Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 1:59 PM
Subject: Criminal conspiracies (confidential)
Steve Miller, Court Monitor
David Buvinger, AUSA
Gentlemen:
I do not want Luskin's appointee Robert Bloch
to know I am reporting
the following facts and interpretations to
you.He is now the supervisor of the
Chicago Laborers District Council advising the
Council on how to protect itself
against a possible EEOC lawsuit for
discrimating against Blacks and Latinos. Instead
of encouraging them to be more ethical , less
bigoted, more democratic, he is
devising a defence scheme to the legitimate
complaint the Chicago Laborers'
District Council unfairly discriminates against
minorities, (blacks , Latinos, Jews,
reformers. etc). Ask Robert "Bobby, count the
money" Bloch for the results of the
demographic survey the District Council is
asking locals to complete. There is now
one elected hispanic delegate on the council, Bobby
Delgado, of local 5-thanks to
Joe Romano and one black from 1001( thanks to Bruno
Caruso).
1.Romano never taught a class for local 2 members.
He arranged for Matt Cleveland,
an associate in Hogan, McCarren & McCaskill, to
teach the course and select
the texts and handouts. Hence the charge
that Romano was teaching local 2 members
how to negotiate contracts and upsurping the duties
of the district council is pure bullshit.
2. At the Aug 23, 2000 meeting, Joe Romano read
from a letter he was going
to insert in the newsletter that was at the press
and which did not mention his firing
as trustee of local 2. Mr. Hogan was present at
this meeting.
3. Mr Hogan denied at the meeting that he was
defence counsel of record to David
Schippers in Mickey's Veach's (former ATF agent)
lawsuit against Schippers, Al Tracy
and Nancy Ruggero . This despite my telling him I
read the Cook County file which has him
on record as counsel in this case while
simultaneously also counsel to local 2 and to the District Council.
4. I told Hogan I was going to transfer into local
2 and that I was going to educate the members
of Riley's local about the LMRDA and to tell Riley
this .
5. The next day Bloch called the Business
manager of local 5, Tony Deluca, and tried to
persuade him not to issue me a transfer. This
despite my clear constitutional right
to obtain a transfer whenever I damn well feel like
getting a transfer. David Buvinger
is well aware of my past attempts to get off the
local 5 plantation into a democratically
run local. ie
In May 1998, with the full knowledge of Mr.
Gow, Mr. Buvinger and I believe, Mr.
Luskin,
I attempted to transfer into local 152 to nominate
James Howard for office just so there
would be a contested election in local 152. Mr Gow
informed me by phone that I had
a constitutional right to transfer. When I
called Bloch to tell him this, Mr. Bloch told me the
General Executive Board of LIUNA had overruled Mr.
Gow and that the policy of LIUNA was
now not to allow transfers into a local
having elections.
When I asked Bloch if I could attend as his
guest to observe the process, he said yes.
When I showed up at 152 with Howard ( I was living
with him in Zion, having run out of
money to pay rent), Bloch disavowed his promise to
me and assisted local 152 officers
in putting my presence to a vote. They voted me out
but allowed Romano and Sladowski
to remain. They are my witnesses besides James
Howard -all honorable-honest
men.
In the summer of 1999, after coaching and teaching
the members of local 2 about their
rights and responsibilities as union members in
multiple classes held in the facilities
of Combined County Police
Association in Palatine,and coaching them on
the night
they restored "union democracy" to local 2 (May 11.
1999)by challenging John Matassa to allow the members
to accept the offer of supervision the executive
board rejected, I attempted to transfer into
local 2. I was given a temporary local 2 card
and receipt but later received a certified letter
from Bloch and Schippers that rescinded the
transfer.Scigalski and O'Rourke will testify
I refused to come out of the rain as I stood
outside local 2 advising members about
Robert's Rules of Order. My main man, John "Brass
Balls" Burke, was taking Matassa
on just as he took Ligourotis on at the Teamsters
when he brought Ligourotis up before
the trial board in the 80's. Robin Potter was his
attorney if you want to verify Burke's intolerance
of corruption.
Instead of putting to a vote the motion to reject
the reading of the minutes of the local executive board
and accept supervision, Burke was forced to put a
motion to the chair to adjourn the meeting when Matassa
denied there were minutes to reject, there having
been no meeting. The meeting was ajourned
to May 22, 1999. Between May 11, 1999 and May 22,
1999, I, John Burke, Mark Tomasik,
Louie Polka, and Eddie Erb met with GEB Attorney
Dwight Bostwick and LIUNA IG agents
Robert Scigalski and Jack O'Rourke at the Sofitel
Hotel to plot strategy to remove Matassa from local 2
so he would not be in charge while local 2 fought a
complaint for trusteeship. We agreed that we
would rally the members for a meeting on a saturday
that would probably not take place but at which
we had to be present to outvote Matassa if he
showed up. We showed up,He didn't. Despite having
the right to resume the adjourned meeting on the
sidewalk if the members agreed, I told
Agents Scigalski and O'Rourke that I would go
across the street and tell the members our rights as
union members were being deprived by Matassa's
changing the locks to the hall. I persuaded
them to sign petitions to that effect-thereby
giving the GEB Attorney the pretext to declare
an emergency trusteeship the following monday and
to go into U.S. District Court the folowing
day to obtain a TRO against Matassa et
al.
I am willing and able to testify in court that it
was not necessary to declare an emergency
trusteeship, that "union democracy" had been and
was in the process of being restored by the
members,
that I had the GEB Attorney's promise in front of
witnesses that either under a trusteeship or supervision,
the local 2 members would have some say over who
the trustee would be and that we would have
some say in getting rid of him if he proved an
impediment to union democracy. Burke was promised
the job as assistant trustee with Tomasik being
given the job of business agent under either a trusteship
or supervision in return for their organizing
efforts. I did not ask for anything and received nothing but
grief for my unpaid efforts to eliminate corruption
in local 2, a project I worked on for more than
one year in recruiting and vetting my tools.(Burke
and Tomasik) When you have no money,
no car, and only moral support from the U.S.
Department of Justice, it is hard to accomplish things
as fast as one would like. (no
complaints).
When I went out to local 2 to meet Schippers at his
first visit to the hall, I met him with Hogan,
Ruggero, Tracy, and Jeff Ziemann of local 6.
Schippers, Hogan and Ziemann went out for coffee as I
perused local 2's interior. When they came back and
I heard Schippers ask Ziemann when he could
begin his new assignment as business agent of local
2, I called Schippers aside and told him
he could not offer the job to Ziemann, that it had
already been promised by the GEB attorney
to local 2 members. I then went up to Jeff Ziemann,
introduced myself, and told him to his face
that Schippers did not have authority to offer him
the job, that he was not going to be the
business agent of local 2, and in so many words
told him I considered him an idiot for not being able
to recognize that organized crime controlled the
district council when he was a delegate. Ziemann
was Connolly and Rley's first attempt to gain
control of local 2.
John Burke and Tomasik proceeded to do their jobs
and in the process made every other
BA except Salerno of 225 look like they were not
doing theirs. More members were signed
up by Burke and Tomasik in 3 months than were
signed up by everyone else in a year. This
caused Naimoli and Lazzaretto to repeatedly call
David Schippers and complain that Burke
was being too agressive in enforcing the collective
bargaining agreements. I don't know
if Schippers was corrupt, couldn't handle the heat,
couldn't throttle Burke but in any event
Burke was fired. He was told by both Schippers and
Ruggero later that the firing was political.
It was not because Burke was not doing his job. In
my opinion, they did not know what his job was, what
a union was, or for that matter, how to install
union democracy. Schippers was later dismissed
as local 2 trustee by the GEB Attorney after Burke
and I were forced to call an unofficial,
rump meeting of local 2 members
because Schippers did not hold meetings in July,
August, September, or October 1999. Burke paid $500
out of his pocket for hall
and mailing expenses. I created the mailing
database of members free of charge. Schippers
refused to reimburse Burke despite GEB Attorney
Bostwick's promise Burke would at
least get reimbursed for the hall rental. We will
sue for reimbursement eventually.
We will also sue for political firings if the
trusteeship is extended. We will also sue because Schippers reduced Tomasik's
duties to nothing and Tomasik resigned rather
than accept a nowork job.The suit will be filed
in U.S. District Court and tried in the court of
public opinion via the internet if local 2 is merged with
any other local.
A merger would deprive the members of local 2 to
effectively hold a trial board on
charges
we will bring against Terrance Healy for breaching
his fiduciary duties as a member of
local 2.
A merger would hamper our ability to obtain
signatures on accreditation petitions for international
office thereby increasing the chances there will be
no contests for international office in
LIUNA in 2001- a story I do not want to tell to the
press but very well might have to.
A merger of local 2 would effectively stiffle
reform, unfairly deprive local 2 members
of a level playing field in electing delegates to
the convention, deprive them of the
electoral contest for which Joseph Romano has
adequately prepared them, and continue
the diabolical practice of
installing supporters from other locals as business agents so
they
have eligibility to run for office as incumbent
union agents.
Do everybody a favor. Obtain a court order
prohibiting the granting of constitutional
variances by LIUNA's general president (Connolly's
buddy) in the Chicago District
Council jurisdiction. Maybe you can't stop the
politicking but you can damn well stop
the unfair retaliation against me for trying to
exercise my rights of free speech and
my supposedly protected rights as a union
member.
Examine John Michael Lazzaretto's tax return for
1987 and examine the financing
of his home in Lake Forest while going through a
divorce. My sources tell me
he embezzled the money, not his father. Ask John
Michael why he appointed his
father as secretary-treasurer after he purportedly
discovered his father was an embezzler.
Ask John Michael Lazzaretto why he hired his father
as local 152's custodian when
his father was retired and on pension and John
Michal was on the pension fund as a trustee,
fully conversant with the rules that prohibited
receiving a pension while working at the trade.
Local 152 members performed custodial work for
Commonwealth Edison at its Zion nuclear
power plant. Custodial work constituted "working at
the trade. Call Ronny Fino about
Lazzaretto who served on the pension fund with
Vincent Solano and never complained.
I am trying to help by teaching members to examine
LM2s for irregularities because
DOL and DOJ do not have the manpower. Permit
local 2 to be merged and I will never
get the support I need to put past LM-2s of LIUNA
and the Teamsters on the Internet
in a searchable database. If you know anyone else
that is a LIUNA member and officer
who wants LM-2 information easily available to
present and future members, please give me
his name so I can have him committed to a mental
institution immediately for believing
anyone gives a shit about the legitimate political
aspirations of innocent union members.
If you do nothing but laugh at this formal request,
do one thing above all else. Protect the
job status of the decent secretary now working
at local 2, Carol . She is a divorcee now getting
back on her feet and desperately needs the job she
does well. She is an innocent victim
of union politics but should not be a casualty or
suffer from "collateral damage."
Matassa could have been eliminated via a
supervision as well as his cronies. One regret
I have. I regret also that I resented Romano and
Sladowki coming in from the steelworkers
when I was in the Laborers Union doing without pay
what they got paid to do. Reform in LIUNA will
in my opinion, be legitimate when I and
others have a chance to freely exercise our rights without
retaliation.
Give me a chance to reform LIUNA. I will do
wahtever DOJ wishes might happen. I will cause
it to be.
The rumor now is that Randy Dalton will bring in
Riley's kid and that he will later obtain a variance
to be eligible to run for office. If the Italians
did this, there would be an uproar. If local 2 is merged
with local 4, I will go into local 4
and outvote Connolly and reduce his salary
and take away
his car. The members of local 2 will control local
4 because they will be motivated by hatred-
a passion equal in strength to love. I don't
want to harm Connolly and told his brother Paul my
candidates for office would support Connolly in
2003 for business manger of the district council.
We will not support anyone who tolerates corruption
or organized crime influence.