Terence M. O'Sullivan

Terence M. O'Sullivan (born June 29, 1955) is a labor union activist who was president of the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) from 2000 until 2023.

O'Sullivan was born in San Francisco, California, in 1955.

His father, Terence J. O'Sullivan was an official in the Laborers' Union, and the family moved to Virginia in 1968 after his father was elected the international union's secretary-treasurer.

O'Sullivan attended American University in Washington, D.C. He majored in business administration, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1974.

While still in college, he earned money working as a laborer for a company building the city's subway system, Metro.

It was during this time that he first joined the Laborers' Union (Local 456).

After matriculating, O'Sullivan was a high school teacher and baseball coach in Northern Virginia for three years.

In 1978, O'Sullivan started a computer services company.

He married and then later separated from his wife, and has a son, Brendan, and a daughter, Caitlin.

(His father was indicted in 1981 in a kickback scheme but acquitted.)

In 1987, O'Sullivan's teaching and computer interests converged when he was appointed an instructor at the West Virginia Laborers' Training Fund.

In that position, he taught training seminars and helped blue-collar laborers learn how to program and operate new, computerized heavy machinery.

As head of the training fund, O'Sullivan joined LIUNA Local 1353 in Charleston, West Virginia.

In 1989, he became the fund's administrator.

A consent decree permitted Coia (elected in 1992) to remain president so long as he made significant progress toward internal reforms.

DOJ retained the authority to take over the union (appointing its own officers, setting its own budget, and making its own reforms) if Coia did not make what DOJ considered to be adequate progress toward reform.

In 1993, LIUNA president Arthur Coia appointed O'Sullivan assistant director of the international union's construction, maintenance and service trades department.

O'Sullivan moved his family to Clifton, Virginia.

During his tenure as assistant director of the department, O'Sullivan convinced the union to build a number of new training centers on the country.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) and United States Department of Justice (DOJ) had prosecuted the Laborers' Union in 1995 for racketeering, corruption and ties to organized crime.

A major reform was the first secret-ballot election for president and secretary-treasurer at the union's 1996 convention, which was also the first contested election for a LIUNA presidency.

The agreement was modified and extended for one year in January 1998, and again in January 1999.

Coia, had been cleared by federal and union officials of a number of serious crimes and violation of union rules in 1998, but new evidence pointed to more fraud.

According to the government, Coia obtained three Ferraris from a luxury car dealer at a cost far below fair-market value.

In return, he used his influence to steer union business to the dealer.

Coia later pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion and fraud.

He avoided a jail term, and was permitted to retire while still receiving a portion of his salary.

After being vetted by federal officials, the union's executive council elected O'Sullivan president to replace Coia.

In February 1999, O'Sullivan was elected an international vice president.

O'Sullivan was appointed mid-Atlantic regional manager of the union and assistant to the president, and the union's chief of staff shortly thereafter.

On December 6, 1999, LIUNA president Arthur Coia announced he would be retiring at the end of the year.

By 1999, 226 individuals were expelled from the union, and 40 trusteeships of local unions established.

In 1999, ULLICO chairman, president and chief executive officer Robert Georgine proposed a stock trading scheme: ULLICO directors could sell falling shares of stock and buy ULLICO shares at a low price.

Because ULLICO is a privately held company, the board of directors re-sets the stock price once a year.

The directors could re-establish the stock price at a higher level, then vote to have the company repurchase their shares.

They could then set the share price at its lower level, and net millions of dollars in profits.

On January 20, 2000, just weeks after his election, O'Sullivan, DOJ and DOL agreed to extend the government's oversight of the union another six years, until January 2006.

In 2001, O'Sullivan broke with the AFL-CIO and supported the drilling for oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

He even co-authored an op-ed piece with United States Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton advocating increased oil production.

In 2002, while O'Sullivan was a member of the board of directors of the Union Labor Life Insurance Company (ULLICO), the company was caught up in a share repurchase scandal.