Feds: Union big used workers for own ends

NEW YORK - The former president of a Teamsters local was indicted yesterday on federal extortion and embezzlement charges that allege he demanded that his employees mow his lawn, clean his gutters and chauffeur his family.

Anthony Rumore, 63, was accused of extorting the personal services from Teamsters Local 812 employees, officers, business agents and staff while he was the local's president from 1988 until September 2004.

At an initial court appearance, Rumore pleaded not guilty and was released on $250,000 bond.

The indictment said the employees complied with Rumore's demands because they feared they would lose their jobs if they didn't.

According to the indictment, Rumore directed some of the employees to spend two weeks in the early 1990s installing a new roof, skylight and deck on his home in Lakeview, Pa., about 150 miles from New York. He also is accused of getting a union employee to mow the lawn and clean the gutters of the Lakeview home.

At other times, he told union employees to drive his wife and daughters from New York to medical appointments, and to run errands before one daughter's wedding in 2000, the indictment said. In 2001, he directed them to drive him and his family from New York to Baltimore to attend a wedding and to follow the lead car with a second vehicle to carry gowns for his wife and daughters, it said. Later that year, it added, he directed employees to deliver and set up a Christmas tree in his family's apartment.

The indictment also said that, at Rumore's direction, union employees collected about $30,000 in contributions to a legal defense fund so he could defend himself in a disciplinary proceeding in 2003.

Local 812 has about 4,000 members working in the soft drink, brewery, needle trade and industrial and textile industries in the metropolitan area. *