Appeal of LIUNA Election decision to accurately reflect Robert Bloch as a charged party in LMRDA violations

Re: Appeal of Order and public record of complaint in LIUNA 2001 Election Protest #1

(Visit The Laborers Network ) for all documents mentioned in this email

What follows is a memo I sent the U.S. Attorney and Chicago District
Council Court Monitor on the ongoing criminal conspiracy to deprive me and

others of their rights under the LMRDA and LIUNA's constitution. Please make

For the record, there is an ongoing investigation by the Chicago FBI and other

law enforcement personnel and LIUNA IG agents into this matter as well as the

intimating, obscene, and threatening phone calls supporters of Laborers for JUSTICE

are receiving from those hostile to LIUNA's reform. Your inexperienced investigatory

staff does not have to investigate my allegations. These experienced law enforcement personnel

have thoroughly documented the case and collected the evidence. You might even

For the record, I hereby serve notice that I am appealing the following:

record to reflect accurately that I formally charge the Deputy Election Officer. Robert

Bloch, with orchestrating and engineering a conspiracy to deprive and others of our rights

under the LMRDA to freely exercise our rights under this law as well as LIUNA's

Ethical code and constitution. This will later substantiate my prospective claims that as the

representative of candidates for delegate and international officer I can not receive a fair

and impartial ruling from Deputy Election Officer Robert Bloch. A separate protest

on his appointment and the obvious conflicts of interest therein will follow before

local 2. That information was provided as background material and to document

the only promulgation to date on the Chicago District Council's policy on transfers

within affiliated locals. If rules, policies , laws, and regulations are not promulgated

by LIUNA, they have no force and effect is my legal argument.

states my local membership status is to be determined. That is not an issue. I am a member of local 2,

having transferred under LIUNA's constitution and officially promulgated policies. It

is my contention that LIUNA's General President and District Council members and

District Council trustees/supervisors have no legal or constitutional standing to deny me

of my absolute right to obtain a transfer and to deposit that transfer wherever I , not they, desire,

In the event that LIUNA's General president denies my transfer, I want him charged

with retaliation along with the others under LIUNA's Election rules. Under the rules, I suppose

I have 24 hours from the time I receive your order via authorized shippers and not from the time

By the way, I like your order. It puts O'Sullivan between "a rock and a hard place" on the issue

of transfers ( damned if he does, damned if he doesn't). Dalton, Riley, and Connolly are

supervisor while his law partner is counsel to every fund (Health, Pension, LECET, etc)

members of Chicago LIUNA locals pay into. Should the District council come under

political control of those opposing the Bloch-Connolly- Riley political alliance, Mr. Bloch's

partner, Mr. Peter Dowd, would no longer be raking in the money as counsel to these funds, thereby depriving

his law partner, Mr. Bloch, of substantial sources of revenue.

The background material on these allegations can be found on The Laborers Network

Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 1:59 PM

Subject: Criminal conspiracies (confidential)

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 discriminating against Blacks and Latinos. Instead

of encouraging them to be more ethical , less bigoted, more democratic, he is

devising a defense 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 usurping 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 defense counsel of record to David

Schippers in Mickey's Veitch'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

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

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 adjourned

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 following

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 trusteeship

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 Riley'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 aggressive 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 no work 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

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

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 stifle 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 Michael 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 Sladowski 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 whatever DOJ wishes might happen. I will cause

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.