The American Mob and the Unions

[justiceischeap]

I just finished watching Nat Geo's "Inside the American Mob" and I find myself wondering the following: If Rudy G. and the FBI hadn't crippled the Mafia, would our Unions be in better shape now?

I can't imagine the Mafia allowing the likes of Scott Walker driving them from Wisconsin (or elsewhere) and I can't help but wonder what shape the Unions would be in today.

Sorry, just a random thought.

[upaloopa]

1. I don't get the mafia union connection.

I am a member of SEIU and I don't recall we ever needing help from the Mafia to exist.
I think what killed many unions was the ability of companies to move to low wage anti union states and countries.
In the South the textile industry was moved over seas and the void was filled by union manufacturers moving to Southern states who offered tax breaks and an anti union climate.

[justiceischeap]

2. Um, that's how the mob made most of their money back in the day

Mob's Hold on Unions Isn't What It Used to Be
Organized Crime's Presence in Labor Groups Is Weaker Today, but Not Totally Gone
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303496804579365273520794400

America’s most powerful Mafia family active in unions: indictment
Feds say Salvester Zarzana, former head of Carptenters Local 926, is a Genovese family soldier, court papers show
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/america-powerful-mafia-family-active-unions-indictment-article-1.1063698

Labor unions provide a rich source for organized criminal groups to exploit: their pension, welfare, and health funds. There are approximately 75,000 union locals in the U.S., and many of them maintain their own benefit funds. In the mid-1980s, the Teamsters controlled more than 1,000 funds with total assets of more than $9 billion.

Labor racketeers attempt to control health, welfare, and pension plans by offering “sweetheart” contracts, peaceful labor relations, and relaxed work rules to companies, or by rigging union elections.

Labor law violations occur primarily in large cities with both a strong industrial base and strong labor unions, like New York, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia. These cities also have a large presence of organized crime figures.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/italian_mafia

I could go on and on and on. I'm not trying to paint unions with a bad brush, I was watching the show and the thought occurred to me that since the mob has been crippled, it seems unions have been crippled as well.

[Octafish]

3. Nat Geo is largely owned by Rupert Murdoch of News Corp fame and he doesn't like unions.

So, when the opportunity presents itself...

[MichMan]

4. Ask Jimmy Hoffa

So Mob influence and control of labor unions was a good thing? Who knew?

[seveneyes]

5. Hoffa made it to the end zone

Wherever that may be.

[justiceischeap]

6. I don't know that it was a good thing

but it made me wonder.

[CANDO]

7. On the flip side...

How much graft and corruption occurs in the boardrooms of corporations? I was a 21+ year Teamster, and only ever heard of corrupt activities. You just don't see it at the membership level. I know I had industry leading wages as well as "Cadillac" health insurance and a real pension. If "mob corruption" got a working man that kind of life, sign me up for more mobbing up for the little guy! Whom do you suppose benefits from corruption in the boardroom? Sure as shit not the little guy!

[justiceischeap]

8. The unions certainly seemed healthier when the mob

we're in their hay day.

[a kennedy]

9. Didn't see this "Inside the American Mob" flick....but I'll tell you what....Raygun was the one that

started destroying the unions and it started with The Air Traffic Controllers Union. They were the first union to go down. Saint Ronald did it....and some thought, well then, if the Saint could do it, then, THEY ALL COULD DO IT. Destroy the unions.....

And that's what happened. No one realized that the unions built the middle class, the GAWD D*MN UNIONS. They brought up the folks that did the jobs that made the USA great....they worked hard, they made this country the powerhouse it IS today. UNIONS!!!!! Now though....folks are saying the unions, the teachers, the public servants are the scourge of the earth........WHAT THE H*LL HAPPENED???? UNIONS MADE THIS COUNTRY. The 9 to 5 folks made this country great..... the teachers enlightened the kids to become the best the world had to offer. Unions WERE the USA. Now...... China is the world's savior. I'm sick. I'm a X union member......I'm a retired union member, and I still try to buy Union Made stuff, but, it's harder, and harder to locally buy union made stuff.

[JaneyVee]

10. No. The mafia was a cancer for unions.

[CatholicEdHead]

11. If you want to read about, pick up this book

The Teamsters by Steven Brill about the Teamsters in the 50s-late 70s. While dated it shows how that union while good overall had shady connections. It is a balanced expose book overall, while some parts of the Hoffa era and just post-Hoffa era were shady, much of the union was good for workers overall.

http://www.amazon.com/Teamsters-Steven-Brill/dp/0671227718/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429837370&sr=1-1&keywords=the+teamsters

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. You do know the Mob played both sides.

They would sometimes use force on behalf of business owners to prevent their workers from organizing. On the other hand they would sometimes use force on businesses to compel them to allow their workers to organize.


Best to stay clear of them.

[struggle4progress]

13. Organized crime had nothing to do with the unionization of American workers, nor with

the success of the trade union movement. Whenever organized crime has been strong, it has set out to take over and rip off ordinary hard-working people; but that never strengthened the trade union movement