The CHAIRMAN. In other words, at the time that bill is sent out, your dues have already been deducted?

Mr. CARELLY. They are already deducted.

The CHAIRMAN. For which month?

Mr. CARELLY. For the following month.

The CHAIRMAN. For the following month, and not the month in which they are withheld?

Mr. CARELLY. No.

The CHAIRMAN. So that your dues are actually paid by you?
Mr. CARELLY. Well, I don't follow you there.

The CHAIRMAN. Just a moment. Under their contract the employer must withhold the dues?

Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And that is a negotiated contract between the employer and union?

Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Únder that contract in performance of the agreement contained therein with respect to the obligation of the employer to withhold, he does withhold on about the 25th of the month your dues for the following month?

Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And in withholding he is the agent of the local!
Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And therefore you have no control over it?
Mr. CARELLY. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. So that your dues are actually paid at the time that they are withheld?

Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, whether the agent of the local transmits them before the 1st of the month, is something over which you have no control?

Mr. CARELLY. I certainly don't.

The CHAIRMAN. But you cannot recover them, and they are already withheld, and you have no control over the amount of your dues after they are withheld?

Mr. CARELLY. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. All right.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Chairman, I would like to just call Mr. Bellino briefly in connection with what he has found in an examination of the records, and as to whether these gentlemen have had their dues paid.

The CHAIRMAN. Come around, Mr. Bellino.

In the meantime, I will ask each of you, Have you been delinquent for your dues at any time on any monthly payment during the past 2 years?

Mr. CARELLY. No, sir.

Mr. SAMMARTINO. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, this process of withholding has continued over that period and your dues were withheld each month for the following month.

Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir, as long as we are under a checkoff, it is always withheld every month.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you worked all of that time, and your dues have been withheld?

Mr. CARELLY. Without any interruptions, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. For each month during the 24 months preceding this nomination?

Mr. CARELLY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you.

Mr. Bellino, will you be sworn?

You do solemnly swear that the evidence you shall give before this Senate select committee shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. BELLINO. I do.

TESTIMONY OF CARMINE S. BELLINO

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Bellino, you may identify yourself.

Mr. BELLINO. My name is Carmine S. Bellino, member of the staff. The CHAIRMAN. You are also a certified public accountant, are you? Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And you are employed by the committee as a professional staff member in that capacity?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Proceed.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Bellino, it has been a provision of the constitution of the Teamsters that you have your dues paid up to the first of the month to be eligible to run for office, and it has to be over a period of 2 years, and you have to be in good standing for a period of 2 years; is that right?

Mr. BELLINO. The pertinent provisions are article 10, section 5, which provides that all members paying dues-I might say article 2, section 4 first, to be eligible for election to any office of a local union or the international union, a member must be in continuous good standing for a period of 2 years prior to nomination for said office, and must have worked at the craft as a member for a total period of 2 years.

Article 10, section 5(c), provides that all members paying dues to local unions must pay them on or before the first business day of the current month, in advance. Where membership dues are being checked off by the employer pursuant to properly executed checkoff authorization, it shall be the obligation of the member to make one payment of 1 month's dues in advance to insure his good standing. Mr. KENNEDY. Now, that provision that you just read was not in the constitution until September of 1957?

Mr. BELLINO. That is correct.

Mr. KENNEDY. That is a new provision?

Mr. BELLINO. September of 1957 convention provided this.
Mr. KENNEDY. Let us go back to what the rule was.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the convention in Miami?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. The rule prior to that, of the constitution, provided prior to that, that you had to have your dues paid up in order to be in good standing, and you had to have your dues paid up by the first of the month, and you had to have them paid up over a period of 2 years; is that right?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. They have ruled in the past, we found, for instance in Nashville, Tenn., and in other areas, that if your dues are not received at the headquarters by the first of the month, although they inight be checked off in time, if they are not received by the first day of the month, you are declared ineligible.

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. We have found in a number of cases that the only people eligible in some of the Teamsters Union locals, have been the incumbent officers who paid their own dues, have we not?

Mr. BELLINO. And which have been paid usually on a basis of a year in advance.

Mr. KENNEDY. But just the only people eligible to run for office are the incumbent officers.

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. Now, this provision in the constitution was slightly changed in 1957; is that correct?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. And that provision that you just read of the constitution provides that in order to avoid this problem, that the union membership should pay their dues a month in advance, and if they were under the checkoff system.

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. They should pay their own dues a month in advance, and then when the checkoff system was in effect they would be declared eligible.

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. Now, I will ask these witnesses about how that applied to them, in just a moment, but you have made a study to determine when these witnesses paid their dues or when their dues were received at the union headquarters?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. What did you find?

Mr. BELLINO. Insofar as the September dues, you mean?

Mr. KENNEDY. All of the dues prior to that time. And you found they were checked off regularly?

Mr. BELLINO. Insofar as taking Carelly and going back to 1956, his dues for the 1st of January 1956 were paid the 6th of the month; and in February they were paid the 2d of the month; and in March, the 6th of the month; and April, the 3d of the month; and then the 5th, and the 6th, and the 5th and-in other words, before the 10th of the month his dues were paid off under the checkoff system, in almost every instance. There is only one period where it was paid on the 15th. Another period was on the 11th, and all others were prior to the 10th of the month.

Mr. KENNEDY. During this whole period of the time he was on the checkoff system the employer was checking off the money from his salary, and turning it in to the union; is that correct?

Mr. BELLINO. That is correct.

Mr. KENNEDY. And the same thing for Mr. Sammartino?

Mr. BELLINO. Sammartino the same thing, except that he was in advance starting in June. On May 27 of 1958 he paid his June dues, and so he was paid in advance; and on June 16 he paid his July dues; July 16 he paid his August dues. So he was in advance at the time of this nomination meeting on September 3.

The CHAIRMAN. But they disqualified him and declared him ineligible because of the checkoff in the past, when his dues had not actually reached the treasury from the employer for some 6 or 8 days after the 1st of the month?

Mr. BELLINO. That is correct.

Senator GOLDWATER. May I ask technically, when are the dues considered paid-when the checkoff occurs or when the money reaches the treasury?

Mr. BELLINO. They have considered the employer as the agent of the union, and so I would say technically it is when the employer deducts the dues. However, the union goes on the basis of when they actually receive it.

Senator GOLDWATER. Is there anything in the contract that specifies the time of payment?

Mr. BELLINO. Well, I haven't seen his contract, but the usual provision is upon being notified by the union of what members are employed by that company, then they check off the dues at the next payroll period and send it into the union. So that in this particular case, insofar as Carelly is concerned, around the end of the month, the Islay Dairy Co. received a notice from the secretary treasurer of local 377 including Carelly's name as one of the members working for them, and they deducted, on the September 3 payroll period, which was a Friday, they deducted the dues. They paid it on September 5. I am sorry; it was September 5 that they deducted it, and the dueswere in by September 10.

Senator GOLDWATER. The company is in effect the agent; is that right?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Senator GOLDWATER. As soon as the agent had deducted the dues, are they not technically paid?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir; I would say so. I would say they are technically paid.

Senator GOLDWATER. To your knowledge, has that ever been to the courts?

Mr. BELLINO. Not as far as I know, Senator.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it is more than technically paid. If I pay a duly constituted agent of a master a debt I owe, or an obligation, when I pay it to the agent, if he is an authorized agent, the debt is paid, whether that agent absconds with the money, or whatever he does.

So it is more than technically paid; it is actually paid insofar as the employer and the union member are concerned.

Mr. BELLINO. I would believe so.

Senator GOLDWATER. Is this bill, the form that this gentleman identified, is that the receipt?

Mr. BELLINO. That is the form sent by the union to the employer and listing the names of the union members that are working for that

company.

Senator GOLDWATER. How does the union recognize receipt of that money? Do they receipt for it?

Mr. BELLINO. They deposit it and issue a receipt to the member. Senator GOLDWATER. But receipting to the employer, how does he receipt to the employer?

Mr. BELLINO. They may actually tell us the actual procedures, Sen

ator.

Mr. SAMMARTINO. Our employer, upon receiving the statement, they send in a check, and the same statement is sent back to our employer or sent back to the employees with the receipt marked paid, with receipts for each and every employee.

Senator GOLDWATER. Who sends that back, the company or the union?

Mr. SAMMARTINO. The union, sir. It is sent back to the shop steward, and the shop stewards distribute them to the membership, their receipt.

Senator GOLDWATER. When they say the first of the month, Mr. Bellino, do they mean the 1st actually, or the 10th?

Mr. BELLINO. The first business day is the way the constitution reads, the first business day of the month.

Senator GOLDWATER. Most of these have been deposited from the 3d to the 10th ?

Mr. BELLINO. Yes, sir.

Senator GOLDWATER. So it has been the general practice not to have them paid, and to keep the entire membership in a state of not having paid their dues, in case this ever comes up.

Mr. BELLINO. They have always been considered in good standing by paying their dues prior to the 10th of the month.

The CHAIRMAN. There is another phase of this that is intriguing to me. There is nothing in that section 4, the first item you read from the constitution, that makes the same condition of eligibility applicable to appointive officers, where a union is in trusteeship or something, is there?

Mr. BELLINO. Not in this section, and whether there is in any other, I don't know.

The CHAIRMAN. There is a big loophole where they can take a man right out of the penitentiary and appoint him to one of these high positions in the union-is that correct and not be in violation of the constitution?

Mr. BELLINO. I don't know the answer to that.

Mr. KENNEDY. Senator, they can do that, but these people that they take out of the penitentiary and place in those positions of power are not eligible under the constitution. What has happened in the past is that they are not any more eligible than anybody else; the international president can just waive the constitution or they just don't pay attention to the constitution in those cases.

The CHAIRMAN. Speaking at least of practical application, they do not apply it in those instances.

Mr. KENNEDY. That is correct, and, of course, it is the same procedure followed by Mr. Harold Gibbons in St. Louis. This provision of the constitution that we have just read should apply to the Carnival Workers Union in operating supposedly out of S. Louis, but Mr. Gibbons, as the trustee of the joint council, waived the constitution and said, "This doesn't apply in this case."

So these people in the St. Louis situation were declared eligible by Mr. Gibbons and supported by Mr. Hoffa. They participated in the election, and with the switch votes that made the difference they gave the election to Mr. Harold Gibbons.