Union Clears Chief In Corruption
Probe
BY ROBERT MANOR
AND CAM SIMPSON
Staff Reporters
The Laborers' International Union of North America on Tuesday
exonerated its president of internal charges that he allowed organized crime to influence
the union. Arthur Coia will retain his position. He is the first major official of the
union to escape conviction in an internal anti-corruption probe.
The union has 750,000 members, 19,000 of them in Chicago
The decision by union hearing officer Peter Vaira
dealt a blow to organized crime prosecutors who have long said the Laborers union is a mob
stronghold. Vaira declined to comment Tuesday. Vaira did find Coia guilty
of conflict of interest in a deal where he obtained use of a Ferrari from an auto
dealership that sold vehicles to his union. Coia, who is paid $254,000 a year, must pay a
$100,000 fine.
Justice Department officials criticized Vaira's decision, saying
"the opinion contains serious factual and legal errors." A joint statement from
Scott Lassar, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, and James K. Robinson, the assistant U.S.
attorney general in Washington, said they will urge union lawyers to appeal the case. For
four years, the Justice Department has had a signed decree that would
allow them to put the union in trusteeship. They can impose the decree if they believe
they union has not done enough to purge itself of organized crime.
The department would not say Tuesday whether officials were closer
to taking over the union in the wake of Vaira's ruling. Until Tuesday, the union had never
lost a case against its upper-level officials.. About 200 union officials have been thrown
out of the union, and many locals along with the Laborers' Chicago District Council are
now in trusteeship because of the anti-corruption drive. Coia said his exoneration shows
the union is committed to reform. "When charges were first filed against me, I said
that we had chosen the path of reform and needed to go wherever it might
lead," Coia said. "And while that process may have been personally painful, it
was necessary to preserve the integrity of our reform."
Last year, Coia was charged with 16 counts of wrongdoing by Robert Luskin, who serves as the union prosecutor. "Coia knowingly associated with members of organized crime, knowingly permitted organized crime members to influence the affairs" of the union, Luskin said at the time.
On Tuesday, he defended his case against Coia. "We would not
have brought the charges if we did not believe in good faith they were warranted," Luskin said. Some of the most serious charges against Coia involved his
dealings with John Serpico, a former top laborers union official and the chairman of the
Illinois International Port Authority, the sprawling industrial harbor on the South Side.
Serpico has been identified in congressional testimony as an
associate of organized crime. He has been appointed chairman of the port authority by
every governor since 1975, with the exception of Gov. Ryan, who has not decided on his
tenure. Documents released Tuesday by the union describe a 1988 meeting between Coia,
Serpico and the late North Side mob boss Vincent Solano. Coia was seeking Serpico's
support to become secretary-general of the union. "Coia contacted
Serpico and agreed to meet with him in Chicago," the report says. "When Coia
arrived at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, Serpico led him to a small coffee shop inside the
terminal and introduced him to Vincent Solano."
Solano was a laborers union official who also ran the mob's
gambling and rackets in the Rush Street, Gold Coast, Old Town and Rogers Park
neighborhoods. ; Solano said Coia could become secretary-general, but could not expect to
rise higher in the union. "I want you to understand this-that John Serpico will be
the next general president of the union," the report quotes Solano as saying.
"We're grooming that man there to be the next general president of the union."
Through a spokesman, Serpico declined to comment Tuesday.
Coia later became president anyway, and made
Serpico the union's chief judicial officer with a salary of $100,000. But Vaira, the
hearing officer, said Coia had promoted Serpico "not to perpetuate Serpico's
organized crime influence on the union, but as a method to facilitate his removal from the
union." Coia later testified against Serpico at hearings that eventually led to
Serpico losing his office at the union.