‘Quite ugly stuff.’ Boilermakers president Newton B. Jones steps down amid union turmoil

Newton B. Jones, the embattled international president of the Kansas City, Kansas-based Boilermakers union accused by his top executives of misappropriating money for personal use, has stepped down.

In a letter to union officers Monday morning, Jones said he was retiring as of noon eastern time. He said he had appointed an international president pro tem to take his place until a permanent leader can be elected at the union’s next Consolidated Convention in 2026.

“I’ve been successful in keeping the International officers of this union working together in the best interests of our members for 20 years,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, we are now crossways.”

The president pro tem Jones appointed is Cory R. Channon, who began his career with the Boilermakers in 1986 as a member of Local 146 in Edmonton, Alberta, according to a news release issued Monday by the union.

Jones, 70, told union members that he had “given you my all.”

“I’ve given this union 52 years of my life,” he said. “I’ve endured the constant lies and hate. I’ve endured the social media blogs that cause our members to believe in the lies that are told in those forums.

“I choose to go on with my remaining years without the responsibility or the demands of being this organization’s leader.”

He described recent efforts by members of the union’s executive council to oust him as “quite ugly stuff.”

“They have created a smear campaign against me and against my wonderful wife,” he said. “This is really the ugliest part of this union.”

In a news release issued later Monday, four of the five members of the union’s executive board called Jones’ retirement announcement “a bizarrely rambling and self-aggrandizing statement.”

“Jones was removed by an overwhelming vote of the Boilermaker’s Executive Board after financial improprieties were discovered,” the release said. “Today’s ‘resignation,’ an apparent effort to enrich himself with retirement benefits that are not permissible when removed from office, was announced as the Federal District Court in Kansas City is in deliberations regarding the actions that led up to Jones’ removal from office.

“Presumably in an attempt to shield he and his family from further legal liability and acting in direct contradiction to a Court Order issued by the Federal Court, Jones also attempted to appoint his own replacement.”

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers represents about 46,000 workers in the United States and Canada who assemble, install and repair boilers, fit pipes and build power plants and ships. Jones, who joined the union at 18 as a field construction Boilermaker, has led the union since his father retired in 2003.

Jones also has been chairman of the union-owned Bank of Labor since 2003, according to the union’s news release. In 2008, it said, the bank’s board of directors unanimously chose Jones to serve as chief executive officer.

“During his tenure leading the bank, Jones was instrumental in transforming the bank from a local Kansas City bank to a bank with national presence in all 50 states, growing deposits from $540 million in 2015 to nearly $1 billion today,” the release said. “Bank of Labor is the only union majority-owned, union-staffed and union-dedicated bank in the United States.”

The release said Jones’ new title is international president emeritus, and he “will continue advising the union’s leadership in a consultive capacity.”

Channon is the third Canadian in the Boilermakers’ history to serve in the organization’s highest office, the union release said. Before being appointed president pro tem, it said, Channon was international director of climate change policy solutions. He also has been a special assistant to Jones and assistant director-construction sector operations for Canada.

Jones’ retirement is another twist in the bizarre saga that began after members of the union’s executive council voted in June to remove him as the international president, finding he had violated a section of the Boilermaker’s constitution dealing with the misuse of funds.

Saying “this misuse is shocking,” the council ordered Jones to reimburse the union “all of the funds which he misspent as reflected in these charges” and to immediately resign from all of his other positions, including serving as a trustee of all funds in which the union participates.

Since then, there’s been an ongoing conflict over who is in control of the union.

At a hearing in June, Chief Judge Eric F. Melgren of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ordered a stay of the actions by the union’s executive council to remove Jones and the council’s decision to elect retired international vice president Warren Fairley to replace him.

But Melgren also ordered that any efforts to remove the executive council members from office for expelling Jones be stopped. And he said that Jones’ action to remove them from other appointments, such as committees and trust funds, would be stayed, saying it was clearly done in retaliation for the officers ousting him.

The allegations against Jones went public after three members of the union’s executive council — Tom Baca, of California; Arnie Stadnick, of Canada; and Timothy Simmons, of Alabama — announced their June 2 decision to remove Jones.

Another executive council member, John Fultz, of New York, was not eligible to participate in the decision because he filed the internal disciplinary charges against Jones that led to his removal. The council’s fifth executive council member, Lawrence McManamon Sr., of Ohio, did not attend the hearing at which the decision was made, nor did he vote to remove Jones. The executive council is composed of the union’s five international vice presidents and Jones.

The union’s executive council found that Jones ordered the union to give his wife, Kateryna, more than $100,000 plus benefits in back pay “for apparently no union purpose while she was living in the Ukraine” and spent more than $20,000 in union funds for flights to Ukraine “to visit his wife and to go to the home which he owns in the Ukraine.”

Jones and his wife also turned in about $40,000 in receipts for meals for them and other family members when at their home in North Carolina — some “quite lavish and expensive” — with no justification for the expenses, the executive council found.

Jones has denied any wrongdoing and said the executive council had no authority under the union’s constitution to dismiss him.

The case ended up in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, after the union filed a civil suit against Baca, Stadnick and Simmons, requesting a temporary restraining order and then an injunction to prohibit Jones’ removal. Though the lawsuit was filed by the union, many members say it doesn’t represent their feelings and they want no part of it.

The union executives fought back, filing a counterclaim against Jones, his wife and International Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden. They asked the court for a temporary restraining order followed by an injunction enforcing their decision to remove Jones.

The counterclaim alleged that Jones misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union and its members. But instead of putting a stop to the practice, it said, Creeden authorized the transactions. And because Baca, Stadnick, Simmons and Fultz participated in the internal disciplinary process that led to Jones’ ouster, they said, Jones had “engaged in a campaign of retaliation” against them.

Jones limited their travel, the document said, and removed them from long-held appointed leadership positions. And he filed internal disciplinary charges against Baca, Stadnick, Simmons and Fultz, accusing them of violating the union’s constitution.

Jones’ retirement comes four days after a hearing in federal court over who will lead the union. Melgren did not issue a ruling, saying he needed to study the case further. He added, however, that he would issue his decision “promptly.”

After the hearing, two dozen angry rank-and-file union members confronted Jones as he left the courthouse, some chanting “Prison for the president!”

Darrell Manroe, a Boilermaker from Grand Junction, Colorado, who attended the hearing, said Monday that members strongly oppose Channon’s appointment.

“It’s just more turmoil to muck up the water,” Manroe said. “Jones has no authority to try and appoint or remove anyone, including himself. The rank-and-file do not trust another Jones appointee. That’s what got us to this problem in the first place.”

It was unclear Monday how Jones’ retirement would affect the federal court case. One issue in the case is whether the union executive council had the authority under the union’s constitution to remove Jones as president. Now, many are questioning whether Jones had the authority to appoint an interim president.

Jones said in his announcement that the union’s constitution authorizes the international president to appoint officers pro tem.

The tug-of-war over who controls the union is playing out even as a federal investigation of union activities is underway. Numerous sources have told The Star that they’ve been interviewed by the FBI in recent months.

In Monday’s letter, Jones attacked three union members he said were after his job.

“One is not eligible according to the constitution,” he said. “He’s retired and has not been seeking work at the trade for 12 consecutive months.” Another, he said, “would be a novice disaster.”

“He’s a one-term business manager who rifles through proprietary organizational files to fabricate a plethora of untruths in order to mislead the leaders and members of this union,” Jones said. “One desperately and selfishly wants his son to be International Vice President even though he has never worked at the Boilermaker construction trade.

“All of these are personal agendas, not agendas to make this union better and healthier as I have done as your International President.”

Jones listed what he described as numerous successes under his leadership, saying the union “is in the very best financial shape it has ever been in its history.”

He said the Bank of Labor is doing business in all 50 states and also “is in the best financial shape in its history” and the Boilermakers National Health & Welfare Fund “is not only in the best shape it has ever been in its history, we saved over $1 billion by taking the actions we did to remedy operational problems.”

The Boilermakers National Annuity is in excellent shape, Jones said, “and the Boilermakers-Blacksmiths National Pension Fund “is still properly funding our dependent retirees and is still a viable pension plan for our members...”

“I have done my level best to leave this wonderful union and its satellite organizations in the best shape possible given the market impacts of the Great Recession, the pandemic and the extreme environmentalist attacks on our core work in the construction sector,” he said.

But the executive board’s statement said Jones’ “apparent ‘abdication” was celebrated by Boilermakers around the country “who have for months been wearing hard hat stickers featuring a picture of Jones with the text ‘Not Our President.’”

“Our members work hard and dangerous jobs,” the statement said. “As the elected leadership, we have both a moral and legal obligation to ensure that the people that are elected to lead the union work just as hard to protect the members’ interests. To that end, we will continue to fight to ensure that neither Jones nor anyone else abuses this responsibility to our members or attempts to further enrich themselves at our members’ expense.”