Rank and file members of the union local at the Metrobus transit service in St. John's are greeting an audit into their local's spending with outrage.

The audit — which led the Amalgamated Transit Union to dismiss the local executive this July — found the St. John's local had spent about $89,000 on credit card expenses alone during a period between January 2002 and April 2006.

Unionized workers at Metrobus have been shocked by the findings of a new audit, a union member says.
(CBC)

Of that amount, about $31,000 was spent on entertainment expenses including bar tabs, strip clubs, alcohol purchases and meals.

"Numerous items appeared to be personal in nature (e.g. liquor store, toiletries, restaurants, travel costs, gentlemen's clubs, boots, coat)," the audit found.

Copies of the audit have been distributed to the local's members, and will be the subject of a meeting later this month.

George Crocker, who was removed in July as president of the ATU local for Metrobus workers, calls the audit a vendetta.
(CBC)

"For a local the size of ours, that's just outrageous, you know? We're just common people trying to make a living," said Walter Barrington, a Metrobus mechanic and union member.

The 54-page audit, which includes dozens of expenditures made by union local officials over the 52-month period, concluded there were poor controls on how the local's funds were spent.

The audit found "significant control breakdown," including a lack of receipts and heavy use of the local's credit card, which did not require the approval of a second person.

All of the spending happened on the watch of former local president George Crocker, who says the ATU launched the audit because he criticized the international union's leadership.

"It is a personal vendetta," said Crocker, who said all of the spending was above board.

"I would agree it was a lot of money but those bylaws that the spending was approved under were also approved by the international union in Washington, D.C., and the spending that took place in the union was approved by those bylaws and approved by the executive board," he added.

Among other things, the audit recommends destroying or returning the local's credit card, and revising ATU bylaws to disallow the use of such a card again.

Crocker said the union local approved personal expenses for him in lieu of lost wages following his dismissal from Metrobus last November. Crocker was fired after he made negative comments about Metrobus management. The issue is still unresolved and is heading to arbitration.

The ATU local, meanwhile, has been run by a trustee since July.

Barrington said the local's members are not sure what ought to happen next.

"This has consumed a considerable amount of time with members, you know, going through it, asking questions," Barrington said.

"Obviously, we're not accountants. We don't fully understand what the total audit is about, but we're smart enough to know there was, you know, a misappropriation of funds or misuse of funds — whatever the word maybe. That just pisses a lot of people off."