LIUNA TRUSTEESHIP AND GOVERNMENT MONITORSHIP AND
CONSENT DECREE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MASON TENDERS
DISTRICT COUNCIL OF GREATER NEW YORK, 1994-PRESENT
TIMELINE
September 8, 1994  U.S. Attorney Allan Taffet delivers a RICO Civil suit against the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York and its Executive Board, lawyers, trustees, and service providers. No current officer from Local 23 is mentioned or charged in the suit which charges long-standing malfeasance at the Council.
November 1. 1994  Arthur Coia, President of LIUNA is issued a draft RICO suit to be filed by the Washington U.S. Attorney, Paul Coffey.
 
November 14, 1994  Coia appoints David Elboar, Esq. As Trustee and Steve Hammond as Deputy Trustee to takeover the New York MTDC.
 
Nov Thru Dec 1994 Joseph M. Giardina, Business Manager of Local 23, and Lawrence P. Giardina, President of Local 23 attempt on four different occasions to introduce themselves to the Trustees, but are refused an audience each time.
 
November 29. 1994  A letter is sent to all local unions introducing both David Elboar and Steve Hammond as International Trustees. They promise to hold informational meetings, make timely distribution of dues check-off funds and make every attempt to visit each local. Although invited many times to do so, the Trustees never visit either Local 23 or attend any of its local meetings.
 
December 1, 1994  A three page letter is sent to Arthur Coia from the Executive Board of Local 23 supporting the institution of the Trusteeship and pledging support for the Trustees. Coia acknowledges the receipt of this communication and expresses his appreciation for this pledge of support by Local 23.
December 5, 1994  Trustees Elboar and Hammond hold a Special Hearing, together with Allan Taffet and various members of the press as well as members of the MTDC Executive Board and others who have been named in the Government's Suit. Joseph and Lawrence Giardina attempt to attend this meeting but are persuaded by Hammond that there is no need to attend.
 
December.14, 1994   A letter is sent to all Business Managers of the MTDC locals by Trustee Elboar which changes the procedure of Dues Check-off distribution. The new procedure is responsible for the largest payout received by Local 21 .
 
December 27. 1994  Elboar and Hammond enter into an agreement with the Government by  which they sign the Consent Decree. No officer of the ten Mason Tender Locals is given an opportunity to discuss the terms of the agreement.

January   4, 1995    Uninvited, Joseph and Lawrence Giardina decide to visit the Trustees at the Mason Tenders District Council. Although they are introduced to both Elboar and Hammond, only Hammond is available to speak with the Local 23 officers. A three hour meeting ensues in which documents covering over twenty years of disputes within the MTDC are given to Hammond as well as a paper written by Joseph M. Giardina at the Harvard University Trade Union Program discussing theoretical plans for the consolidation of some of the Local unions in New York City, in addition to other topics. Hammond is receptive to offers of cooperation and support extended by the Giardina brothers, and promises to up-date all the locals of any changes in status at the MTDC.
January 16, 1995  ,    Trustees Hammond and Elboar send a joint letter to all Mason Tender Business Managers urging each one to participate more in the collection of fringe benefits. The Trustees renew their promise to visit all the locals in the near future.
January-February-
March 1995		     Trustee Hammond holds one informal meeting each month to discuss    various aspects of Consent Decree compliance and to revamp the Mason
    Tenders Dues Check-off and fringe benefit collection systems.
February 7. 1995    While attending the annual AFL-CIO Convention, Lawrence Giardina is able to secure an appointment to speak with Arthur Coia in person to discuss a variety of topics related to the MTDC. Upon receipt of this information, Joseph Giardina immediately flies down to Florida to attend this meeting, but Coia cancels the meeting 30 minutes prior to the appointment. However, LIUNA Vice-President Mason Warren does meet with the Giardina brothers and informs them that Coia should not be contacted personally, but that Steve Hammond can be trusted to do the right thing in New York.
March 7, 1995    Lawrence Giardina sends a four page letter to the entire membership of Local 23 in an attempt to up-date the progress of the Monitorship and to encourage both the Trustees Elboar and Hammond and the ran-and-file to attend the regular March meeting. On the night of the meeting over 700 members attend, but the Trustees do not.
 
March 10. 1995    Joseph Giardina and Maria Giardina, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 23, visit the MTDC to see Trustee Hammond but when Hammond is unavailable, they instead visit Richard Ello, Ello reveals that he is the grandson of Charles Graziano, the charter President of the MTDC, and also the nephew of Gaspar Lupo and the cousin of Frank and Jamie Lupo. Ello indicates hat he was allowed to keep his job because he held no position of authority at the MTDC, but merely performed clerical work and he had decided to continue to work at the MTDC for the LIUNA Trustees. Ello persuades the Giardinas that the Trustees are honest and sincere in their attempts to clean up the Council and help the Locals. Later, Ello will be exposed for his role in the malfeasance at the MTDC.


 
April 7. 1995    Ella issues a memo to all the Locals regarding the distribution of 1st quarter dues check-off and the change in the MTDC share from 25% to 17%.
April 7. 1995    JMG and Lawrence Giardina visit the MTDC and once again speak with Hammond. At this time they are also introduced to Carl Booker, the newly appointed assistant to LIUNA President Arthur Coia. Further discussions with Hammond center around the possibility of elimination of the per-capita tax which the locals paid to the MTDC. Local 23's position was that since the MTDC collected the Check-off funds that had been improperly collected at the rate of 25%(as opposed to the 17% constitutionally mandated by a vote of the MTDC Delegates in 1975), there was no need or justification for the MTDC to levy a second tax on the locals. Hammond however, was not receptive to this idea and the visit soon ended.
 
April 20, 1995       Local 23 receives a demand for documents regarding a jobsite at 320 Park Avenue being done by Turner Construction.
 
  April 27, 1995   Letter is sent by Lawrence Giardina to the Trustees regarding a pending increase in wages and benefits. He also outlines his plan for a revision in the tabulation of pension eligibility and retirement. Hammond and the new Local 79 would later use this as the basis for their own pension revision.
 
April 29, 1995    A. meeting is held at the MTDC with Trustee Elboar , Damien Mysak, council to the MTDC, Joseph Giardina, Lawrence Giardina and Kenneth P. Nolan, council to Local 23, regarding a civil dispute fled with the E.E.O.C. (93 Civ 3865[Jes]). Elboar urges Local 23 to accept liability in the suit which it eventually will win. It is the only time Local 23 officials will speak directly to Elboar during his appointment.
 
May 7. 1995 Joseph Giardina and Lawrence Giardina receive notices of Deposition from the   Investigation Officer.
May 26. 1995    Special Agent William Davidson delivers a demand for all records on behalf of the Investigation Officer, Michael Chertoff, to Local 23 relating to a demolition contractor, Big Apple Wrecking, doing work in Brooklyn. Local 23 never had any jurisdiction in Brooklyn and responds accordingly. Both Big Apple and Turner Construction would play important roles for Mr Chertoff and Trustee Hammond in their attacks on Local 23 and JMG.
June 2. 1995    Joseph Giardina is deposed for nearly 7 hours and Lawrence Giardina is deposed for 4 hours by Michael Chertoff and Hugh Bums, respectively.
 
June 26-39,1995 Anticipation of the badly needed Dues Check-off payout leads to a series  of phone calls between Joseph Giardina and Ello. Finally Ello states that the Monitor is holding up the payout,
June 29. 1995    Unbeknown to the officers of Local 23, Joseph Delmonico is charged with four counts of misconduct by the Investigation Officer. Delmonico was a former Field representative of Local 23 who was defeated in an election in I993. Eventually, in December 1995 he will be found guilty of all four counts, including association with organized crime. However, it will not be until August 7, 1995 that Joseph Giardina and Lawrence Giardina are made aware of these charges from a letter sent on August 2, I995 from Michael Chertoff to Lawrence Pedowitz, the Monitor, with a faxed copy to Local 23

July 13. 1995 A special meeting of the MTDC Delegates is called by Trustee Elboar  for the sole purpose of discussing voter registration. No other items were allowed to be discussed, over the objections of Local 23 which had previously sent a list of thirteen items for discussion at that time.
 
July 14. 1995    Eleven charges are filed against Joseph Giardina, Business Manager of Local 23. Also, at this time, a dispute arises with the Investigation Officer over Local 23's expenditures. This will lead to a hearing in September, I995 and a continuous battle over Local 23 expenditures that is never resolved.
August 2, 1995,    Chertoff's letter to Pedowitz is sent indicating for the first time that charges have been filed against former Local 23 Field Representative Joseph Delmonico on June 29, 1995.
 
September 7. 1995  Trustee Hammond sends a I2 page memoramdum to Trustee Elboar in which he outlines his plan to financially starve and consolidate the ten Mason Tender Locals out of existence. Harnmond's plan will not be made public, however, until four of the Locals object to the takeover and file suit in Federal Court to prevent their demise, Of particular interest is Hammond's affection for Michael Pagano, (who has been charged by the U.S. Attorney of RICO violations)Business Manager of Local 104, former Trustee of the MTDC and his contempt for Local. 23 and its officers.
 
September 17, 1995  Robert Luskin, LIUNA Investigation Officer, sends a memo to Michael Bearse, LIUNA House Council to discuss the following items: Sal Lanza; mergers and consolidations of all local unions in the New York City area; the role of the MTDC Trustees; and the the matter of reimbursement of fees from LIUNA to the MTDC and its Trust Funds. Like the Hammond memo, this document will not be made public until April of I996 at the Federal consolidation hearings before the Honorable Robert Sweet.
 
October 4, 1995    A three page letter is sent by Chertoff to all the members of the MTDC and its Constituent Local Unions in which he names individuals, including Joseph Giardina, who have been charged, but not judged, in clear violation of LIUNA's own policy.
 
November 1995     David Elboar resigns as Trustee of the MTDC. Steve Hammond is designated to replace him.
 
November 29, 1995 . Local 23's Executive Board files 22 charges against Trustees Elboar and Hammond. LIUNA president Coia acknowledges the communication on December 7, 1995 and transmits the communication to Robert Luskin. On December I2, I995, Luskin writes to Lawrence Giardina that he has received the above-mentioned letter and has forwarded it to Douglas Gow, Inspector General for his review, Local 23 never receives any further communications from anyone from. LIUNA, except for a ten page response by Trustee Hammond sent to President Cola on January 2, 1996. Four weeks later, on January 29, 1996 consolidation hearing notices are forwarded by LIUNA to all the New York Locals.
 
January 3, 1996 Hearings begin in the Investigation Officer against Joseph M. Giardina.
January 29. 1996    A one page notice is sent to all the Mason Tender Locals informing them of Hammond's plan for the consolidation of all the locals into two locals, one for asbestos workers and one for a general laborers local for the entire New York City area. A Business Managers meeting is called by Hammond on February 6, I996 to discuss the plan , but Hammond provides little information at this meeting.
February14-16.1996  LIUNA holds as Special sub-committee hearing on Trustee Hammond's Consolidation Plan, The Committee is headed by Bud Vinall, LIUNA Secretary-Treasurer, and includes Jack Wilkenson and Michael Bearse. Besides Hammond, who now submits three reams of documents in support of his plan for the first time, Michael Chertoff and Richard Ello are allowed to testify in support of the plan. The representatives of the ten Locals are not allowed to cross examine these individuals or have any legal council present. Eventually the Locals are allowed to respond and the Giardina brothers are able to testify to refute the plan but to no avail. Finally on April 1, 1996 Coia and the LIUNA Executive Board vote to implement the plan and three days later, on April 4, 1996 in what has been referred to as the HOLY THURSDAY MASSACRE six of the Locals were surrendered to the representatives of the MTDC. The four remaining Locals, 23, 47, 48 and 59 go to court and get an injunction to prevent the takeover. For the next two months the four Locals will fight to survive but on June 4, 1996 Judge Sweet's decision is upheld by the Court of Appeal and the following day the four Locals surrender.
 

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