Posts tagged extortion
A crackdown on political violence that quietly worked
October 1, 2025 // First, various arms of the federal government have conflicting interpretations over whether employers have the obligation to protect workers from union-related harassment in the workplace or are prohibited from protecting workers from union-related harassment in the workplace. The Institute for the American Worker (I4AW), a labor-policy think tank aligned with the Taft-Hartley Consensus, calls this paradox the “Battle of the 7s” after the relevant, conflicting portions of law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) and Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces the CRA, requires employers to prevent workplace harassment, and I4AW reports that its guidance has held that “insults and slurs could trigger liability under Title VII.” Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Biden administration ruled that the NLRA protected certain “blatantly discriminatory or harassing language in the workplace, so long as the comments are made in the context of labor union activity.” In addition to creating an apparently unresolvable legal paradox for an employer, this dichotomy seems to tell Big Labor that its misconduct does not matter to public policy and is a wink-and-nod tolerance of it.
How affordable housing in National City became a cash machine for San Diego County labor unions
July 9, 2025 // Public records show these same union leaders, who manage the coalition and the apartments, also direct political action committees that help channel rent and laundry payments into various political causes. Since 2016, about 11 cents of every dollar collected from tenants has been used to influence elections for city councils and school boards across the region, finance ballot initiatives that advance labor interests and pay these same union leaders six-figure salaries.
Georgia Rep Introduces Bill To ‘Empower Workers’ Against Unions
June 27, 2025 // Representative Rick Allen (R-GA) introduced the Employee Rights Act (ERA) of 2025 on Thursday, seeking to reform labor unions and support workers’ rights. The legislation, Allen claims, will provide privacy for unionized workers, allow workers to opt out of union representation, and harmonize existing labor laws. Allen collaborated with F. Vincent Vernuccio – the president and co-founder of labor advocacy group Institute for the American Worker (I4AW) – to write an op-ed in the Washington Examiner explaining his bill.
Port strike longshoremen union boss linked to murdered mobster in ‘farce’ racketeering case he beat at trial
October 8, 2024 // George Daggett, the attorney, said the case began after his cousin asked a Catholic priest for financial advice and had $18 million in union funds placed under the supervision of the same money manager who worked with Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, New Jersey. "So at the trial, every time a mobster’s name was mentioned, the government had a big board, and they made a circle, [and] every time a mobster was mentioned, they put his picture up on this big board," he said. "The government’s case ended, and I took Father Cassidy’s picture and I put it in the middle of all those mobsters. So that's the kind of trial it was."
How the Mafia Infiltrated American Labor Unions
August 12, 2024 // While law enforcement agencies continue to monitor Mafia infiltration of labor unions, labor racketeering has become less prevalent than it was decades ago. In part, that’s because union membership plummeted after the McClellan Committee exposed the extent of labor racketeering. At its zenith in the mid-1950s, union membership comprised one-third of the labor force, but now union members only represent approximately 10 percent of American workers.
Hochul wins fight to create anti-mob group aimed at NYC waterfront
April 19, 2024 // Like the prior comission, it will continue to conduct critical investigations into organized crime in the Port of New York, as well as ensure fair hiring practices that bar discrimination. It will conduct background checks and license companies and people working in the cargo business at the port. The commission will have the power to oust employees from the workforce who are found to have engaged in serious criminality and other violations.
Jury Selected in New John Dockerty Trial
April 18, 2024 // A jury has been selected in the third trial of former Philadelphia labor leader, John Dockerty. In December, Dockerty and a former union president were found guilty of corruption and embezzlement after stealing over $600,000 from the electrical workers union. “The Inquirer” reports that this trial is based on “conspiracy and extortion” charges.
Op-ed: The Price of Bent Unions Is Red Unions
March 2, 2024 // It’s important to point out that the lesson of this pattern isn’t that corrupt unions are somehow “better” than their ideologically fanatical alternative. Every political activist, no matter how wrong on policy, deserves to have money that he or she voluntarily contributes to advocacy groups be used for the purposes for which it was contributed, rather than lining the leaders’ pockets. (Inclination to this sin does not distinguish by party or ideology, it must be said.)
Mob boss sentenced for shaking down Queens-based construction union: Feds
February 29, 2024 // In one consensually recorded conversation, Ricciardo threatened to kill the senior union official, stating that the official would continue to obey him because he knew Ricciardo would “put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids, right in front of his F**king house, you laugh all you want pal, I’m not afraid to go to jail, let me tell you something, to prove a point? I would f**king shoot him right in front of his wife and kids, call the police, f**k it, let me go, how long you think I’m gonna last anyway?” Ricciardo also worked with Bonanno crime family soldier John Ragano, another resident of Franklin Square also known as “Bazoo” and the “Maniac,” in a scheme to issue fraudulent workplace safety training certifications from two occupational safety schools Ragano purported to operate on Long Island. John Glover and Domenick Ricciardo
NYCHA corruption means it’s time to privatize
February 9, 2024 // In the one vote conducted to date, in December at Brooklyn’s Nostrand Houses, residents chose to stick with NYCHA management, 464 to 163. Here’s one possible explanation for the curious choice: A great many NYCHA residents are also employed by the authority. NYCHA’s largest union, Teamsters 237, reports that a full third of its 8,000 members are NYCHA residents.