Suit Dropped Against Dockworkers' Union

[Omaha Steve]

Source: The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A government lawsuit against the International Longshoremen's Union aimed at wresting control of the nation's docks from alleged organized crime domination was dismissed by a federal judge who called the effort well-intentioned but overreaching.

The civil racketeering lawsuit targeted an assortment of union officials and mobsters. It had dragged endlessly through pretrial meetings and motions until U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser granted the union's request to dismiss Thursday.

It was a blow to prosecutors, who announced the suit to much attention in July 2005, evoking the film classic "On The Waterfront."

The defendants were accused of rigging ILA elections, steering union benefit contracts to mob-linked companies and extorting money from businesses operating on New York's piers. The alleged offenses amounted to a "mob tax" imposed on goods coming through the ports, a cost passed along to consumers, the government said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201587.html

[dickbearton]

1. These guys are two-bit, compared to Criminal Bush and the GOP mob.

[DBoon]

2. These are the east coast dockworkers

The west coast workers remained in Harry Bridge's ILWU, which has survived despite being thrown out of the CIO in the early 1950's for being "communist influenced"

Originally, both coasts were represented by the ILA. The west coast split off:

On August 11, 1937, the Pacific Coast district, with the exception of three locals in the Northwest, formally seceded from the ILA, renaming itself the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, after the ILA attempted to reorganize the existing locals, abandon representation of warehousemen and reverse the unions' policies on issues such as unemployment insurance. Harry Bridges was elected President of the new union, which quickly affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Bridges became the West Coast Director for the CIO shortly thereafter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILWU

The ILWU has never been credibly associated with organized crime. They remain a very militant and politically active union to this day, though very diminished in numbers.