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Some union employees who suspected improprieties stayed quiet for fear of losing their jobs, according to a source with knowledge of the probe.

"It's all part of the culture at the union office, but it goes deeper than Barbara Bullock," said George Parker, a teacher and union activist who unsuccessfully ran against her twice. He plans to seek the presidency again this year.

"It's a culture that is just unbelievable -- of financial secrecy, of manipulation of information," Parker said. "The problem is that everybody just let it happen."

Bullock inherited an organization rife with controversy. She took office in 1994 after members of the union ousted then-president Jimmie C. Jackson in an election run by the Labor Department. The election came under a court order because of irregularities in Jackson's 1993 reelection. Jackson was then accused of stealing dozens of items and records from the local office a day before Bullock was sworn in. A federal judge ordered Jackson to return the materials after the AFT filed suit.

according to union sources and others knowledgeable about the probe, Bullock and her friends were allowed to run the union as they saw fit.

Bullock hired and fired people at will, and though she was supposed to get approval from the executive board, she often didn't, sources said. One secretary who was fired -- a 20-year veteran -- won her job back in arbitration, but Bullock got rid of her again six months later, the sources said. When a staff member raised an objection, she was suspended for two weeks without pay, they said.

in 1996, math teacher Charles M. Bagenstose believed he improperly lost his job at Jefferson Junior High School during a staff reduction. He asked for help fighting the school system.

"Barbara Bullock refused to do it," Bagenstose said. "She said she had to protect union funds."

when it came to legitimate expenses, money went to friends and relatives of union leaders, some teachers said. Bullock hired as the union's attorney Curtis Lewis & Associates, headed by Baxter's brother. Hankerson also temporarily hired Hemphill's daughter, Cheryl Martin.

Just as the trustees didn't press for more financial information, neither did the union's executive board.

The union filed annual reports with the Labor Department, showing how its budget, now more than $3 million, was spent. The documents reveal no irregularities, and officials said they never audited the WTU's books.