Ex-Burbank Union Official Pleads Guilty

A former Burbank union official has pleaded guilty to embezzling $8,500 from a union representing 1,800 office workers in the entertainment industry, officials said Wednesday.

Prosecutors will recommend that Linda Contreras, 43, be sentenced to eight to 14 months in prison and fined $15,218 when sentenced Jan. 5.

She faces a maximum sentence of 51 years in prison and a $110,000 fine.

Although she was indicted for embezzling $8,500, Contreras stole an additional $7,000, said Michael Miller, case agent for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards, which investigated Contreras for nearly a year.

“She agreed to pay the full amount in restitution,” he said.

Contreras, former secretary-treasurer of the Burbank-based Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 174, was charged with 10 counts of embezzlement and one count of false entry on records for using the union president’s signature to sign more than 10 union checks to herself and to her creditors between January 1993 and March 1996, Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Bullota said.

“We will be recommending eight months for her prison sentence because she has no prior convictions and she is cooperating with the investigation,” Bullota said. “And she is making full restitution.”

Contreras also agreed, as part of the plea bargain, not to work for any unions for a 13-year period, Bullota said.

“This was probably one of the most difficult times for the union in its 50-year history,” said Christine Page, president of Local 174, which represents office workers employed by various entertainment companies in the city.

“One wrestles with the issue of whether she should be given prison time, but I’ll leave that in the hands of the court,” Page said. “It’s not been an easy time for this union president, and I have faith in the court to do what it needs to do.”

Contreras, who also served as an executive board member of the union, was fired in April 1996.

She could not be reached for comment.