Organizing the Chicago Way: Challenger Says Hoffa and Feds Use Intimidation to Control Union

Townhall.com ^ | October 10, 2011 | John Ransom

[Kaslin]

Fred Gegare, who is challenging Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in elections this month to head up the transport union, says that Hoffa and the US government are colluding to control the union by the use of intimidation.

If true, the allegations could mean that 50 years of work trying to rid unions of mob influence has come to an end.  

Hoffa and the Justice Department, says Gegare, have abused a decades-old consent decree, “which was once used to remove mobsters two decades ago, [but] is now being used to target [Hoffa’s] critics” through a “rogue investigative unit set up by the decree.” 

The result, according to Gegare, is a dwindling treasury and deficit spending from the union that is leaving the Teamsters in the red. In part, the financial difficulties have stemmed from an unprecedented spending spree, putting the union in debt and threatening the negotiating power of the union.

“Instead of buying pretty dresses and designer shoes,” says Gegare, “[Hoffa] put a stable of personal assistants and high-priced consultants on the Teamster payroll.  Their jobs are to do little else than satisfy the every whim of James Phillip [Hoffa] and the rest of the Hoffa family.”

According to a statement released by Gegare, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spent $212 million last year, but brought in only $172 million to the IBT treasury.

“This is a disastrous trend for our union, but Hoffa continues to buy loyalty by paying exorbitant salaries to his pay rollers and huge fees to outside consultants," said the statement released on October 5^th. These tactics are the type of clout-buying that is a staple in the Chicago Combine. 

When you figure in Obama’s mobster roots in the Chicago Combine with his administration’s willingness to use government power in conjunction with unions to get what they want, then the question becomes, not if the mob is making a comeback in unions, but how much control do they already have?

Now you know where all those shovel ready dollars went. They went to connected contractors under the patronage of Obama’s Secretary of Transportation, Republican Ray LaHood, a veteran of the Combine.

Critics have already charged that the Obama administration is willing to use the NLRB as the enforcement arm of unions, as well as other agencies. Last week we wrote about how the National Legal and Policy Center is investigating why the Labor Department is enlisting help from the IRS to shakedown homebuilders on behalf of unions.      

And recent events have seen an increase in union violence reminiscent of the worst days of mob influence in the Teamsters.

A $70,000 reward is being offered in connection with a shooting in Toledo that the victim says was in retaliation for a long-running dispute that he’s had with the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

John King, who owns an electrical contracting business, was shot at his home as he interrupted someone vandalizing his car. The vandal had etched the word “SCAB” across the passenger side of King’s car.

"I think perhaps the labor unions feel threatened by us now that, through this economic downturn, we've been growing and getting busier and busier," King told the Toledo Blade.

Last month, longshoremen in Seattle “stormed the Port of Longview …overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars,” writes Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment, “and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha. Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.”

The story of hostage taking by the 500 union workers has largely remained out of the national media.

One story that the media is covering is the announcement by AFL-CIO, the largest union in the country, that it will start to provide support for the Occupy Wall Street heard. The question remains whether the initial “organizers” of OWS will allow the union to swamp the “movement.” If allowed to be taken over by unions, you could see protests that have been stinky, rude and unruly, become stinky, rude, unruly and violent.   

Union Facts says that statistics by the Department of Labor show that racketeering fines for union misbehavior are on the increase.

During the Obama administration, fines, restitutions, forfeitures and civil monetary actions against union members for actions that “defrauded unions and other parties” in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 amounted to $150 million, even though indictments have dropped significantly to 139 indictments for 2010. 

In 2008, the amount in fines leveled on union racketeering was $24 million on 195 indictments.

That could be because unions have more pickings from which they can plunder under Obama.   

“Since FY 2001, racketeering investigations have yielded more than 2,000 indictments and awarded more than $3 billion in fines and restitution,” writes Union Facts. “Many of these cases involve union officials failing to protect their members from unethical pension scams and internal union racketeering cases, but OIG’s website currently notes ‘a rapid rise of transnational organized crime groups that are engaging in new criminal enterprises … Specifically, OIG investigations have found that nontraditional organized criminal groups are exploiting the Department of Labor’s foreign labor certification and Unemployment Insurance programs.’”

Now you know why Democrats are all about expanding unemployment insurance.  We get graft with a little help from our friends.

Also according to Union Facts, a poll taken last October revealed “that 44% of public and government union members believe American unions are less honest and principled than they were 50 years ago.”

Well that’s just great.

Unions are less honest and principled than they were during the heyday of the union-mob alliance, when, according to Time Magazine, the Kefauver hearings found that “’The evidence demonstrates quite clearly that organized crime today is not limited to any single community of any single state, but occurs all over the country.’ Big Crime's big men know each other, deal with each other, meet frequently, ‘and on occasion do each other's dirty work when a competitor must be eliminated, an informer silenced, or a victim persuaded.’"

Quick: Name a sector of Amercian society outside of Chicago and unions that keeps statistics for indictments, prosecutions and convictions? 

This is what Organizing for America looks like, Chicago style.

It’s about to go transnational. Get used to it.

Labor and Racketeering Investigations
	FY 2001	FY 2002	FY 2003	FY 2004	FY 2005		FY 2006	FY 2007	FY 2008	FY 2009	FY 2010
Cases opened	105	125		124	135	103	130	93	112	96	117
	Cases closed	109	130	144	115	107	122	111	92		117	130
Cases referred for prosecution	57	74	66	87	88		105	80	74	81	105
Indictments	161	218		181	260	322	271	198	195	111	139
	Convictions	92	154	120	143	196	241	183	214		146	112
Fines, restitutions, forfeitures, and civil monetary actions ($ in millions)	$42.5	$105.9	$27.9	$36.5	$187.9		$69.2	$27.1	$24.2	$76.2	$72.9
Source: Department of Labor Office of Inspector General via Union Facts.com

[SueRae]

ping! We all know it...but I doubt many of the ‘freelove’ hippie faction at OWS does. Stay vigilant, the movement is co-opted already.

[basil]

My heart bleeds/sarc

[Ghengis]

Bump

[G Larry]

“...50 years of work trying to rid unions of mob influence ...”

Let’s see I can clear this up....

“They” have made great strides replacing the MAFIA with THE CHICAGO MOB.

[ilovesarah2012]

Paging Capt. Obvious.

[Elle Bee]

Everything old is new again .......

Gene Giacumbo goes through the looking-glass

By Philip F. Kelly Jr.
web posted June 5, 2000

Last fall, Bill Hamilton was convicted of fraud for laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars for the 1996 reelection campaign of then-Teamsters' president Ron Carey. Hamilton was the Teamsters' political director. Since then, many have been waiting to see whom else U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White will indict.

Testimony in the Hamilton trial implicated high-ranking labor officials, including AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumpka, Gerald McEntee, president of the Association of Federal, State, County and Municiple Employees (AFSCME), Andrew Stern, John Sweeney's successor at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as well as officials at the Democratic National Committee and Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe. President Clinton's former deputy chief of staff Harold Ickies was also implicated in testimony.

Not surprisingly, the Justice Department did not appoint an independent counsel to investigate White House involvement in the illegal scheme. Minor figures have pleaded guilty, but the other shoe stubbornly refuses to drop. Now, Teamsters' President James P. Hoffa has filed a $3 million civil racketeering suit against Carey that also leaves out Trumpka, McEntee and the others. What's going on between the Clinton White House and labor unions? Has federal oversight of corrupt unions degenerated into arm-twisting for campaign cash? Have prosecutors been pressured into treading lightly? No indictments have been handed down against Carey, Trumpka, McEntee et al, while Arthur Coia of the Laborers' Union (LIUNA) and the late Edward Hanley of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees (HERE) ---both big Democratic contributors--- avoided takeovers of their unions in sweetheart deals with the Justice Department. After hearing Gene Giacumbo's story, one begins to understand how government oversight of unions might facilitate the convergence of powerful special interests.

Oversight introduces another potent and largely unaccountable interest into the rank-and-file's business---politicians. Cash-rich unions that don't want oversight and money-hungry politicians are a combustible mix.

In 1989, the Bush Administration settles a RICO suit against the Teamsters by entering into a consent decree that established federal oversight of the union. Former judge Frederick Lacey was appointed Independent Administrator, and supervision of the decree was assigned to Federal District Judge David Edelstein. The agreement provided for the first democratic election of a Teamsters president by its members, which resulted in the 1991 election of Carey on a reform ticket.

In December 1991, the teamsters annual financial report filed with the Department of labor listed a net worth of $156.3 million. On February 1, 1992, Carey was sworn in as Teamsters president. Giacumbo, who was president of Local 843, was elected an International Vice President on the Carey slate. By the end of 1992, the Teamsters' annual report listed a net worth of $114.8 million, a $41.5 million loss from the previous year. In June 1993, Teamsters International Trustees audited the union's finances and discovered "accounting discrepancies and improper expenditures". Three trustees called for an immediate review. Carey refused their request. By the end of the year, the Teamsters' annual report listed a net worth of $64 million, a further decline of 49.2 million.

Meanwhile Carey was becoming politically active. In summer 1992, he met with labor lawyer Harold Ickies, who led the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign in New York. What happened next is hotly disputed. Carey says only that he pledged to help the Clinton campaign, F.C. Duke Zeller, director of communications at the Teamsters for 14 years, claims that union leaders set up a multimillion-dollar slush fund for Clinton. In his book, Devil's Pact, Inside the World of the Teamsters Union, Zeller wrote that union officials--including Carey--played "fast and loose" with Teamsters' funds, and that Ickies "repeatedly appealed" for more money during the campaign.

Around the same time, Teamsters International V.P. Giacumbo discovered irregularities in Carey's personal finances. Since the 1980's Carey had purchased real estate in Florida and Arizona well beyond his modest means. Before the election, the reformer" Carey was widely reported to be making about $40,000 a year. Giacumbo offered Lacey documents exposing Carey's financial dealings. Lacey demurred, but soon after an article in Time magazine which quoted Giacumbo and detailed Carey's extensive real estate holdings. Lacey subsequently spoke with Charles Ruff, White House counsel during the Clinton impeachment. Ruff was then working for Carey and the Teamsters, and he had briefed the review board on the allegations against Carey. In a letter to Thomas Puccio, a government trustee overseeing Teamsters Local 295, who had raised to Lacey and Ruff allegations linking Carey to organized crime, Lacey made plain his sympathy for Carey and reminded Puccio to consider "what would happen if you brought Carey down.. so that the clock would be turned back to what it was when first I came on the scene as independent administrator".

Not long after Carey's swearing-in as Teamsters' president, International V.P. Giacumbo discovered irregularities in Carey's personal finances. Since the 1980's, Carey had purchased real estate in Florida and Arizona well beyond his reportedly modest means.

Lacey, the lone Independent Administrator, has since morphed into an Independent Review Board (IRB) comprised of Lacey and two others: Judge William Webster, former FBI and CIA director and Grant Crandell, general counsel for Trumpka's ideological United Mine Workers. (Many believe Trumpka is the real power at the AFL-CIO.) The Teamsters' trustees frozen out by Carey for trying to examine the union's books sent to the IRB a copy of a letter they had sent to Carey noting that the Teamsters' constitution requires an audit every six months. In May 1994, Carey rebuffed the trustees and passed an emergency dues assessment because the union's net assets had dropped below $20 million. The AFL-CIO also lent the Teamsters $15 million.

Despite all the allegations, the IRB cleared Carey on July 11, 1994. Soon questions about Lacey's impartiality were raised in a new Time article that cited Lacey's letter to Puccio. Lacey was furious at the disclosure and sent an angry letter to the magazine. Giacumbo was widely assumed to be the source of the leaked letter. Shortly thereafter, the Teamsters brought Giacumbo before the IRB on charges he misused union funds by accepting four payments of $400 on duplicate car reimbursements from the Local and the International.

Gene Giacumbo now discovered just how dangerously unaccountable quasi-governmental agencies like IRB can be. Webster recused himself from IRB hearing because he had a relationship with Giacumbo's employer Anheuser-Busch. Giacumbo had by then publicly admitted that he had passed the Lacey letter to Time, and he requested that Lacey likewise recuse himself from the hearing. Lacey refused. Giacumbo then filed a restraining order, but it was denied by Edelstein. In October 1995, the IRB found against Giacumbo, suspended him from the union for six months and fining him the $1600. This decision was sent to Edelstein for approval per the consent decree. Unbelievably, Edelstein sent the decision back to the IRB for reconsideration because he deemed it too lenient.

At a supplemental hearing in March 1995, the IRB decided Giacumbo had violated his suspension by attending a Local meeting nominating delegates to the 1996 Teamsters' International Convention. This time the IRB imposed a three-year suspension on Giacumbo-- in part because he had shown disrespect for the sanctions-- and sent the decision back to Edelstein. On January 9, 1997 the court again sent the sanctions back for reconsideration. This time Edelstein added, "this Court deems it proper for the IRB to contemplate the wisdom of ever permitting Giacumbo to hold a position of influence within the IBT (Teamsters) or any IBT-affiliated entity". A few months earlier, Giacumbo had appeared at the National Press Club with Duke Zeller and questioned the IRB's handling of Carey.

Not surprisingly, the IRB---following Edelstein's second remand--- issued a May 1997 decision that imposed a lifetime ban, stripping Giacumbo of all Teamsters benefits and pensions. Giacumbo appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. In March 1999, the 2nd Circuit held that the inference that Giacumbo violated his suspension by appearing at Teamsters' gatherings was "arbitrary and "capricious". It blamed the lifetime ban on the district court's repeated remands for more punishment. The Circuit Court vacated the second and third sanctions and told Edelstein to have IRB reconsider whether the first sanction should stand.

The IRB then declared that time served was "sufficient" ---even though it was three years longer than the origional sanction--- and demanded payment of the $1600 fine with interest. On August 2, 1999, Edelstein affirmed this decision over the explicit instructions of the 2nd Circuit Court, whereupon Giacumbo appealed again to the circuit court. Both sides are currently preparing oral arguments.

Did IRB act improperly to protect Ron Carey? Is the Justice Department involved? Guardian angels are abroad in America today, but whom are they protecting? Not whistleblowers like Giacumbo. The public has a right to a full investigation of every facet of the Carey money swaps, including allegations against White House officials and powerful union leaders. And citizens like Gene Giacumbo have a right to be protected from what has bordered on a government-sanctioned witch-hunt.

Thankfully, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has intervened. Giacumbo is still fighting for Lacey's recusal. Of course, the charges against him wouldn't hold much water outside the IRB funhouse. The U. S. Attorney hasn't brought any embezzlement charges, and it's unlikely she will. But meanwhile, Giacumbo hasn't been able to work. The Teamsters fought his unemployment benefits to the New Jersey Supreme Court and send reams of IRB reports to every employer looking for a reference. But, with any luck, he'll soon get his life back.

Federal oversight of the Teamsters (and other unions) appears too eager to overlook misdeeds. Vigorous prosecution is the only way to stem union corruption.

Philip F. Kelly Jr. is editor of Labor Watch which is a publication of the Capitol Research Center.

Obama to Hoffa:

"Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Seeing the writing on the wall, Becket fled to France where he remained in exile for six years. The two former friends appeared to resolve their dispute in 1170 when King Henry and Becket met in Normandy. On November 30, Becket crossed the Channel returning to his post at Canterbury. Earlier, while in France, Becket had excomunicated the Bishops of London and Salisbury for their support of the king. Now, Becket remained steadfast in his refusal to absolve the bishops. This news threw King Henry (still in France) into a rage in which he was purported to shout: "What sluggards, what cowards have I brought up in my court, who care nothing for their allegiance to their lord. Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest."

The king's exact words have been lost to history but his outrage inspired four knights to sail to England to rid the realm of this annoying prelate. They arrived at Canterbury during the afternoon of December 29 and immediately searched for the Archbishop. Becket fled to the Cathedral where a service was in progress. The knights found him at the altar, drew their swords and began hacking at their victim finally splitting his skull.

The death of Becket unnerved the king. The knights who did the deed to curry the king's favor, fell into disgrace. Several miracles were said to occur at the tomb of the martyr and he was soon canonized. Hordes of pilgrims transformed Canterbury Cathedral into a shrine. Four years later, in an act of penance, the king donned a sack-cloth walking barefoot through the streets of Canterbury while eighty monks flogged him with branches. Henry capped his atonement by spending the night in the martyr's crypt. St. Thomas continued as a popular cultist figure for the remainder of the Middle Ages.

James P. Hoffa and the teamsters union are a totally owned subsidiary of the DOJ.

Since the teamsters signed off on the Consent Decree the DOJ effectively runs the union under a federal trusteeship

Hoffa Lite doesn't sneeze without an OK from DOJ

James Riddle Hoffa was the father ... James P. Hoffa is there now after Government stooge Ron Carey was caught swaping cash for campaign contributions with leftist groups like Project Vote, ACORN Rich Trumpka and Andy Stern .... James P.'s brother 'Chuckie' was adopted ...... and there any number of back stories on that adoption

It is widely held that Chuckie was involved at a low level in setting up James Riddle's disappearance

in knowledgeable circles the story goes that Tony Jackolone (sp?) ... Jacko ... a Detroit criminal .... or Tony Provensano ... 'Tony Pro' ... JC 73 & LU 560 North Jersey .... facilitated the hit with their goons

The Detroit story ends with Jimmy as melted into a bumper and the Jersey story has two LU 560 business agents ... the Bragollio (sp) brothers ... bringing the body from Detroit to their south Jersey chicken farm where he was fed through a chipper and mixed with chicken feed

UNITED STATES of America,

v.

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, AFL-CIO, the Commission of La Cosa Nostra, Anthony Salerno, also known as Fat Tony, Matthew Iannielo, also known as Matty the Horse, Anthony Provenzano, also known as Tony Pro, Nunzio Provenzano, also known as Nunzi Pro, Anthony Corallo, also known as Tony Ducks, Salvatore Santoro, also known as Tom Mix, Christopher Furnari, Sr., also known as Christie Tick, Frank Manzo, Carmine Persico, also known as Junior, also known as the Snake, Gennaro Langella, also known as Gerry Lang, Philip Rastelli, also known as Rusty, Nicholas Marangello, also known as Nicky Glasses, Joseph Massino, also known as Joey Messina, Anthony Ficarotta, also known as Figgy, Eugene Boffa, Sr., Francis Sheeran, Milton Rockman, also known as Maishe, John Tronolone, also known as Peanuts, Joseph John Aiuppa, also known as Joey O'Brien, also known as Joey Aiuppa, John Philip Cerone, also known as Jackie the Lackie, also known as Jackie Cerone, Joseph Lombardo, also known as Joey the Clown, Angelo Lapietra, also known as The Nutcracker, Frank Balistrieri, also known as Mr. B, Carl Angelo Deluna, also known as Toughy, Carl Civella, also known as Corky, Anthony Thomas Civella, also known as Tony Ripe, General Executive Board, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Jackie Presser, General President, Weldon Mathis, General Secretary-Treasurer, Joseph Trerotola, First Vice President, also known as Joe T, Robert Holmes, Sr., Second Vice President, Robert Holmes, Sr., William McCarthy, Third Vice President, Joseph W. Morgan, Fourth Vice President, Edward M. Lawson, Fifth Vice President, Arnold Weinmeister, Sixth Vice President, John H. Cleveland, Seventh Vice President, Maurice R. Schurr, Eighth Vice President, Donald Peters, Ninth Vice President, Walter J. Shea, Tenth Vice President, Harold Friedman, Eleventh Vice President, Jack D. Cox, Twelfth Vice President, Don L. West, Thirteenth Vice President, Michael J. Riley, Fourteenth Vice President, Theodore Cozza, Fifteenth Vice President, Daniel Ligurotis, Sixteenth Vice President, Salvatore Provenzano, Former Vice President, also known as Sammy Pro, Defendants, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Defendant-Appellee, Vincent Sombrotto and Edwin Gonzalez, Local 116, Production and Maintenance Employees' Union, Appellants.

U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee

June 25, 1997

Big Labor's Big-Money Political Machine

Compulsory Union Dues & Campaign Finance

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical." Thomas Jefferson

Four Million 'Harry Becks' Voted In 1996

In 1988, the Supreme Court determined that 79 percent of telephone lineman Harry Beck's compulsory union dues were spent on political and other activities unrelated to collective bargaining or union organizing. His union, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), was required to return that portion of Mr. Beck's dues. Despite the Beck decision, however, millions of union employees are still forced to pay dues as a condition of employment while their union bosses continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on politicians and political causes that their rank and file members do not support.

According to Department of Labor statistics, 80 percent (8.2 million employees) of all private sector workers covered by a union contract are required under that contract to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Like Harry Beck, nearly 4 million of these workers are forced to devote a portion of their paychecks to political activities they may not support:

• In the 1992 presidential election, 45 percent of these workers voted for a candidate other than Bill Clinton, yet it is estimated that their union bosses spent as much as $300-$500 million to get Bill Clinton and other Democrats elected.
• In the 1996 elections, unions spent an estimated $400 million to promote their agenda, while exit polls revealed that a majority of their own union members supported Republican policies (e.g., welfare reform, a balanced budget amendment, tax cuts) that the AFL-CIO and other unions actively opposed.

Ex-Teamster Official Puts Price Tag at $400 Million in 1992

F.C. "Duke" Zeller, who for 14 years served as director of communications at Teamsters headquarters in Washington, D.C., estimates that unions spent about $400 million in the 1992 election cycle. Moreover, in his book, Devil's Pact: Inside the World of the Teamsters Union, Mr. Zeller quotes former Teamsters vice president Gene Giacumbo who states that he was present at an executive board meeting in which union president Ron Carey boasted of spending $56 million in Teamster funds to help Bill Clinton get reelected. If Mr. Giacumbo's recollection is correct, that figure represents more than 20 times the $2.4 million in PAC contributions the Teamsters reported to the FEC for the 1992 election.

Rutgers Economist Also Puts Price Tag at $300 to $500 Million in 1992

In March of 1996, during testimony before the Committee on House Oversight, Rutgers University economist Leo Troy also estimated that unions spent between $300 million and $500 million during the 1992 election cycle. This amount includes both cash contributions from union PACs and "in-kind" or "soft" money contributions consisting of such activities as voter registration drives, telephone banks, transportation to polls, and campaign "volunteers."

In a letter to the committee chairman, Professor Troy stated, "According to figures reported by the FEC (reproduced in the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. of 1995), in 1991-2, union political action committees spent just under $95 million. I estimate that "in-kind" expenditures could reasonably be a multiple of 3 to 5 times that amount."

Nothing "Soft" About Big Labor Money

By their own admission, union leaders place a high premium on in-kind political expenditures, making it easy to understand why soft money greatly exceeds PAC money. The following are excerpts from union newsletters and press accounts of soft money in action:

Paul Patton for Governor Campaign (Kentucky 1995)

• According to the November 20, 1995, AFL-CIO News, seven staffers were transferred from the federation's Washington, D.C. headquarters to Kentucky, where they "directed the work of nine activists released for the campaign by the Steelworkers, Teamsters, Operating Engineers, Musicians, Food and Commercial Workers, and the Communications Workers."
• The November 16, 1995 Louisville Courier-Journal reported that local union officials "used buses and vans to haul voters to the polls."

Ron Wyden for Senate (Oregon 1996)

• According to the February 6, 1996, AFL-CIO News, the union "sent Deputy Political Director Richard Walsh and 12 staff members to Oregon, supplemented by 25 staff members from affiliates," including, "Boilermakers, Bricklayers, Government Employees, Laborers, Letter Carriers, Postal Workers, Roofers, Sheet Metal Workers, Transportation Communications Union, and Teamsters."

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