Unions, Crime, and The Mob

by | Jan 7, 2011 | Labor Relations Ink

Paula Dorsey worked at the Milwaukee Public Library, and managed to run up a gambling debt of over $200,000. How so on her salary? She was also the president of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and embezzled over $180,000 of dues-payer’s money to feed her addiction. After the bank called to inquire about unusual transactions, she turned herself in, and was sentenced to just 3 years probation. Should you believe that unions and organized crime are no longer joined at the hip, two more former members of the International Longshoremen’s Association in New Jersey have recently been indicted for crimes tied directly to the Genovese crime family. Albert Cernadas Sr., a former vice president of the ILA and president of ILA Local 1235 in Newark, pleaded guilty five years ago to charges involving thousands of dollars in union funds being funneled into a pharmaceutical company controlled by organized crime. In the new indictment, the charges involve a far larger conspiracy going back over 20 years, and allege that Cernadas forced cash payments from his members every year around Christmas time by use of “actual and threatened force, violence and fear.” Robert Ruiz, a delegate for Local 1235 of the ILA, was charged with extorting union members, collecting cash to turn over to the Genovese family as Christmas tribute. Two informants ratted out Ruiz to the FBI, after Ruiz left the money in the care of one of the informants for a short time. “[The informant’s] understanding was that he could lose his job … or could be killed if he did not make a payment every year at approximately Christmastime,” Department of Labor special agent Jonathan Mellone stated in an affidavit.

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