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imiBE LABORRun UnionsaskibilliBy VICTOR RIESELw(\SHTNGTON — Joe Valachi'sCosa Nostra- -“our thing1’—braisectivhelastGaldevmetmade sections of the- labor movement “their thing. About one-third of the nation’s crime cartel chiefs have been. in the union rackets , far ' years, By actual count, 23 of the delegates to the Cosa Nostra national convention in tiny Apalachin, N.Y., on Nov. 13,1957, were operating or, dominating powerful union locals right across the U.S.—but mostly from.the East Coast to Chicago.This is buried in the. secret “information” Valachi has given to the FBI,the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and to• • • •. • “William Hundley,'chief of the Justiceonce president of Local 186 of the.Hod . Carriers, There was Frank Majuri, also, a delegate, who Was mighty influential in Local 364, .... ■This was hot limited to the East Coast. A big-time Chicago gambler by name of. Alfred Pitotto was president : of Hod Carriers Local 5 until 1962.After that he Would drop into’the uriion headquarters almost daily and conduct his own business in its offices and over: ■its phones. He is a good friend of Tony .- i • • Accardo, long.believed to be one Of the ;■ „two top crime syndicate chiefs in the 'Chicago area, ..Almost all trails opened by Valachi • or such police experts as Shanley, lead not only to the multi-miUion-doHar narcotics trade which will be probed, forIndtier % ^in-.likegocDeptJs special, division on organized another three weeks, but also to laborxt is beginning to seep uiruugn ■. j^cketscrime.Valachi’s public testimony and that:of: the experts appearing before the Mc-. Clellan Committee.. , Many of;the Apaiachin* N. Y„ mob-eco6fto iofpeicarwhThere is the GaUo mob—described in some.' federal documents as the suc-: cessob to. Murder, Inc. One of the first operations of this' gang was something•stere-high in the confidence, of the v KribWn as Lobal’ 19, ofthb federated1 Mafia control commission or. council Service'Workers Union (FSWU). Theystill are powerful in local, unions. got a charter from this independentSome of the senators on me suo-;; £swU: by-simply muscling in' Thev committee now plan to ask . the Senate.. . . Were planning to use Local 19 to ca^ Labor Committee to follojy-. through, ; tore the ibigger outfit-which ineidcn-with a wde-open investigation ^ : its objectives theinfiltration into unions. They want to t^idnizatioii of bank employees in the know how. the,mobs got into the locals . \Brookiyn area.—and ho\y some of them .have been-.• able to retain power.trsItkanaponfanoabpr“pWlTypical of a union which has been infiltrated is the Hod Carriers, Building and Common Laborers. Its nation-, .al office is clean. Its books and nation-. al welfare and pension funds arc impeccable. But it apparently is powerless to police some of its locals. There are, for example, some Hod Carriers locals in New York and northern New Jersey which have '• been ‘‘influenced by Apalachin delegates who were buddies either of Valachi himself, Lucky Lti-ciario, John Ormento (now. doing 40 years on a narcotics conviction), Frank Hivorsi, Johnny Dio or Tony (Ducks) Carallo;suhain'Vest-Pocket LocalA top adviser- to a Cosa Nostra national commissioner, according to Jqhn ; F. Shanley, deputy inspector of the New York Police Dept.’s intelligenceNew Law Needed?Valachi; has linked other crime bosses and “Bosses of bosses” to other unions; But any further discussion of his revelations would pimply impede current investigations and give the hoods' lawyers a chance to scream mistrial in future court cases. So it just is not worth giving the mobs a chance to get off tire hook. There will be convictions—and a demand for' more laws. After a session the other day, Sen. Javits told this columnist:“Valachi's answer to my question that, as an alleged dress manufacturer, he prevented unionization of his cm-. c, ployes by simply calling Cosa Nostra : n‘ ' member Johnny. Dio raises 'again the. .. S( question of the adequacy of existing federal law to keep racketeers out of . laborrmanagemcnt relations.. ■ • i L“I believe the Senate’s Labor Com-,WGlt;h?nesi1mU|ceh(tlactivities, is Vincent Rao; Not too Jong mittee should make inquiry into wheth-red•sirAitifofid«idseago Rao, who is also in many businesses, was head of Hod Carriers Local 404. This was an influential outfit operating out of Rao’s vest pocket.Rao simply declared himself president of the local, which used a Brooklyn apartment as its nominal headquarters address.Other Apalachin crime cartel chiefs who cut in on Hod Carriers units were Lewis I.arasso, who was a trustee of local 394 of the Hod Carriers at the time of the Cosa Nostra convention. Another delegate was Rosario Mancuso,er hqmmionization or ‘paper’ unions or such racketeering intrusions: into the labor field are being effectively blocked _ by such existing-laws as the Hobbs Anti-Raeketeering Act, first enacted in 1934 and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.“This grew out of hearings sortie years ago by the same investigations subcommittee now questioning Valachi.”It looks like Joe Cago. Valachi has opened a Pandora’s box.Distributed. I9S3, by Tiie Hall Syndicate, Inc.S-
Newspaper Details
San Antonio Light
San Antonio, Texas, US
Tue, Oct 15, 1963
Page 17
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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