WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Legal and Policy Center reiterated its previous demands that the U.S. Department of Justice: 1) remove Arthur A. Coia as General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America 2) replace Robert D. Luskin as LIUNA General Executive Board Attorney and 3) impose the full terms of the pending Consent Decree thereby allowing U.S. District Court-appointed officials to clean up LIUNA and stopping LIUNA from “cleaning up itself.”

     Today DOJ announced the second extension of the controversial 1995 Operating Agreement that resulted from the 1994 draft RICO complaint. It will now expire January 31, 2000. It was set to expire January 31, 1999. The extension continues DOJ’s ability to take control of LIUNA at any time if it sees fit.

     While the National Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption watchdog, applauded the move as better than allowing the Agreement to lapse, it criticized today’s action for not going far enough.

     “The so-called LIUNA ‘internal reform effort’ is a failure and a sham,” said NLPC President Peter Flaherty. “This latest extension is extremely inadequate. It’s an outrage. Justice and common sense require that Arthur Coia and Robert Luskin be ousted without further delay.”

     “DOJ has placed a great deal of trust in the independence and effectiveness of the “internal reform effort,’ but the fact is Luskin and the rest of the ‘reform’ team are not independent and are not as effective as a court-appointed team would be,” said Flaherty. “From Connecticut to California, NLPC continues to get reports from dissidents of the wide-spread corruption that still exists in many LIUNA locals.”

     “Further, Luskin’s $245,000 forfeiture to the federal government in May 1998 for his ‘willful blindness’ in accepting mob money-laundering profits was a virtual admission of guilt and is proof that he shouldn’t be trusted to rid LIUNA of organized crime,” added Flaherty.

     Here are two recent examples from NLPC’s Union Corruption Update that the LIUNA’s “internal reform effort” is failing and not getting the job done:

• Coia Under Investigation in Canada

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario, not LIUNA’s “internal reform effort,” has opened a fraud investigation into the “finances and dealings” of the Labourers’ Pension Fund of Central & Eastern Canada. LIUNA president Arthur A. Coia is one of the Fund’s 5 trustees being probed. Coia is also the Fund’s chairman. Investigators are probing a tainted 1989 land deal that the Fund paid $23.7 million for a parcel of land that is now allegedly worth $5 million. But the Fund’s books value the property at $28 million. The property is in Stoney Creek, Ontario. There were purportedly plans to have condos built, but there has been no development on the land. The parcel is owned by a company that is wholly controlled by the Fund. Ontario law and LIUNA’s own conflict-of-interest rules stated that the Fund’s assets cannot be invested in a “corporation wholly owned or controlled either directly or indirectly” by any trustee. [Toronto Star 12/15/98]

• ‘Reform Effort’ Fails, Government Orders New Election in Ohio

 The U.S. Department of Labor, not LIUNA’s “internal reform effort,” ordered a new election at LIUNA Local 423 in Columbus because vice-president Pat Murphy’s felony conviction 14 years ago made him ineligible for union office. Murphy was also wrongfully elected to the local’s district council seat. Both elections will be rerun and monitored by DOL on Jan. 30. In 1984, Murphy was convicted of robbery and spent nearly 2 years in prison. The conviction meant Murphy was ineligible, under federal law, for union office until 1999. Opponents tried to make this point during the 1998 election, but a complaint by dissidents saying Murphy was a felon was rejected by LIUNA’s “internal hearing officer” Peter F. Vaira who is part of the failed “internal reform effort” team. Vaira suspiciously claims that his office was unable to substantiate the felony conviction. Thankfully for dissidents, DOL investigated and chose to exercise its authority to rule on union elections. [Columbus Dispatch 12/10/98]

     Next week NLPC will issue an in-depth report on the failure of the LIUNA “internal reform effort” and recommend that DOJ impose the Consent Decree without further delay.  The report will focus on the lack of independence the “internal reform effort” officials and demonstrate how a court-appointed reform team would provide for a more democratic and less corrupt union for members.  It will be available at www.nlpc.org.

     DOJ’s 1994 draft RICO complaint stated, “LIUNA has been infiltrated at all levels by corrupt individuals and organized crime figures who have exploited their control and influence over the union for personal gain and to the detriment of the union.  LIUNA union officers and employees at all levels, including the general presidency [i.e. Arthur Coia], have been chosen, subject to the approval of, and have been controlled by, various members and associates of organized crime.” (Emphasis added)

     NLPC’s Organized Labor Accountability Project is investigating and exposing corruption and abuses in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations.  NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.  NLPC was a plaintiff in the lawsuit which succeeded in opening the records of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Health Care Task Force.  Please visit www.nlpc.org.
 

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