A sentence has been imposed on Operating Engineers Local 150’s retired President William Dugan. You can read the details in the U.S. Attorney’s press release below:

RETIRED HEAD OF OPERATING ENGINEERS LOCAL 150 SENTENCED FOR

ILLEGALLY OBTAINING EQUIPMENT FOR HIS MARYLAND BUFFALO FARM

CHICAGO — The retired leader of a regional labor union local was sentenced today to three years of probation for violating federal labor law by demanding and accepting custom-made livestock feeders for his buffalo farm in Maryland from a company that employed the union local’s workers, as well as other similar related conduct.

The defendant, William E. Dugan, was president and business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, headquartered in Countryside, from 1988 through 2005.

Dugan was also fined $30,000 and ordered to pay restitution and the costs of his supervision while on probation, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The sentence was imposed by Magistrate Judge Michael Mason in U.S. District Court. Dugan, 77, of Hancock, Md., and formerly of Mt. Prospect, Ill., has already paid restitution of $4,800 to Local 150 and $6,000 to the Apprenticeship Skills Improvement Program (AISP.)

Dugan pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of violating the U.S. Labor-ManagementRelations Act in March shortly after he was charged.

Under federal law, Dugan’s conviction bars him from participating in any union activities for 13 years.

Local 150 represents approximately 23,000 members working in construction and a variety of other industries in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa.

In pleading guilty, Dugan admitted that in 2005 he demanded and accepted several concrete buffalo feeders valued at approximately $500 apiece from a company in Elgin, whose workers were represented by Local 150.

In addition, Dugan admitted the following related conduct:
in 2002, he accepted the rental and delivery at his Maryland farm of a front-end loader, with a value of $7,265, from a company unionized by Local 150 workers;

• in 2004, this same company provided Dugan with a skid steer (small four-wheel drive engine-powered machine with a lift arm capable of being fitted with various attachments) at a price several thousands of dollars below market value;
• between 2003 and 2005, he accepted two 400-bushel truckloads of feed corn each year that, together with cash payments to Local 150, comprised the “rent” that a farmer paid to cultivate land the union owned in Will County;
• in 2003, he converted a front-end loader belong to the union apprentice program for his own benefit at his Maryland farm, and
• between 2001 and 2006, he misused a semi-tractor and trailers belonging to the apprentice program, while serving as the program’s board chairman; and
• in 2005, he filed false reports with the Labor Department failing to disclose the benefits he obtained from companies whose workers were represented by Local 150.

The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick King. Other Labor Department branches that participated in the investigation were the Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Office of Labor Management Standards.