Battling corruption in the ILA: a partial chronology

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The federal government's RICO suit against the ILA comes after a long history of corruption on the East Coast waterfront and of resistance to it. What follows is a partial summary of that record. Some of the facts are based upon the text of the government's complaint.

1940: Body of Peter Panto, murdered insurgent leader, found in New Jersey lime pit.

1942: Joe Ryan elected lifetime ILA president

1945-48: As the war ends, a series of rank and file "wildcat" strikes on NY-NJ waterfront reveal deep discontent among ILA members.

1951: Investigations by NY-NJ Waterfront Commission expose pattern of corruption. Loan-sharking, extortion, bribery, murder, organized crime domination of union and industry. Ryan resigns as ILA president.

1953: AFL convention votes to expel ILA. One statement reads, "The ILA has permitted gangsters, racketeers, and thugs to fasten themselves to the body of its organization, infecting it with corruption and destroying its integrity, its effectiveness, and its trade union character...For such there is no place in the AFL."

1959: AFL-CIO finds a place for ILA, no less corrupt than before. ILA readmitted.

1963: Thomas Gleason elected ILA president. (1981: Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hears testimony charging Gleason with ties to organized crime. Testimony that death threat had forced Captain Bradley, previous ILA president, to resign. Gleason filled the open spot. NYT 2/20/81)

1963-87: Gleason, ILA president

1967: Tony Scotto fails to unseat Gleason at ILA convention. Scotto, on D of J list as Gambino Family captain, takes fifth during Waterfront Commission hearings in 1970. He later is convicted on racket charges and goes to jail. In later hearings, testimony charges that in a dispute between Genovese and Gambino families over control of supervisors on NY docks, John Bowers contracts for murder of Scotto, but dispute is settled.

1979: After two-year federal investigation of ILA, indictments and convictions of Scotto, Tony Anastasia, some company officials on racket charges. (NYT 3/21/86) Scotto gets 5 years and $75,000 fine.

1977-81: There were 129 indictments and 117 convictions on waterfront corruption charges. Of these, 52 were union officials. Nine were identified as organized crime figures.

1986: Report of the President's Commission on Organized Crime notes, in connection with ILA, that "the system remains in place."

1987: When Gleason retires as ILA president, Lane Kirkland, AFL-CIO president, praises his record: "He tolerates no qualifications or limitations on freedom, democracy, or human rights."

1987 to present: John Bowers, ILA president

August, 1989: Richard Costello., president; and Richard Costello Jr., secretary treasurer of ILA Local 1964 in Ridgefield, NJ, murdered in their union office.

February 3, 1990: Two officials of ILA 1814 in NY and 2 management officials plead guilty to racket charges related to union benefit funds.

February 1990: New York Times reporter, interviewing workers, writes of fear on the docks.

February 14, 1990: Federal civil suit filed against six ILA Locals: 1804, 1588, 1814, 1809, 824, and 1909. Thirty-two ILA and management officials named; 21 charged with organized crime connections. 1992: Suit settled under consent decree; unions agree to clean up their act.

1991: Federal monitorships imposed on locals 1804, 1814, 824, 1829, 1909. Sanctions against mob connections.

1999: Conviction of two top officers of Bayonne NJ Local 1588. Judge says Genovese family controls local.

June 2002: Federal indictment of 17, including Gotti brothers, Evidence of mob control of ILA, extortion, payoffs for jobs.

January 2003: Federal trusteeship imposed on Local 1588 for violating consent decree.

2003: Seven individuals identified as mob figures enjoined from any relationship with ILA.

August 13, 2003: Vincent Nasso found guilty of paying $400,000 to mob figures for ILA benefit fund contracts.

2003: Eleven mob-identified figures convicted on waterfront racket charges in two cases.

November 4, 2003: Frank Scollo, former ILA VP and president of Local 1814, found guilty of racketeering.

March 7, 2004: Arrest of six in Local 1588, including president and a steward.

July 8, 2005: Dept of Justice files civil RICO suit against international ILA calling for removal of corrupt officers and for a federal monitorship over the international to end the grip of organized crime.

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