7th and 8th ironworkers plead guilty

The guilty pleas keep coming in.

Daniel Hennigar and James Zinn on Wednesday became the seventh and eighth ironworkers union members to plead guilty in federal court in Philadelphia to charges in a campaign of intimidation and harassment against nonunion work sites.

Hennigar, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to maliciously damaging property in an arson at a Quaker meetinghouse in December 2012.

Hennigar admitted to being the driver for two other men who used an acetylene torch to damage the under-construction building and set fire to a crane.

"I was involved," Hennigar said in court. "I was part of it ... and I shouldn't have did it."

Hennigar could face a minimum of five years incarceration and a maximum of 20 years when he is sentenced Jan. 21.

Zinn pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit extortion. He admitted to using a sledgehammer to damage anchor bolts on numerous occasions at construction sites where nonunion ironworkers were being employed. He faces a similar prison term at his sentencing on Jan. 28.

On Tuesday, a union leader painted in court filings as the man at the center of much of the corruption within Ironworkers Local 401 admitted his role n the group's long-standing efforts to maintain its grip on city construction jobs through violence and intimidation.

Prosecutors described Edward Sweeney, 55, the union's one-time business agent overseeing work in Philadelphia, as "one of the most vocal supporters of using violence, arson, and other criminal conduct to force nonunion contractors into using union labor."

He pleaded guilty to counts of racketeering conspiracy, extortion, and arson before U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson.

Throughout Tuesday's hearing, Baylson ticked off a list of some of the city's most notable acts of union sabotage in recent years. Sweeney nodded, agreeing that he had either overseen or participated in all.

The 2012 torching of a Quaker meetinghouse under construction in Chestnut Hill? He gave the OK. The extortion of a company building a Center City communications tower? He strong-armed builders into hiring his colleagues for no-work jobs. An attempted arson at a construction site in Malvern? Sweeney provided the torch.

"I just want to take responsibility for my actions," he told Baylson.

Sweeney was the latest in a parade of ironworkers to plead guilty in the racketeering conspiracy case that has ensnared 12 members, including the union's longtime head, Joseph Dougherty.

Dougherty has maintained that he did nothing wrong and is scheduled for trial next year.

But since last week, seven union members have admitted roles in various acts of sabotage across the city.

Minutes before Sweeney's turn before the judge Tuesday, Shawn Bailey, 34, also pleaded guilty to one count of extortion stemming from the group's sabotage at the construction site of a Southwest Philadelphia warehouse - an attack carried out at Sweeney's behest.

Source: Philly.com