The New York Post has the details: A Queens electrical contractor who did business with the city admitted today to paying off a union boss as much as $70,000 in return for “nothing.”
Santo “Sandy” Petrocelli admitted in Manhattan Federal Court to giving the money — along with the keys to a new Crown Victoria — to disgraced labor boss and former Democratic assemblyman Brian McLaughlin.
In a plea deal that could get Petrocelli as little as a year in prison, he told a federal judge that he gave McLaughlin the money and in return got “nothing, really.”
“We didn’t want any problems,” he added, saying McLaughlin controlled various labor unions.
Petrocelli, whose company was based in Long Island City, pleaded guilty to the charge of paying off a union official. He is slated to be sentenced later this year.
The crime carries a five-year prison sentence.
In 2020, Johnny Doc was recorded threatening to “beat up,” “run over,” and “put under water” any rank-and-filers who cooperated with federal prosecutors. But he still publicly claims to be all about helping workers!
Glacier Northwest Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 174 has been brought before the Supreme Court.
No union, but especially not one with multiple top officials convicted in federal court of accepting bribes and embezzling workers’ dues money, should be allowed to impose unionization on workers by colluding with company officials to bypass a secret ballot vote. That’s why it is critical that any state incentive package includes a condition that the decision over whether to unionize the proposed Ford-SK Innovation Western Tennessee plant be made with workers having the full protection of a federally supervised secret ballot vote, and absent any backroom deal between company and UAW officials.