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Parmigiano-Reggiano Consorzio and Rienzi and Sons Settle Lawsuit

JUNE 27, 2002 -- The Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano, the international association that oversees the production, certification, and marketing of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and Rienzi and Sons, Inc., a distributor of Italian food products based in Astoria, N.Y., have settled a lawsuit that was initiated in 1999 by the Consorzio. Allegations were that Rienzi's sale of grated cheese under the term "Parmigiano" infringed the Consorzio's registered certification mark "Parmigiano-Reggiano."

In the settlement, it was agreed that the Consorzio would drop the suit and its claim for damages in exchange for Rienzi's agreement to discontinue marketing its grated cheese under the name Parmigiano, or any colorable imitation of that term.

Target of union's ire withdraws from Democrats' event

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff, 11/14/2001

Elaine Schuster, the wealthy Newton woman who has raised millions of dollars for Democrats, withdrew from a big-ticket party fund-raiser yesterday after unions threatened to throw picket lines around the event to protest her involvement.

Schuster said she decided to back out of the Nov. 20 event to avoid a politically embarrassing situation for former President Bill Clinton, the featured speaker.

''I will not allow outdated, aggressive union tactics to embarrass President Clinton or the Democratic National Committee,'' she said in a statement. The event, with tickets going for between $10,000 and $50,000 a couple, is expected to raise at least $500,000.

Her husband, Gerald Schuster, is in a bitter, 21/2-year-old battle with the Service Employees International Union, which is trying to negotiate a contract for low-wage workers at a Wilbraham nursing home he owns.

Last week, SEIU's president, Celia Wcislo, told the Globe her union planned to picket at the entrances of the Park Plaza Hotel event if Elaine Schuster remained a co-sponsor.

The protest, backed by the state AFL-CIO, presented a political problem for leading Democrats, who are friendly with the Schusters but loath to cross a picket line. US Senator John F. Kerry said he would not cross the picket line. President Clinton had not said what he would do.

Elaine Schuster broke with the state Democratic Party last spring after it sided with the unions in the dispute. That split has generated ongoing tensions between state party leaders and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee,Terrence R. McAuliffe, well-placed party sources said. The Schusters, during the Clinton presidency, were major donors and fund-raisers for the DNC and Democratic candidates.

Despite her withdrawal from the DNC's big money event in Boston next week, Elaine Schuster said that she will continue to work for the national party.

''Intimidation and threats by the SEIU will not change my resolve to support and participate in the Democratic Party,'' she said in a statement.

Alan Eisner, a Schuster family spokesman, accused the union leaders of putting the Democrats' efforts at regaining control of the US House in next year's elections at risk.

''This is a Pyrrhic victory for the SEIU, which has sabotaged its own party by targeting one of the DNC's most loyal and effective fund-raisers,'' Eisner said, reflecting the anger felt by the Schusters and their allies. ''If the SEIU was more interested in taking back the House, and less inclined to engage in political blackmail and extortion to expand its own power base, everybody would be better off.''

Informed of Schuster's decision to withdraw, Wcislo, the SEIU president, said her union will cancel the picket. She also defended the union tactics.

''They can call us any name they want to, but we stand for the right of workers to speak up for themselves and win a living wage and decent working conditions,'' Wcislo said. If that upsets others, she said, ''so be it.''

Eisner also defended Gerald Schuster's labor record, saying his real estate business has worked well with unions for years.

This story ran on page E8 of the Boston Globe on 11/14/2001.

The bitter personal dispute between Massachusetts unions and a wealthy Newton couple, Gerald and Elaine Schuster, who have raised millions of dollars for Democrats, has tripped up party leaders, including Senator John F. Kerry and national chairman Terence R. McAuliffe, who are trying to broker peace.

They say Gerald Schuster's refusal to allow workers - who they say make $7 or $8 an hour and have no health insurance - to organize violates a fundamental party value.

''The national Democratic Party doesn't get it yet,'' said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. ''It's beyond me why the Democratic Party would side with someone who has such contempt for unions. It is illogical.''

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§ Gerald and Elaine Schuster ($100,000 in 1996) are real estate tycoons who control the Massachusetts firm Continental Wingate. In 1999, Continental retained for contract negotiations the law firm of Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler & Krupman, which runs nationwide workshops called "How to Stay Union-Free Into the 21st Century." That led the Massachusetts state AFL-CIO to pass a resolution that calls for a boycott of any fundraiser at which Gerald Schuster is present. The bureaucrats at the Housing and Urban Development Department are no fans of the Schusters either. According to the Village Voice, HUD was forced to assume a caretaker role at a South Bronx apartment building owned by Continental Wingate when the company defaulted on $27.4 million in US loans. One HUD memo cited "major life-threatening health and safety conditions" at the property. In addition to the Schusters' personal efforts for Gore, Continental Wingate donated $10,000 in soft money to the Democrats this year.

This is nothing more than power being bought and sold.
The Democrats talk out of both sides of their mouth and are adept at political blackmail.
They speak of Republicans and corporations and then put out their hands for corporate welfare to them.Just like all of them crawling on corporate jets to go to Nantucket last week after giving corporations hell in the news.This is a form of coercion.
I dont know if they taught Jesse Jackson this trick or he taught them but it goes like this,squeal and raise all the hell you can and the powers will bring forth the money. The 'Mainstream Media" is in the back pocket of the Democrat Party because they aide and abet them in doing this by giving them both the Democrats and Jesse Jackson all of the positive news space they want.Then when they,Jesse or the Democrats screw up the 'Mainstream Press" downplays it.They pay each other back and dont have to work as hard this way.The Dems leak to the press and the press covers the Dems backs.They have a good thing going.
I have come to believe the press is just as corrupt as the politicans and they are all in bed together.