| From: News and Views | City
Beat | Monday, February 15, 1999 Bad Times for Union
The reform began with a bang in June 1996, when national carpenters union officials staged a midnight takeover of the council's palatial Hudson St. headquarters. The takeover was far more dramatic than recent trusteeships imposed on the municipal employees union, District Council 37, and building service workers Local 32B-32J. Fearing they could meet violence, national officials hired dozens of armed private detectives for protection. National President Douglas McCarron booted the council's corrupt chief, Fred Devine, and helped develop evidence that led to Devine's conviction last year on embezzlement charges. McCarron's team enacted quick reforms, including a new, central hiring list aimed at eliminating favoritism and pay-offs. They also took a special labor-management unit that was little more than a slush fund under Devine and transformed it into a new investigative team to aggressively root out contractors who cheat on wages and benefits, as well as corrupt shop stewards and business agents who look the other way. They also bounced many old-guard union officials and brought aboard a new cadre of young, dedicated rank-and-filers as business agents. But in recent weeks, three of those recruits have been fired. They're convinced their problem was that they did their jobs too well. "I was told I wasn't a team player," said Mike Bilello, 42, a carpenter since 1975 who was fired after he removed several shop stewards who were allowing carpenters to work illegally off the books, for cash. Last month, William Keating, also 42 and a 20-year veteran, said the council's national union supervisor, Roger Newman, told him the same. "He told me, 'You're just not on the team.' I said, 'I visit twice as many [construction] jobs as anyone else.' He says, 'There you go again, you act like you're a superstar.' " Keating said he saw "lots of dirty deals" in the area he was assigned to police — Manhattan's booming West Side. The violations ranged from ignoring the official hiring list to using nonunion labor. "I think I got to be a pain in the neck, so they moved me to the Bronx," Keating said. In the Bronx, he found more of the same and reported it to union higher-ups. "I kept saying, if I do my job and do the right thing, things will work out," Keating said. Things went even more awry for Pat O'Neill, hired by the trustees as chief of union business agents in Manhattan. In June, O'Neill's team found a contractor at the Park Central Hotel in midtown engaged in major contract violations, including failing to pay benefits and using nonunion workers. The union business agent in charge of overseeing the contractor, Martin Devereaux, told O'Neill he hadn't reported the violations because the firm was "a gangster" type. The firm, S & S Contractors Inc., is owned by Sara Riggi, daughter of John Riggi, reputed head of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family. It lists John Riggi's former home as its address. "I don't know where this aspersion of gangsters comes from," said a person answering the company phone. O'Neill cited Devereaux as derelict in his duties and fired him. But a few months later, after Newman took over as council supervisor, the tables were turned. Newman rehired Devereaux, despite objections by the union's court-appointed review officer, former U.S. District Judge Kenneth Conboy. Soon after, Newman fired O'Neill, telling him he got "a lot of complaints" about him. Devereaux didn't return messages. National union officials, including Newman, declined to comment. Government investigators said the developments have given rise to cause for concern. E-mail Tom Robbins at |
The cleanup of the mob-ridden New York District
Council of Carpenters, launched more than two years ago by national
union officials, has hit troubled waters, according to members and
investigators.