U.S. Threatening to Prosecute 3 Federal Union Leaders for Illegal Political Activity

The presidents of three federal labor unions will be prosecuted for violating the Hatch Act for 1984 political activities on behalf of Walter F. Mondale unless they resign from their federal jobs or retire by Feb. 26, the government’s civil service watchdog agency said Tuesday.

“We have concluded that during 1983 and 1984 you engaged in campaign activity in support of the presidential candidacy of Democrat Walter Mondale and against the reelection of Republican Ronald Reagan,” the Office of Special Counsel, an arm of the Merit System Protection Board, said in letters to the three union officers released Tuesday.

Campaigning Prohibited

The 1939 Hatch Act prohibits federal workers from campaigning, raising funds, distributing literature or seeking office.

The three union officers, Kenneth T. Blaylock of the American Federation of Government Employees, Moe Biller of the American Postal Workers Union and Vincent R. Sombrotto of the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, whose unions represent 1.3 million employees, have been outspoken critics of the Reagan Administration.

The union presidents, who have led the fight against cutbacks in federal and postal pay and benefits, said they believe that the prosecutions are politically motivated. The Administration is “trying to hang us on a technicality,” Blaylock said Tuesday. The Administration recently broadened its Hatch Act prosecutions to target union officers, he said, terming it “harassment” and “blackmail.”

On Leave From U.S. Jobs

The three veteran union presidents can be prosecuted because of their status as federal employees on leave without pay. None has worked for a federal agency for at least 10 years. Blaylock has been on unpaid leave from Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama since 1968, and Biller and Sombrotto on unpaid leave from the Postal Service since 1959 and 1971 respectively. Presidents of the three unions are required to be current or former government workers.

The cases are apparently only the second prosecutions in the 46-year history of the Hatch Act for activities carried out by union officers, according to Andrew Feinstein, staff director of the House civil service subcommittee. The first such case was in 1982, involving an officer of a union local who wrote a newsletter article supporting a candidate.

Biller called the prosecutions “part of a continuing anti-labor attack” and said that it was a misapplication of the Hatch Act, which he said was intended to protect employees from political intimidation by supervisors.

Sombrotto said, “I deny the charge . . . . I believe I have the right under the Constitution to speak to my membership on political candidates and issues that affect their families and their futures. We will fight this case to the Supreme Court.”

‘Not Above the Law’

Board spokesman Alma Hepner said that the proposed prosecution “is not being used on a union president. The letters are not addressed to union presidents, they are addressed to federal employees. . . . Because they are union officials, they are not above the law.”

Only five Hatch Act cases have been prosecuted during the tenure of K. William O’Connor, the board’s special counsel, since October, 1982. Four involved federal workers who sought elective office and the fifth had worked on a campaign staff, according to O’Connor’s 1984 annual report. The prosecutions resulted in two suspensions, one firing and one resignation, and one of the cases is pending.