Iron Workers Union Bosses Accused of Repeatedly Lying to Court In Civil Suit Brought by Victims of Big Labor Violence

Forced Unionism Abuses Exposed – the facts Big Labor Bosses would rather you didn’t hear about

“[C]ompulsory unionism and corruption go hand in hand . . . .” 

— U.S. Sen. John McClellan (D-Ark.) ‘

Top bosses of northwestern Indiana-based Iron Workers Local 395 and their lawyers were apparently desperate to avoid forking over a civil judgment of up to $15 million, and possibly much more, stemming from a bloody attack on innocent workers that Local 395 President Jeffrey Veach and Business Agent Thomas Williamson Sr. orchestrated in January 2016.

So desperate, in fact, that Local 395 was willing to give false answer after false answer to the allegations of the complainants and submit false testimony “to facilitate a coverup” for the union’s highest-ranking officers and their militant followers, according to a motion filed in federal court on June 24 by workers and a business owner who were assaulted at a church school construction site in Dyer, Ind.

After they were criminally charged with violating the federal Hobbs Anti-Extortion Act, Veach and Williamson tried again and again to get off the hook by invoking the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial 1973 decision in United States v. Enmons. In that misbegotten ruling, a 5-4 majority of justices declared that Big Labor threats and violence are immune from any Hobbs prosecutions as long as they are committed in the pursuit of “legitimate union objectives” — a term left undefined.

Veach and Williamson argued that the Local 395 union thugs who, under their direction, attacked the owner and employees of union-free D5 Iron Works, Inc. — beating the workers with their fists and loose pieces of hard wood, kicking them when they were on the ground, and shattering part of the jaw of one employee while fracturing it in two other places — did all these things “simply” to secure jobs for union laborers. Therefore, they concluded, the assault in Dyer was immune under Enmons.

U.S. District Judge Theresa Springmann had other ideas. She interpreted Enmons as protecting union bosses who target a unionized business that resists its demands, and those who target employees who defy strike orders. But in her assessment, it did not protect goons who target nonunion business owners or workers in order to “secure” union jobs.

Once their Enmons defense was finally off the table, Veach and Williamson switched their “not guilty” pleas to “guilty” early last year, while stipulating that they were not waiving their right to appeal their convictions, apparently in hopes of eventually getting their case before a judge willing to say Enmons does apply to their actions after all.

Last September, Veach was sentenced to 42 months in prison for conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion. This May, Williamson received a four-year sentence for the same crime.

Now they, as well as current Local 395 bigwigs, must face the music for apparent violations of the law that cost the D5 Iron Works plaintiffs “years of unnecessary litigation and unnecessary discovery” as they sought to be compensated for serious bodily injuries of several plaintiffs, the permanent disfigurement of one plaintiff, and the company’s substantial business losses, among other damages.

In response to civil complaints filed in 2016 and 2017, before Veach and Williamson were indicted, the two thuggish union bosses invoked the Fifth Amendment. But as an association, Local 395 did not have that option. In its responses to the complaints, Local 395 again and again “claimed that it lacked any knowledge of the events giving rise to the allegations about the attack or it flat out denied the allegations.”

Because Veach was still the top officer of Local 395 when these responses were filed (Williamson retired in March 2016, shortly before the first complaint was issued), and now admits to having orchestrated the assault on D5 Iron Works employees, and for a host of other reasons, “it is clear the Answers filed by Local 395 in this case were knowingly false,” states the plaintiffs’ June motion calling for sanctions against the union and its counsel.

Unfortunately, even if Local 395, Veach and Williamson are all found liable for all the injuries they have allegedly inflicted on the D5 Iron Works plaintiffs, the union will still retain the power under federal law to force employees to accept it as their monopoly-bargaining agent on matters concerning their pay, benefits and work rules. Union bosses’ special privileges under the National Labor Relations Act are emphatically not contingent on “good behavior”!

If you have questions about whether union officials are violating your rights, contact the Foundation for free help. To take action by supporting The National Right to Work Committee and fueling the fight against Forced Unionism, click here to donate now.