LABORERS (LIUNA)
Chicago Boss Ousted, No Criminal Charges Brought
LIUNA's "in-house" judge Peter F. Vaira permanently barred Local
2 boss John Matassa May 12 from LIUNA. Allegedly, Matassa has admitted
under oath to a pattern of close associations with organized crime for
more than 25 years. Vaira claims Matassa extorted money on behalf of the
mob, supervised mob-sponsored gambling operations in Chicago and was extensively
involved in managing the mob's pornography operations. [BNA 5/19/99] There
was no report of criminal charges be brought against Matassa. Curiously,
despite this appearing to be a slam-dunk case, DOJ has not taken any action
against Local 2 or Matassa -- neither was cited in DOJ's 1994 draft racketeering
complaint against LIUNA.
In addition to the unions and organizations covered in this Union Corruption Update, readers can look forward to news and information on other corrupt and abusive unions in future editions.
All back issues of the Union Corruption Update can be viewed at NLPC's website (www.nlpc.org). Also available is a union-by-union and state-by-state index of all Union Corruption Update articles.
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Union Corruption Update is part of NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project which is investigating and exposing corruption and extremism in the Teamsters, LIUNA, AFL-CIO and many other union organizations. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.
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