Laborers President Cleared By
Union
Coia fined $100,000 for 'improper' deal
By Stephen Franklin
Laborers Union President,Arthur Coia, whose
450,000 member union faced a government takeover four years ago due to alleged mob ties,
was cleared Tuesday after his union conducted its own probe of Coia's alleged organized
crime links. The union's independent hearing officer said, however, that the 56-year-old
union leader had benefited "improperly" from a 1991 deal to buy a high-priced
car from a car dealer that did business with the union. The union fined Coia $100,000.
Justice Department officials in Washington and in Chicago said
they were disappointed by the decision. They described it as containing "serious
factual and legal errors," and federal prosecutors said in a statement they would
urge the union's top attorney to appeal the decision. But they did not
detail the errors in the long-awaited, 108-page decision handed down by Peter Vaira. A former head of the government's organized crime task force in Chicago and
former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, Vaira was picked by the union to lead its
investigation..
Union officials pointed out that their own probe did not bar the
government from taking action against Coia.
Dissidents, who make up a small number in the 94-year-old union,
were outraged at the decision, calling it a "whitewash" and
protesting that the union's self-administered cleanup has flopped. "What a
joke," said Alex Corns, the business manager of Hod Carriers Local 36 in San
Francisco, and one of a few officials who have publicly challenged the
union's leadership. "What's happening is that all of these guys are getting off the
hook and they are telling the guys on the street, 'Nothing's going to happen to us.'
"
The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from the National Legal and
Policy Center, a Washington-based group that focuses on alleged union corruption.
"This slap on the wrist further demonstrates that the Department of Justice was wrong
to put its faith in the idea that the union could reform itself," said the group.
But Michael Bearse, the union's general counsel,
insisted that the investigation had not been a whitewash. There had been 22 days of
hearings on the charges against Coia, which resulted in over 5,500 pages of transcript, he
noted.
Coia, an attorney from Providence, RL, inherited his father's
position as the Laborers' general secretary in 1989 and was named union president by the
union's board in 1993. He issued a brief statement saying he intended "to continue
the work of making LIUNA (the Laborers Union) the best, the cleanest, most democratic
union anywhere." He could not be reached for further comment.
After probing the union for several years, Justice Department
officials in late 1994 confronted the union with their findings that the
union had been the handmaiden of Chicago-based mobsters from 1926 onward and was riddled
with corrupt leaders. Then, in an unusual deal federal officials agreed in 1995 to let the
union carry out its own cleanup. But the government held the option of taking over the
union at any time if the reform process failed. The union hired former FBI agents and
federal prosecutors to carry out its own housecleaning.
As a part of its deal, the government never formally filed its
charges, which also alleged that the union's three presidents prior to Coia, men who had
risen from the ranks in Chicago were "controlled and influenced by organized crime
figures." Though it was expected to last a short while, the cleanup
of the Laborers Union has dragged on, and the government has repeatedly renewed its
authority to step in. It recently extended its oversight of the union until next year. So
far, over 200 union officials have stepped down from their jobs, and the union has seized
control of over 20 district councils or locals, according to Robert Luskin, the attorney
for the union's general executive board.
The 19,000-member Chicago District Council was
one of those taken over by the union. When it was placed under a trustee in February of
last year, union investigators said that the council's leaders were chosen "in little
more than a game of mob musical chairs."
In the car deal that netted Coia the $100,000
fine, the hearing officer said, Coia had bought a 1991 Ferrari F40 for $450,000 from a
dealer that regularly deals with the union. As a result of the financing package and
registration worked out by the dealership, Coia was able to cut his costs and to avoid
paying at least $77,750 in taxes, said Vaira. That, he wrote, was a violation of union
rules.