A five-year investigation into the racketeering and extortion practices of Operating Engineers Local 17 has resulted in the indictment of 12 Big Labor Bosses.
As reported in the Buffalo News:
Some of the language in a 62-page government indictment reads like a script for the former “Sopranos” television show. . . .
Leaders of a powerful construction union local are accused of a decade-long run of extortion and labor racketeering that federal authorities say added millions of dollars to the cost of projects throughout Western New York.
The allegations include death threats, stabbings, assaults and extreme acts of vandalism against construction company executives and their families. . . .
“They victimized people at small construction sites and large sites, including many that were publicly funded,” U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn said. “We believe they had a negative financial impact on almost every major construction project in Western New York over the past 10 years.”
The crimes ranged from throwing scalding coffee at non-union workers to destroying expensive machinery by pouring sand into the transmissions and gas tanks, according to Flynn. . . .
Authorities described union organizers Carl A. Larson, 43, and James L. Minter III, 36, and the local’s president and business manager, Mark N. Kirsch, 48, as the leaders of the “Local 17 Criminal Enterprise.”
Their alleged attacks were intended to force construction companies into hiring Local 17 workers and punishing those who refused.
While referring to the corruption inherent within labor organizations that depend on the forced tribute of workers, the late U.S. Sen. John McClellan (D-Ark.) hit the nail on the head when he pointed out, “Compulsory unionism and corruption go hand in hand.”
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.