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Thread: Local 17 Members Arrested

  1. #16
    Member winfield31's Avatar
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    20 Years..........

    "The 12" if convicted , could "face" up to 20 years in prison.............they should get the same treatment they doled-out to innocent people just trying to make an honest living...........make sure they're not allowed ANY "vasoline" while in jail w/Bubba..............
    Nothing gold can stay...............

    www.onlinebuffalo.com

  2. #17
    Member 300miles's Avatar
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    Angry This made the national news

    NY union members charged with extortion
    By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

    BUFFALO, N.Y. - A dozen leaders and members of a construction union were arrested Tuesday and charged with a decade of attacks against nonunion workers and their families, and prosecutors said some of the crimes were aided by the local's access to state motor vehicle records.

    The president of Operating Engineers Local 17, Mark Kirsch, was among those charged with extortion and racketeering after a five-year investigation. The union, headquartered in Buffalo, operates in six western New York counties.

    At job sites where non-Local 17 members were hired, union members caused more than $1 million in damage to more than 40 pieces of heavy machinery by pouring sand and grinding compound into the oil systems, breaking windows, destroying tires and cutting fuel lines, investigators said.

    U.S. Attorney Terrance Flynn said investigators were particularly unnerved by the union's ability to run potential victims' license plates through the state Department of Motor Vehicles database to obtain personal information, including their wives' names and addresses.

    The union had an account with DMV that was meant to allow it to ensure its own vehicles were properly registered and inspected, but the account was abused on several occasions, Flynn said. The practice abruptly stopped after investigators required the DMV to conduct an audit in 2006, he said.

    A DMV spokesman had not heard about the allegations Tuesday and said he would look into them.

    The U.S. Department of Labor, state police and FBI have been investigating the local since 2003; investigators say they traced criminal activity from 1997 to the present day. They allege threats and violence happened everywhere from the smallest house demolition to projects at high-profile sites, such as Ralph Wilson Stadium and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

    "It has caused losses in the millions economically ... and ultimately it has deprived western New York of vibrant economic growth," said Buffalo FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Laurie Bennett.

    On one occasion, defendant James Minter III, a union organizer, told a worker entering a work site in July 2005, "Tell Tara you're going to be a little late tonight,'" referring to the worker's wife, the indictment said. In 2006, a Local 17 picketer allegedly yelled to a Uniland Development Co. representative that he was going to sexually assault his wife, naming the street the man lived on.

    The president of one business reluctant to sign a collective bargaining agreement with Local 17 was stabbed in the neck and had his tires slashed in December 2002, according to the indictment. A little more than a month later, defendant Carl Larson, a union organizer, tried to persuade the businessman to sign the agreement. The conversation is recounted in court documents:

    "What are the positives? You guys slash my tires, stab me in the neck, try to beat me up in a bar. What are the positives to signing? There are only negatives," the alleged victim said.

    "The positives are that the negatives you are complaining about would go away," Larson responded. [ ... ]

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080409/...ZbeHsSk_BG2ocA

  3. #18
    Unregistered Enough's Avatar
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    Hmmmmm.....

    www.opensecrets.org

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  4. #19
    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    I think what a lot of people do not see is the Unions are just as big as the corporations/governments they once were created to protect.

    By standing together, they no longer represent the little guy. They, buy nature of their actions, are just as big as those large enterprises they once were oppressed by in the past.

    The little guy, is the voter with ONE VOTE, who goes to work everyday and pays taxes where he lives. He is oppressed by both the large body of government and unions who have pushed his one vote to the point of little significance.

    The little guy, is the small business owner, who tries to build a business but is removed from the process by the large public unions.

    Say what you want but the unions to not represent the little guy. They are not a voice of the individual worker but rather the collective voice of all of their workers.

  5. #20
    Member BorderBob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by leftWNYbecauseofBS
    They are not a voice of the individual worker but rather the collective voice of all of their workers.
    Sounds like you finally get it!

    b.b.

  6. #21
    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BorderBob
    Sounds like you finally get it!

    b.b.
    I always got that. I understand the desire for a collective voice.

    My point was, by being a collective voice for so long, unions have evolved to be just as obstructive to the little worker or the individule that they once were created to represent.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bringthetruth
    Same drama happened in niagara falls:


    LOCAL 91, BRIDGE COMMISSION TEAM UP TO ANNIHILATE SUCCESSFUL LEWISTON BUSINESS
    By Mike Hudson
    A Colorado businessman charged this week he was shaken down by indicted Local 91 union thug Mark Congi and henchman Joel Cicero, husband of ousted Local 91 Secretary Cheryl Cicero and son-in-law of indicted union boss Michael "Butch" Quarcini.

    Cicero is a Mario Cuomo-appointed member of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission who -- Albany sources told the Reporter this week -- won't be around for long. Builder Joe Aragon used the word "extortion" to describe the way he was treated, and said Cicero used his position on the Bridge Commission to force the hiring of Local 91 members on a recent construction project here.
    Come on, I despise what these unions have done as much as anyone, but to dig up a story from 2002 and potray it as today's new? That's pretty deceptive.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by eyeongovt
    Come on, I despise what these unions have done as much as anyone, but to dig up a story from 2002 and potray it as today's new? That's pretty deceptive.
    The current union scandel was being investigated at the same time as the Local 91 union was. And the Federal prosecutor already stated that there is yet one more local union that is also being investigated.

    That will bring the total of busted unions to 4 in the last decade here in WNY.

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by eyeongovt
    ...That's pretty deceptive.
    Nah, that's just BTT.
    First Amendment rights are like muscles, if you don't exercise them they will atrophy.

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by leftWNYbecauseofBS
    They are not a voice of the individual worker but rather the collective voice of all of their workers.

    The unions are a business. A business with virtually no overhead, very few employees, ZERO competition and turns HUGE profits in which they use buy people off.
    They fight for individuals as a group, and the individual only when required.
    Use their power to fight for the individual but most importantly themselves. The customers are the workers, the workers are mandatory for life.
    It's the perfect business as there is 0% chance of failure.

  11. #26
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    This is just another example of why people dont want to do business in Western NY. Why would you want to start a non-union business here when the unions are going around and putting sand in engines, stabbing people, etc. You know it is bad when the FBI says Buffalo and NYC are the two worse areas in the U.S. for labor union racketeering and other crimes.

  12. #27
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    How can you read these words and not cry out in protest?

    From Dan Herbeck's Article in the Buffalo News today.

    • Leaders of a powerful construction union local are accused of a decade-long run of extortion and labor racketeering that federal authorities say added millions of dollars to the cost of projects throughout Western New York.

    • “They victimized people at small construction sites and large sites, including many that were publicly funded,” U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn said. “We believe they had a negative financial impact on almost every major construction project in Western New York over the past 10 years.”
    • Much of the activity took place at major publicly funded construction projects, including the expansion of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and renovations at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Buffalo State College and the Buffalo Sewer Authority’s treatment plant on Bird Island, prosecutors said.
    • The FBI considers Western New York and the New York City metropolitan area to be “two of the worst areas of the country” in terms of labor racketeering, said Laurie J. Bennett, special agent in charge of the bureau’s Buffalo office.
    • “It’s a very serious problem that is robbing this community of economic growth,” Bennett said. “Why [labor racketeering] has such a stronghold here, I don’t know.”
    • While he had no specific figures, Flynn said he is certain the local’s actions cost taxpayers millions of dollars because of damaged equipment and lost work hours at publicly funded construction sites.
    • He (Kirsch) became a major political player, a union leader with close ties to dozens of elected officials. In that role, he was a fierce advocate for project labor agreements to ensure that several local government construction projects were mainly done by union workers.

  13. #28
    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by eyeongovt
    Come on, I despise what these unions have done as much as anyone, but to dig up a story from 2002 and potray it as today's new? That's pretty deceptive.
    Only because there was not some propoganda on YouTube!

  14. #29
    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GG716
    The unions are a business. A business with virtually no overhead, very few employees, ZERO competition and turns HUGE profits in which they use buy people off.
    They fight for individuals as a group, and the individual only when required.
    Use their power to fight for the individual but most importantly themselves. The customers are the workers, the workers are mandatory for life.
    It's the perfect business as there is 0% chance of failure.
    Pretty much nailed it on the head. We are on the same page.

    The moment they went to the United We Stand, they stopped representing the little person in the formula.

  15. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Comet
    From Dan Herbeck's Article in the Buffalo News today.
    • “It’s a very serious problem that is robbing this community of economic growth,” Bennett said. “Why [labor racketeering] has such a stronghold here, I don’t know.”
    SEE BELOW----
    • He (Kirsch) became a major political player, a union leader with close ties to dozens of elected officials. In that role, he was a fierce advocate for project labor agreements to ensure that several local government construction projects were mainly done by union workers.
    No matter how loud many of us have cried out for years that this and more corruption was taking place in EC and NYS Government. No one cared to listen.
    Even On this site.

    Notice it has to be the FED to take down corruption in NYS. Our own AG won't do the job they are required to do.

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