HEADLINE: CORRUPT UNIONS TO BE THE TARGET OF JUSTICE DEPT.

FYI--

The New York Times, November 22, 1986


Copyright 1986 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

November 22, 1986, Saturday, Late City Final Edition

SECTION: Section 1; Page 1, Column 2; National Desk

LENGTH: 1005 words

HEADLINE: CORRUPT UNIONS TO BE THE TARGET OF JUSTICE DEPT.

BYLINE: By PHILIP SHENON, Special to the New York Times

DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Nov. 21

BODY:
Federal law-enforcement officials, encouraged by this week's guilty verdicts in the Mafia commission trial in New York, say they will broaden efforts against labor unions controlled by organized crime.

Over the next few years, they say, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will attempt to take control away from corrupt labor leaders by replacing them with court-appointed trustees.

''We want to sever the connection between organized crime and labor,'' said one senior Justice Department official. ''We're going after it.''

Similar to Earlier Move

Officials said the efforts would resemble those made by the department earlier this year in New Jersey, where a trustee was named to replace the executive board of Local 560 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. A Federal judge said the local was run by ''mob-controlled gangsters'' who had been linked to murder and other crimes.

According to Justice Department officials, the Government's victory in New York, where eight defendants were convicted Wednesday of operating a ''commission'' that ruled the Mafia throughout the United States, opened several important avenues of investigation, including new inquiries into links between unions and organized crime.

Prosecutors said the verdicts had encouraged union members, business leaders and others victimized by organized crime to come forward with information.

Importance of Trial Cited

''There's no way to overstate the importance of that trial,'' said Stephen S. Trott, the Associate Attorney General. ''It used to be believed that you could never get to the top of organized crime. Now we've exploded that myth.'' Mr. Trott would not say if prosecutors recently enlarged their efforts against corrupt unions.

But another Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified, acknowledged the broadened campaign and said it would focus on four large unions: the teamsters, the International Longshoremen's Association, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union and the Laborers' International Union of North America.

In a report earlier this year, the President's Commission on Organized Crime identified the four as having ''histories of control or influence by organized crime'' and recommended efforts to place corrupt locals under court supervision. The unions have generally denied allegations of corruption.

The teamsters are known to be a particular concern to the Justice Department. The union's president, Jackie Presser, was indicted in May by a Federal grand jury on charges of embezzlement and racketeering in a purported scheme involving union employees who were paid even though they did no work. Mr. Presser pleaded not guilty.

Law-enforcement officials were reluctant to discuss details of their strategy against corrupt unions, saying they did not want to tip off individual labor leaders who might become targets in the investigations.

''Some of these guys are pretty dumb,'' said a Justice Department official involved in prosecuting organized crime. ''They still talk on telephones. I think we'd be crazy to let them know what we're doing.''

Threats and Reprisals

In the New Jersey case, a Federal judge, Harold A. Ackerman, imposed a trustee on Local 560 in Union City last June. He said evidence showed that the union leadership had intimidated the local's 8,000 members through murder, threats and illegal reprisals.

According to the judge, it was the first time elected union officials had been ousted and replaced by an outside trustee in a civil case. The local had been dominated by the Provenzano family for more than 25 years. A former president of the local, Anthony Provenzano, is serving a life term in prison for the 1961 murder of a union rival.

Last June Federal prosecutors in Manhattan asked a Federal judge there to name a trustee to take control of Local 6A of the Cement and Concrete Workers, contending that the union was dominated by the Colombo crime family. The request is pending.

The Federal racketeering law permits the Government to seek to replace a union's leadership when it is found to be corrupt.

Reports of Another Case

There have been indications from the Justice Department in recent weeks that another important case is imminent against the teamsters, the nation's largest union, with about 1.7 million members.

Department officials would not confirm the reports, but a lawyer with close ties to the department said prosecutors might soon attempt to oust senior union officials through the use of racketeering statutes.

The Organized Crime Commission urged law-enforcement officials to consider such a move, describing the influence of organized crime in the union as ''pervasive.'' According to the commission, the teamsters ''have been firmly under the influence of organized crime since the 1950's.

The case against Mr. Presser is still pending, as is a separate case brought against an F.B.I. agent who purportedly lied about his relationship with the union leader. The agent, Robert Friedrick, was indicted in May on Federal charges of making false statements. He has pleaded not guilty. Justice Department officials have said that Mr. Presser served for years as a Government informant, a charge the union leader has denied.

Law-enforcement officials stressed that the efforts against corrupt unions would be only one part of what they describe as a historic battle against organized crime.

Edward McDonald, a prosecutor with the Justice Department's organized crime strike force in Brooklyn, said in an interview that the verdict this week had damaged but certainly not ended the power of the Mafia. Like other prosecutors, he cautioned against overconfidence in the fight against organized crime families.

''What we're going to have to do is continue to make cases against the hierarchy of the major families in New York and throughout the United States,'' he said. ''We're not making any claims that we've rooted it out once and for all.''