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From the September-October 2007 issue of Union Democracy Review #170
Can the AFL-CIO avoid a RICO suit in ATU L. 1181?
For years the international officers of the Amalgamated Transit Union were warned that Local 1181, one of their biggest, was infiltrated by organized crime. They ignored the information until 2007 when Matty the Horse Ianniello, along with two local officers pleaded guilty in federal court to dominating the local for the Genovese crime family and a third, suspended from office, still faces trial. Now that the international has done nothing effective to clean up the local, the question will inevitably arise: will law enforcement authorities and the federal courts use their authority under the federal RICO statute to reorganize the local? A reform group has appealed to AFL-CIO President Sweeney to do something. Will he act, and in time?
The 15,000 member Local 1181, largest in the international, represents school bus and para-transit drivers. The public has a special interest in its affairs because the employers are bus companies under contract with city government agencies to transport children to school and disabled elderly for medical treatment.
An attorney retained by the international in 2006 reported that Joe Welch, a vice president assigned to work with the local, knew, from news stories in 1990, 1995, and 2001, that it had been victimized by serious mob infiltration; but he ignored the reports. In 2005, after local president Salvatore Battaglia had already been indicted on racketeering charges, Welch told the attorney that "his friend" Sal said that he was not guilty; and that assurance was good enough for him. And so he dropped the subject.
After 20 individuals, including Matty the Horse and three local officers were indicted on federal racketeering charges, the international came under intense pressure, not only from reformers in the local, but from dozens of prominent public officials. After all, government money is being paid here. But the international did nothing. Actually less than nothing! The international magazine printed a major story in its magazine on the great services of the local officials. No mention of the corruption indictments.
But by fall 2006, Matty the Horse, local financial secretary Julius Bernstein, and fund manager Ann Chairovano pleaded guilty. Local president Battaglia was forced to step down pending trial. Even after the guilty pleas, International President Warren George hesitated. After a few months, the pressure on George had mounted so high that he could no longer shrug it off. Scores of additional public officials demanded action. George finally appointed an international trustee to take over, but although the chiefs had been forced out by court action, the underlings they had appointed remained in place. After the international had sent in an attorney to assemble the facts, the surviving members of the executive board refused to testify. A local reform caucus, charging that little had changed, called for action by John Sweeney to enforce the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Codes. (In practice, the codes are forgotten. They had been enforced in only one round and that was a half-century ago.)
Avoiding action, the international sent in that inquiring attorney. He did a superb research job of interviews, assembling documents, studying court records, digging up old newspaper stories. The international's library, if any, now possesses a 67-page scathing record of crime and racketeering in Local 1181. But what next? The attorney's suggestions are strange. For one, he, the investigator, recommends that the international investigate! Again? For another, he says the union must adopt statements against corruption. He acknowledges it has already adequately expressed itself on the subject, but it will help to reaffirm and strengthen its position. Another remedy is in union law. He realizes that the union constitution already provides authority enough to act against crooks. But the provisions should be reaffirmed and strengthened. Following these prescriptions, the international will seek solutions in verbal formulations, not action: Thou shall not steal, but really and truly.
And so, with the record of racketeering clear, with some of the malefactors already sentenced, with the international paralyzed into inaction, with Sweeney not acting, with nothing drastically changed in the local, the next move seems up to the law enforcement authorities who took the first step against the mob in Local 1181. In other instances as in the Teamsters, a RICO suit could be a major weapon in exorcising racketeers and strengthening the democratic rights of members to choose their own leaders. If the union cannot clean its own house, is now the time?
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