Ironworkers Boss Sanctioned Vandalism

FBI wiretaps reveal Ironworker boss Joseph Dougherty believed there were no limits to what could be done to stop employers from using nonunion workers.  Joseph A. Slobodzian has the story on philly.com.

Shortly after 10 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2013, an aide phoned Ironworkers union boss Joseph Dougherty with the news that Local 401 business agent Edward Sweeney had been acquitted of threatening a woman who worked for a nonunion contractor.

“That’s good,” said Dougherty in the call, recorded by the FBI. “Ed got lucky. There shouldn’t be a crime against people like that. You should be able to do everything you like against them [people who use nonunion workers], and it’s legal.”

Five days of testimony in the federal racketeering trial of the 73-year-old union business manager have produced no evidence that Dougherty – “Joe Doc” to his members – directly ordered attacks on nonunion job sites.

But the wiretaps and testimony by Local 401 members who pleaded guilty hoping for lenient sentences made it clear that Dougherty did not object to using intimidation and violence to ensure jobs for his 700 members, and that he did nothing to stop it.

“This is not just a picket line, it is a war,” Dougherty told ironworkers during a June 20, 2012, membership meeting at the Local 401 hall in Northeast Philadelphia.