>So it doesn't matter that the institutions of the organized working
>class in the U.S. are deeply tainted by corruption - many of them
>quite literally run by organized crime - and who have little to show
>for all the millions of dollars they routinely give to Democrats
>other than having their leaders temporarily shielded from indictment?
>
>There's a 1999 article on corruption by Bob Fitch at a Laborers Union
>dissident site
><http://www.laborers.org/Fitch_Corruption_10-21-99.html>. Here's an
>excerpt:
>
>>The second objection I hear is that indictments of union leaders are
>>really just punishments for their militant actions. Charlie Hughes a
>>militant? In 1994, Charlie was the first trade union leader in New
>>York City to endorse the Mayor. Charlie hugged the Mayor so often,
>>we used to call him the 'serial Giuliani hugger.' Who was the
>>second?. Turkey Joe DeCanio, chief of DC 37's ballot stuffing
>>division. In exchange, for DeCanio's cash, Rudy Mastro took 200
>>workers from one DC 37 local and put them in Turkey Joe's local
>>
>>"Laborers President Arthur Coia has been an acknowledged leader in
>>fighting for change, for a stronger labor movement, and for cleaning
>>up corruption wherever he could find it." That's why he was being
>>attacked. So testified John Sweeney before a House Committee.
>>Actually, there's more to it than that. In 1994, Coia Jr., was the
>>target of a 212 page Justice Department complaint alleging he and
>>his father were long time associates of the Patriarca crime family.
>>In the early 80's-- Father and son were indicted with the
>>Patriarca's for ripping off a LIUNA dental plan. They escaped
>>conviction on a technicality. Coia Jr. even admitted he became
>>Secretary Treasurer of LIUNA only with the approval of the Chicago
>>Outfit.
>>
>>Yes, that's all in the past. But if you want an example of how far
>>Coia's clean-up has gotten in LIUNA, download the audio tape of Vice
>>President Steven Manos being beaten last year at a meeting of Local
>>230 for protesting a union expenditure. It's at
>><http://www.laborers.org>. You can hear Charlie LeConche, the head
>>of Connecticut LIUNA district council saying to Manos at an
>>executive board meeting, "I'm about ready to tear your fucking
>>throat out." You can hear Manos' cries. And LeConche saying, "We own
>>you." as Steve is thrown down the stairs. Afterwards,the guy that
>>beat him, the sergeant at arms, Frank Freeman, was promoted to Vice
>>President of the local. International LIUNA VP President Vere Haynes
>>was in the room, watching the beating. He never said a word. Later,
>>LIUNA's GEB attorney issued a reprimand for this Hobbs act
>>violation. Some clean-up.
>>
>>But what about Ron Carey? Wasn't he punished for his militant role
>>in the UPS strike? Alexander Cockburn wrote in the Nation that the
>>charges against Carey were being driven by a Larouchean conspiracy
>>in the service of big business. "Harass Carey...Harass the AFL-CIO
>>leaders to whose project Carey is vital," he wrote," Now probe
>>anyone trying to build a combative even radical labor movement. Get
>>them on the run. Get them in front of a grand jury. Get everyone
>>frightened and persuaded that trying to build a radical, combative
>>labor movement is against the law."
>>
>>A strong statement of the case. But not an altogether unfamiliar
>>one. More than a dozen years ago, similar words were spoken by an
>>even more prominent Leftist. "Bust unions, discredit union leaders;
>>now take over unions. Teamsters, you are the starting point."
>>
>>These were the words of Jesse Jackson at a 1986 Cincinnati
>>Convention Center rally in support of Jackie Presser, who'd just
>>been indicted. The truth was that Presser was both a mob puppet and
>>a FBI snitch. But this didn't prevent him from getting the
>>traditional leftist defense: a combination of flat denials; and
>>broad claims about plots to destroy the labor movement.
>>
>>Let's look at the Carey case: As the federal election officer who
>>ordered the '96 Teamsters election rerun, Barbara Zack Quindel would
>>have to have been in on the plot. But according to Quindel, she made
>>the decision before the strike. But she didn't reveal her decision
>>so as not to affect the strike's outcome. There's evidence to back
>>her claim. But in any case, why would Barbara Zack Quindel, want to
>>expose a money laundering scandal that implicated her husband and
>>forced her own resignation? Quindel was making nearly a $1,000,000 a
>>year when she stepped down.
>>
>>So far, we've examined the claim that corruption charges are just a
>>punishment for trade union militancy; the efforts to deny the scope
>>and seriousness of union corruption; the argument that the
>>participation of businessmen in trade union corruption somehow
>>renders it less objectionable. None of these contentions seems very
>>convincing. A more effective argument doesn't impugn people's
>>motives or deny the facts or try to make corruption go away by the
>>method of moral equivalency. Instead it talks about the consequences
>>of corruption stories: they help the boss and demoralize trade
>>unionists fighting the good fight inside the union.
>>
>>I heard this a lot after the Voice series on UNITE. "What you don't
>>see," I was told," is that there are honest people in UNITE. They're
>>doing real organizing. It's them you're hurting.".The general
>>concern was well put in a pamphlet put out by the National
>>Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice," As wrong as union
>>corruption is, it is unfortunate that union corruption receives so
>>much front page media attention, compared to the important justice
>>work done by unions to raise wages, benefits and working conditions
>>for low-wage workers." (Newsday, 9/5/99) As we've seen, the DOL
>>estimates that 75% of UNITE shops in New York City are sweatshops by
>>the union's own definition. Some members make as little as a dollar
>>an hour while the contract calls for over $9.00 an hour. There's
>>even a system whereby the workers buy their checks to make it appear
>>that they're getting the federal minimum wage. What's "unfortunate"
>>is not what's in the media but what's in the shops; not the exposure
>>of the conditions but the refusal of the union to fight them. Maybe
>>if the ministers spent more time in the shops talking to workers
>>instead of on the dias dialoging with labor leaders, they'd be more
>>effective apostles of justice they seek.
>>
>>There remain the concerns of honest leaders of the trade union
>>movement who sincerely believe that corruption stories weaken them.
>>Your stories," I've been told by people I respect," strengthen the
>>cynics who think all trade union leaders are corrupt." But why don't
>>these honest leaders themselves rebel against the dishonest ones?
>>Why run the church sale out of a crack house? Would corruption
>>stories create cynicism if AFL-CIO leaders themselves drew the line
>>against the dishonest leaders? They rarely do anymore.
>>
>>After the McClellan hearings in 1957, George Meany proclaimed how
>>surprised he was to discover corruption in the Teamsters and the
>>Longshoreman. But he kicked them and their per capita's out of the
>>Federation. He also established an ethical practices committee.
>>Which last met in 1959.
>>
>>But can anyone imagine Sweeney-- doing anything similar? Meany
>>established the principle that if you took the Fifth on corruption
>>charges you were out. Sweeney supported Rich Trumka, the Fed's no.2,
>>who took the Fifth three times in connection with charges he
>>illegally funneled $150,000 in AFL-CIO cash into Ron Carey's 1996
>>campaign.
>>
>>Sweeney never uttered a negative word about Gus Bevona -- the
>>highest paid union leader on the planet; who illegally hired a
>>gumshoe to harass a union dissident and then billed his members for
>>his private legal expenses when he sued. And you can understand
>>Sweeney's silence: until 1995, Sweeney was getting upwards of
>>$90,000 a year from Bevona. Even more directly, Sweeney participated
>>in violating the dissident members' rights.
>>
>>"But if you didn't write about corruption, no-one would know, "I can
>>hear people say,". And at the end of the day, the labor movement
>>would be better off." In the end, I can't refute the claim that
>>corruption stories undermine unions. Not because it's true, but
>>because we can never know for what the consequences of any political
>>action will be.
>>
>>Writing stories about corruption can be a form of political action.
>>I try to shape them into that form bydenying what defenders of the
>>trade union status quo affirm: that unions have only one side -- and
>>it is represented exclusively by union leaders. Even when the
>>leaders obtain office by fraud and use office to sellout the members
>>to the boss. In my experience the union can have two sides.
>>
>>On one side are Luxembourg's "friends of labor" -- who produce
>>"unlimited praise and boundless optimism" on demand for the
>>leadership; and on the other are the members who believe in unions
>>must have a horizon higher than "where's mine?" and broader than
>>"what's the deal?". I'm on their side. Without them I could hardly
>>write a word. Because where do stories about corruption from? Not
>>from the bosses. I didn't get the DC 37 story from the Giuliani
>>Administration but from the reformers, from Mark Rosenthal, Robyn
>>Little. Ray Markey, Tom Dawes, Roy Comer. Not from the owner of the
>>sweatshop on 446 Broadway but from Chinese Staff and Workers
>>association, from Wing Lam and Joanne Lum. In the laborers, not from
>>the contractors, but from Gary Wall; Barney Scanlon; Pete DiNuzzo
>>and Louise Furio. In SEIU-- from Paul Pamias and Carlos Guzman- not
>>the cleaning company bosses. They got on quite well with Greedy Gus
>>Bevona.
>>
>>The point is to show in these unions there really are two sides. A
>>corrupt side and the reformers side. The labor establishment insists
>>that the voices of Hill, Bevona and Coia are the authentic voices of
>>American trade unionists. Who is promoting cynicism? Who is
>>providing hope?
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