Unifor President Dias To Enter Rehab/Charged with Taking Kickback

[401don]

Not to be outdone by his American brethren, Jerry Dias, the longtime head of Canada's biggest union, Unifor, which includes the former CAW, has been charged with taking $50,000 in kickbacks. Dias just announced his retirement and stated this morning he is going into rehab. Too bad, his reputation was flying high after recently helping to persuade GM to re-open the Oshawa Assembly plant.
https://windsorstar.com/transportati...c-c22e36744770

[Henry Whalley]

...Jerry Dias, the longtime head of Canada's biggest union, Unifor, which includes the former CAW, has been charged with taking $50,000 in kickbacks.

Probably, he has taken many kickbacks but got caught this time.

[Richard]

Toronto,Montreal and Quebec would not have a skyline without kickbacks and bribes,they probably got mad at him because he lowered the standards by only excepting $50k and cheapened up the earning potential for others.

Taking everything else in perspective,why would they waste taxpayer resources over a lousy $50k,unless somebody is making a power play and just used that as leverage.

[401don]

Toronto,Montreal and Quebec would not have a skyline without kickbacks and bribes,they probably got mad at him because he lowered the standards by only excepting $50k and cheapened up the earning potential for others.

Taking everything else in perspective,why would they waste taxpayer resources over a lousy $50k,unless somebody is making a power play and just used that as leverage.

Firstly, so far it's being handled internally and has not gone to the police to investigate charges. Secondly, that's an odd comment. Any crime under 50K, especially white collar, should get a pass?

[Richard]

Firstly, so far it's being handled internally and has not gone to the police to investigate charges. Secondly, that's an odd comment. Any crime under 50K, especially white collar, should get a pass?

lol,you posted he was charged and now you are calling it a crime,how does it not get a pass if authorities prosecute,which would involve taxpayer dollars,correct ?

I did not say crimes under $50k should get a pass,I said in perspective the $50k was chump change,why give bribes in the amount of $100s of thousands in bribes a pass, but go after a $50k bribe? It’s a power play.

In little small local elections $50k may be within lines to buy votes,but $50k for a multimillion dollar contract,that’s $200 - $300,000 territory.

Its not PC to call it White Collar crime anymore.

[401don]

lol,you posted he was charged and now you are calling it a crime,how does it not get a pass if authorities prosecute,which would involve taxpayer dollars,correct ?

I did not say crimes under $50k should get a pass,I said in perspective the $50k was chump change,why give bribes in the amount of $100s of thousands in bribes a pass, but go after a $50k bribe? It’s a power play.

In little small local elections $50k may be within lines to buy votes,but $50k for a multimillion dollar contract,that’s $200 - $300,000 territory.

Its not PC to call it White Collar crime anymore.

The term charged is a verb often used interchangeably with accused:
https://www.insauga.com/oshawa-union...-kit-supplier/

[Richard]

The term charged is a verb often used interchangeably with accused:
https://www.insauga.com/oshawa-union...-kit-supplier/

Reading that it comes across as Unifor is a completely separate government acting in the capacity outside of the jurisdiction of the Canadian government,with the ability to accuse and charge private citizens with a crime and render punishment as it seems fit?

If they had evidence of a crime committed would it not be turned over to the RCMP for investigation?

[davewindsor]

Toronto,Montreal and Quebec would not have a skyline without kickbacks and bribes,they probably got mad at him because he lowered the standards by only excepting $50k and cheapened up the earning potential for others.

Taking everything else in perspective,why would they waste taxpayer resources over a lousy $50k,unless somebody is making a power play and just used that as leverage.

How exactly is this a criminal matter if no government officials were bribed? The article says it's a Unifor ethics violation. One union employee gave another union employee $25K to promote a covid test kit supplier to a private company. In the case of skylines, there is usually a government official that stops construction if he isn't paid off.

[Richard]

How exactly is this a criminal matter if no government officials were bribed? The article says it's a Unifor ethics violation. One union employee gave another union employee $25K to promote a covid test kit supplier to a private company. In the case of skylines, there is usually a government official that stops construction if he isn't paid off.

• At some point prior to January 20, 2022, Dias accepted the sum of $50,000 from the supplier.
• On January 20, 2022 Dias gave a Unifor employee what Dias said was half of the funds [[$25,000), telling the employee that it had come from the supplier.
• The employee subsequently lodged a complaint under the Unifor Code of Ethics and delivered the funds that he received from Dias to the National Secretary-Treasurer.

So if I was a pharmaceutical company in Canada, I could give a hospital administrator $50,000 in cash as kickback in order to sell my product and it would be legal in the eyes of Canadian justice because the hospital administrator was not a government official.

Correct?

If it was not considered illegal,why would the employee feel the need to turn him in ? If it was considered an excepted practice,the employee would have just stuck the cash in his pocket.

[davewindsor]

• At some point prior to January 20, 2022, Dias accepted the sum of $50,000 from the supplier.
• On January 20, 2022 Dias gave a Unifor employee what Dias said was half of the funds [[$25,000), telling the employee that it had come from the supplier.
• The employee subsequently lodged a complaint under the Unifor Code of Ethics and delivered the funds that he received from Dias to the National Secretary-Treasurer.

So if I was a pharmaceutical company in Canada, I could give a hospital administrator $50,000 in cash as kickback in order to sell my product and it would be legal in the eyes of Canadian justice because the hospital administrator was not a government official.

Correct?

Incorrect. In Canada, hospitals are paid for in full by the government under a universal single-payer health care system. Bribing a hospital administrator to sell their product to their hospital would be illegal because it's defrauding the government/taxpayer.

On the other hand, there are several ways pharmaceutical companies can give Medical Doctors kickbacks that would show up on their tax returns as consulting fees, paying for traveling expenses to conferences, grants for research, etc. to promote their product and it's perfectly legal. In Canada, Big Pharma isn't even required to publicly disclose how much they are giving doctors and for what.

To give an example of how lucrative pharmaceuticals can be. Alexion sells a drug called Soliris which costs $700,000 a year per patient in Canada [[the cost to manufacture it is under 1%). Where do you think the other 99% goes? https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/how-p...drug-1.3125251

If it was not considered illegal,why would the employee feel the need to turn him in ? If it was considered an excepted practice,the employee would have just stuck the cash in his pocket.

Again, in the case of Unifor, the employee felt the need to turn Dias in because it violated the Unifor code of ethics. It's a civil matter, not a criminal matter. If it were a criminal matter, why would Unifor need to make a code of ethics with an internal review board to begin with? Could it be because it happened before and they decided to create this mechanism to deal with it?

[Richard]

^ so using the hospital was not a good idea for the jist of it,hypothetically speaking,if I was a sub contractor and I wanted to get a lucrative construction contract,it would be legal for me to give the main contractor a $500,000 bribe/kickback in order for me to secure that contract,as long as the site contractor is not a government employee and their company does not follow a code of standards,it would be legal?

Or is it just a Unifor thing?

Canada appears to have a government required bribery compliance system in place for corporations,maybe that is the mechanism that Unifor utilizes.

I agree with the insane markup on pharmaceutical,but I am self insured and there is a company out of Texas where you pay a $140 membership fee and you get meds at cost,my 90 day requirement for my stent prescription would have cost me $600 per month,I pay cost,which is $12.16.

[davewindsor]

^ so using the hospital was not a good idea for the jist of it,hypothetically speaking,if I was a sub contractor and I wanted to get a lucrative construction contract,it would be legal for me to give the main contractor a $500,000 bribe/kickback in order for me to secure that contract,as long as the site contractor is not a government employee and their company does not follow a code of standards,it would be legal?

Or is it just a Unifor thing?

Canada appears to have a government required bribery compliance system in place for corporations,maybe that is the mechanism that Unifor utilizes.

The scenario isn't realistic though because the main contractor is already allowed to mark up their subcontractors' bids using a management fee/consulting fee structure for supervising the subcontractors. Think about it. In order for a subcontractor to pay a $500K bribe, they would have to raise their price to the contractor by $5m. Why wouldn't the main contractor just hire another subcontractor and charge the customer the extra $5m and simply keep the full $5m for themselves as a management/consultant fee instead of giving 90% to the subcontractor? Another issue is that the main contractor wouldn't be in business too long because their potential customers would be shopping around the bids and going with much cheaper overall bids when you're dealing with that kind of money.

Canada appears to have a government required bribery compliance system in place for corporations,maybe that is the mechanism that Unifor utilizes.

No, there's no bribery compliance mechanism for unions like corporations. It's a completely different animal. Unions need a code of ethics against kickbacks to keep their members happy; otherwise, what would prevent a union leader from accepting a bribe from a corporation to not go on strike or promote to their members less concessions from a corporation?

[Richard]

^ thanks for taking the time to explain all of that,I find it interesting the different views on bribes/kickbacks and how it varies from country to country.

In the US,it’s illegal and no matter who gets caught you are prosecuted,up there it appears as though as long as it is between agreed parties it is frowned on but not illegal.

I have a acquaintance that runs an investment group,he put an branch in Uruguay,by law you have to have a partner in order to do business,his partner hired a tech guy and together they stole $50 million from him and bounced it around the world in order to hide it.

Interpol wanted to get involved because it was illegal transfer but in order to do that Uruguay had to start the investigation and in order to do that he was required to bribe everybody from the police to write the report to the prosecutor otherwise no charges would be placed.

I knew an Iranian general,if you sold a chicken in his sector he got his cut.

Its just strange how in some countries it is perfectly acceptable and it’s how things work,but yet they are normally functioning societies while in others you go to prison for it.

Look at NYC up until recently,you could not build a building without a kick back to the mob,it was just factored into the job cost,but yet they had one of the largest economies in the country.