Union Cleanup Could Mean Charges Against Laborers Leader

Arthur A. Coia, general president of the 450,000-member Laborers International Union of North America, is expected by the end of the month to face internal union charges of associating with organized-crime figures, a Justice Department source said Thursday.

The move against Coia, which could result in his being expelled from office, comes as lawyers for the union and the Justice Department discuss extending a deal struck in February 1995, under which the government is permitting the union to cleanse itself of corruption and ties to organized crime.

Allegations that Coia had dealings with organized-crime figures are nothing new, and something he persistently has denied. In a 1994 draft civil racketeering complaint that was never filed, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago charged, “Coia has been associating with members of the New England LCN [La Cosa Nostra] family for a substantial period of time.”

Robert Luskin, the Laborers General Executive Board counsel, who would file the case against Coia, on Thursday said: “I am absolutely not going to comment on whether or not there will be charges.” Coia’s attorney, Howard Gutman, said, “My understanding is no final decision has been made whether or not to charge Mr. Coia.”

A Justice Department source said, “They anticipate they will file charges before the end of the month. It is no fait accompli that he will be removed [from the presidency].” The source said that union hearing officer Peter Vaira, a former Philadelphia U.S. attorney, is not predictable in his decisions.

Carl Biers, executive director of the Assn. for Union Democracy, a New York-based union civil rights advocacy group, said that he would be surprised if Coia were removed.

“Coia has done a lot. There’s been substantial improvements in the union under this unusual arrangement. The question is, if they remove Coia, is that better for reform? Who is going to take his place?” Biers said. While the Laborers have eliminated publicly known organized-crime members from the union, Biers said, a lot more has to be done, particularly with enforcing hiring hall rules to end retaliation against dissidents who oppose union leadership.

Coia, 54, who is paid about $200,000 a year, has since 1993 been general president of the Laborers, a union with a notorious history of violence against dissidents and of ties to organized crime. Some consider Coia’s rise through the union as a form of nepotism because his father, the late Arthur E. Coia, was a power in the Laborers in Rhode Island and became general secretary-treasurer.