Labor Leader And CU FiguresPasses

MARION, Ohio - (03/13/06) – Martin Hughes, the well-knownlabor leader and political kingmaker, who ran United Telephone CUfor more than 40 years, died here last Wednesday, at 85. Hughes wasa former international vice president of the Communications Workersof America and president of the Cleveland AFL-CIO, as well aschairman and director of Fahey Banking Co., of Marion. He mobilizedhis union supporters for political campaigns and frequently visitedthe White House as a labor adviser to President Carter. His career,however, took a turn for the worse in the 1980s. Hughes was chargedin federal court with misusing union funds to provide money tocandidates and was convicted in 1987 of falsifying union records.He received two years' probation, a $10,000 fine and a ban on unionactivity. His credit union career, too, was tarnished at the endafter state regulators charged him and his family with using creditunion funds for personal use and took the $15 million credit unionunder conservatorship in 2003. A court, however, overturned theconservatorship and ordered it returned to its members lastyear.