PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -- A federal appeals court reinstated criminal charges against two United Auto Workers officials accused of misleading their members and prolonging a 1997 strike to force the hiring of a relative and a friend.þþA three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati voted unanimously Tuesday to overturn an October 2003 ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, who had dismissed the charges against Donny Douglas and Jay Campbell.þþDouglas, a UAW international servicing representative, and Campbell, retired chairman of UAW Local 594, were indicted in September 2002 on charges of extortion, mail fraud and conspiracy to violate U.S. labor laws. A third union official, William Coffey, was also charged, but he died in 2003.þþThe UAW officials allegedly offered to end the 87-day strike by 5,000 employees at a General Motors Corp. truck manufacturing plant if GM hired two men -- including Campbell's son -- to skilled trades positions for which they weren't qualified.þþEdmunds said in her earlier ruling that concerns about the union officials' actions could have been heard by the National Labor Relations Board. But the appeals panel said the alleged actions ``constitute extortion because they were in contradiction of the collective bargaining agreement and the union's constitution.''þþLawyers for Douglas and Campbell told the Detroit Free Press that they were reviewing their options, which include possible appeals to various federal courts.þþUAW spokesman Roger Kerson declined to comment on the ruling.þþ
Source: NY Times
