> But under Sweeney, corruption was pervasive in
> the union - most notoriously, Gus Bevona's 32BJ
> local. I don't have the book with me here, so I
> can't cite this more exactly, but under Bevona
> and his predecessors the local was a stinkpot of
> corruption. Which wasn't very good for the
> janitors and doormen.
These are well-known and uncontroversial facts. Bevona was forced out, and in the process he was bought out with a seven-figure payout to keep him from causing any further trouble (money well-spent for the sake of getting rid of him, anyone close to the action will tell you). 32BJ subsequently swallowed other janitor locals that had been corrupt or mafia-connected (e.g., in New England -- can't remember the local number), and many members who had probably had no idea they even had a union before saw major improvements and love their union a great deal.
In Labor Notes parlance, this process is known as "top-down, anti-democratic, centralized control."
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories