That means halting any contributions into it.

They drove the Pension Fund down to $20 a credited year and as Vicki Bullman Fund
Administrator said ’Destroyed it to the point that they either gave it to them or lost it.

Patrick Morin created the position of Assistant Fund Administrator and signed the merger .

You will not fund Plan Administrator Vicki Bullmans signature on the merger.

Here is another fine example of the Empire Council destroying the Pension funds of UBC
Members and destroying member’s futures to satisfy their power egos.

They did not think twice about it and have sacrificed the future of many ex 229 UBC members.

The Adirondack Pension fund has since been merged with the Local 370 Pension Fund.

Even though it is merged they are running it as a separate fund and putting new 370 members in
it and forcing ex 229 members to stay in it.

They are giving them $30 dollars a credited year despite the fact that we are merged and despite
the fact we are all Local 370 members.

Our Financial Secretary Mark Sowalski made the statement that the new hires “should be
grateful” to be in at $30 a year.

I hardly think $30 a credited year would entice new members or hold them long if it did.

He has never spoken out against this travesty and has supported it with the Empire Council.

Our combined Organizers have signed one new contractor in three years.

A two man company.

As you can see this is Business as usual for the Empire Council.

We can only hope that a combined effort of the UBC International and the EBSA can put an end
to these unfair and illegal practices for the sake of the membership.
Let us turn to another area of concern.

The First Trade Union Bank.

Unless steps are taken this could be the next disaster for the Empire Council Funds.

This is another fine example of Fund Trustee and Council Officers who think our fund is their
personal play thing.

We who have funds controlled by the Empire Council have the right to inquire about all the
FTUB since we own 48% of it.

We have the right to inquire of all loans and investments it makes regardless of State since we
own 48 % share of it and since it is receiving Capital from the pension funds.

The Pension funds around the state have been seized by the Empire Council under the alleged
premise that it would cut administration cost and members would receive higher benefit accrual
rates.

For the record I would challenge the Empire Council to show us any Pension Increases since
taking all the funds.

It appears instead that our Pension money is being used to fiancé and supply the First Trade
Union Bank.

As I am sure you are aware it is illegal to make risky loans from Pension moneys and
investments are closely scrutinized and most expenditures require an exemption.

Now our Trustees have made us 48 % share owner of the FTUB.

This Bank has now been put under a supervision agreement by federal regulators for making
risky loans that have now defaulted and for being under funded.

A little bit of research showed that the Bank has a large number of foreclosures and a large
number of defaulted construction Loans.

The Bank has received $10 Million, that we are aware of, in fresh Capital from the Pension
Funds.

Attached is a copy of the supervision, an article from the Mass Business review detailing the
Capital given by the Pension Funds and excerpts from an exemption applied for by the NERCC
the FTUB is involved in.
These are marked item 2.

It is alleged the bank has also been added the endangered bank list produced by the Federal
Government. This exodus of Capital and the status of this Bank is of grave concern to the
membership.

What is worse is the audacity of the Councils and Trustees in regards to money that is not theirs.

When was the membership ever told before the purchase into the bank of the intent to do so?

Who approved this?

Why are Robert Carolino, Dale Stuhlmiller and Tom Burke who are Empire fund trustees on the
Board of Directors of the Bank?

What is their educational Background or job experience in Banking and finance?

What are their educational and job qualifications to be Trustees on our funds?

We have lost $160 million in the Funds and the FTUB is in supervision under these people.

Does no one else see a problem here?

The exemption example was included because of the terms involved.

This is an exemption asking for the NERCC Apprentice Fund to be to be able to buy a condo in
the New NERCC headquarters it just opened.

I will not comment on the merit of the move.

I only comment on the exemption because funding will come from the FTUB and they have tied
the loan into the Pension Funds basically using Fund monies as collateral.

The worst part is that as part of the deal the Trustees have agreed to a first position lien of the
funds assets and a negative pledge of the funds deposits.

Further it is agreed that during this and future bargaining agreements the Union will raise
contributions to the Fund whenever necessary to ensure the fund has sufficient income and
reserves to meet its debt obligation.
Further it is stated that they agree to divert to the fund from other funds to cover its cash flow for
the life of the loan.
The NERCC is using the Collective Bargaining Agreement Section on reallocating funds as their
legal right to do so (which they do not have) and using that listed right to obtain the exemption.

Here is a perfect example of the mindset of not only Empire Council Trustees and Officers but of
other Councils and Trustees as well to use our funds and futures as their personal play things.

The result of this mindset is that we have lost $160 million and the NERCC has lost $600 million
because greedy little men are abusing the fund moneys for their own personal agenda.

It is alarming that we have undereducated and inexperienced fund trustees and bank board
directors who have access to billions of member’s monies.

I would ask at this time for the UBC International to investigate our relationship to the First
Trade Union Bank and the movement and expenditure of fund monies.

In your hearing documents you allude to unfair and unequal treatment of members by the Empire
Council.

Many here have testified as to the abusive atmosphere in the Empire Council.

We have had to live with this treatment by the Empire Council and its paid employees for a very
long time.

We who have spoken out have been targeted and abused by the Council and its paid Local
employees.

At Local 370 Albany we actually have a member who was made a Trustee of the Local because
he agreed to and did abuse a member who tried to bring questionable practices of the Empire
Council imposed on our Local 370 to light.

The brother was verbally abused at meetings and threatened.

Our President and presiding chair not only did nothing to stop the abuse at the meeting but
encouraged it by his laughter during one tirade.

As a reward this abusive member was made a trustee.

A letter of Protest to William Weir Council Region 3 Director is included and marked Item 3.

Many letters of protest we have submitted documenting these and other abuses are available on
demand.

Members who speak out are harassed, abused and blackballed.

We are here today because Mr. Morin has acted in a similar manner.

Ask Mr. Conroy or Kevin Smith about their treatment.

Ask fired and demoted delegates.

It has gone unchecked and our calls for help have gone unanswered.

We are here today in my humble opinion because Mr. Morin upset the wrong people.

He upset HIS people.

We come here today for answers to the devastation that has been inflicted on the Upstate
Carpenters at the hands of the Empire Council.

We come here to day because signatory contractors are threatening to not sign.

We come here today because the members are leaving the union in droves and we have no
organizing.

We come here today to seek relief and fair treatment for all UBC members equally.

I hope you will not let us down.

I hope if you do replace Officers and Trustees that you do not replace them with more of the
same.

I am sure that will not satisfy the revolting contractors or the abused membership.

Your hearing notice accuses the Empire of refusing to hold elections for pro tem positions and
has declared a 6 month maximum for Pro Tems.

We called for an election of our then pro tem Financial Secretary Mark Sowalski and were
refused the right to have the election by Council employee William Weir.

When we called for help from the International and asked if there was a time limit for pro tem
officers we got no answer.

We were refused the right to be seated and nominated at the March 2nd Empire Council election
called for by the International.
When we asked for help from Mr. Frank Spencer before the election he refused.

These people like Morin and Weir act as they do because they are empowered by the lack of
accountability for their actions.

The delegate system has failed because no one is here to protect the delegates or the members
who do not agree to go along with the whims of the Empire Council leadership or its Council
employees.

I hope you are listening today and I hope you are going to send a message by putting the Empire
Council under supervision and saying that enough is enough.

In closing may I ask that you work to provide remedy and relief to the membership?

I would ask that you identify by name the conspiring ”appointed trustees” you refer to in the
hearing notice.

I would ask they be removed from Office and any Trustee position and barred from being in such
a position again.

I would ask that you consider the remedy allowed for illegal and violated mergers which is to
restore the Funds to the place and condition they were before the mergers.

The Council, have proven they cannot be trusted with members funds and will not act in the best
interest of the membership.

Mr. Morin has shown us that the funds being put in control of the councils is a complete failure.

The Locals are more than capable of running their own funds and they should be restored.

We have heard testimony here for and against the disproportionate allocations.

This is not a question of 25% vs75%.

This is a question of why they took any money at all.

The Empire Council Annuity Fund, according to the filed 2008 5500 had a positive balance of
$394 Million.

After the $65 Million loss was absorbed and everyone paid for the year had a balance of $394
million in the plus.

Why are you taking anything when you are sitting on $394 million?
Why did they raise local 370 hours to almost double when they are sitting on $394 million?

Return the monies clawed back for the Madoff loss and let the fund absorb it.

When have they ever taken money back from the members for their poor investments?

I would also ask that you take a close look at the Cost Analysis Report dated Jan 2010 they used
for the allocations. The Empire Council investment numbers do not add up when compared to
the 5500s.

Thank you.