Machinists ban former president from holding union office

Former Machinists Union District 70 president Frank Molina has been banned from holding a union officer position for five years, a union spokesman said Monday.

The ban follows a determination of “financial mismanagement” by the International Association of Machinists, IAM spokesman Frank Larkin said.

Larkin said Molina can appeal the ban under the Machinists appeals process.

Molina could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Earlier this year, the IAM took over the operations of the District 70 office at 3830 S. Meridian under a process it calls trusteeship. Larkin said the district office – which represents 8,000 Machinists members in the Wichita area, including those at Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation and Bombardier Learjet – remains under trusteeship.

He said the trusteeship could be lifted following an election of new officers, but it isn’t clear when that would happen.

“It’s … a matter of months, not years, before (local) control is returned,” Larkin said.

This story was originally published September 19, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Machinists ban former president from holding union office."