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"This is like the fox in Local 91's chicken coop."
That was the comment of one retired member of Laborers Local 91 upon learning that the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) would hold its federally forced reorganizational meeting at Antonio's, a restaurant and banquet hall on Niagara Falls Boulevard with strong ties to the indicted local's leadership.
The restaurant and adjacent Quality Inn hotel were built largely by non-union labor back in the early 1990s. While non-union construction sites were often targeted by violent Local 91 pickets at the time, Antonio's got a bye since it was owned by former Laborers vice president Tony Strangio. Peaceful pickets by the carpenters, pipefitters and electricians unions were broken up by goon squads assumed to have been called in by the Laborers, and police had to intervene.
Other building trade union members were outraged. According to an undated internal memo, construction of the hotel/restaurant "brought the relationship with the Laborers and other Trades to a low point."
Last month, Antonio's was the site of an election night victory party for Mark Zito, school board member and retired Laborer. Among the glitterati in attendance was union boss Michael "Butch" Quarcini, indicted by the federal government on charges of racketeering and extortion. Also said to be in attendance were Zito's brothers and fellow Local 91 associates, Dennis and Frank Zito. Reporter staffers were invited to attend the function, but advised not to come.
A significant percentage of the 33 felony counts brought by federal prosecutors last month against Local 91 members occurred during the construction -- between 1999 and 2001 -- of the new Niagara Falls High School. Local officials at the time dismissed the incidents as "vandalism" and "horseplay," but the U.S. Attorney's office took a different view.
Schools Superintendent Carmen Granto has served as honorary chairman of Local 91's annual charity golf tournament, and also reportedly put in an appearance at Zito's election night gala.
LIUNA officials called for the upcoming meeting, scheduled for June 13, in order to determine new leadership for the local. Under LIUNA's bylaws, no one under indictment can serve as an officer in any local, and most of the 14 indicted Local 91 members were current or former officers.
Still, the choice of Antonio's as the venue for the meeting has many here concerned.
"I don't know if they didn't know, or if the International is in cahoots with (Local 91) or what," said the retired Laborer. "But they might just as well have had this meeting in Butch's living room."
The Niagara Falls local is the latest in a long line of Laborers locals to be busted by the feds. Buffalo Local 210, as well as locals in Chicago, Cleveland and New England have all been targeted. The International itself was subject to a federal investigation in 1995, which resulted in then-president Arthur Coia plea bargaining his way out of a jail term and agreeing to leave the union.
Currently, most of the International's overseers are former FBI men or other ex-federal agents.
Prosecutors charge that the 14 indicted Local 91 members constituted a "goon squad" within the union, determining who would work and violently intimidating those who stood in their way. Sources close to the investigations said as many as 50 or 60 other members of the 700-member union may have acted in concert with the 14 already charged, and added that further indictments are a distinct possibility.
Under Quarcini's leadership, Local 91 held Niagara County in a stranglehold for more than 30 years. Generous campaign contributions to politicians, along with high-profile charitable events like golf and fishing tournaments, masked a dark underbelly of graft and corruption, prosecutors say. Beatings, bombings and other mayhem were considered the norm for contractors so bold as not to use Local 91, or for members of the other building trades doing work the Laborers thugs thought rightly theirs.
The result was little work for union members not on the "goon squad's" most favored list and abysmally low property values. Out-of-town contractors were afraid to work here and those that did paid extortionate rates for workers who did little if they even bothered to show up.
Still, prosecutors stress, the majority of Local 91's membership consists of hard-working men and women who, either out of fear or misguided loyalty, remained loyal to the union's corrupt leadership.
LIUNA brass say they are hopeful it will be these members who step up at the June 13 meeting to take back their once-proud union.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 4 2002 |