Ex-Leader’s Trial Details Union Coercion

PHILADELPHIA — A former union boss is fighting accusations that he led a campaign of violence, extortion and vandalism at local construction sites in an effort to force nonunion contractors to hire his members.

Joseph Dougherty, who was the business manager of Local 401 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, faces 10 federal charges. They include racketeering, malicious property damage and conspiracy to commit arson for his coordination of a multiyear effort to forcibly obtain jobs for the union.

Mr. Dougherty, 73, appeared in Federal District Court here last week to hear testimony from several of his union’s members who face similar charges but have agreed to appear as witnesses for the government in return for a reduction in their prison terms.

Prosecutors said the local had formed picket lines at nonunion construction sites, where union members would sometimes assault workers with baseball bats.

Prosecutors said union members would sometimes vandalize nonunion construction sites during night raids — bending anchor bolts, using acetylene torches to cut structural steel and setting fire to equipment, including a crane. The vandalism delayed construction and caused thousands of dollars in damage, according to a federal grand jury indictment describing 25 such incidents from 2008 to 2013.

The union called the raids “nightwork” and the perpetrators were known as “goon squads,” the government said.

The trial began Monday before Judge Michael M. Baylson and a jury of seven women and five men. Testimony is expected to conclude on Tuesday.

Mr. Dougherty, who has worked for the union in various capacities since 1966, is the only defendant among 12 indicted union members who has not pleaded guilty. If convicted on all charges, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison.

James Walsh, a defendant in the case, told the court on Wednesday that he had agreed to testify for the prosecution because of the weight of evidence against him. He has admitted participating in an attack on a Quaker meetinghouse in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill section when the building was under construction in December 2012.

“The evidence was so overwhelming that it just seemed like I should admit responsibility for my crimes and plead guilty,” Mr. Walsh said. He also has admitted to taking part in attacks on two other construction sites.

Robert J. Livermore, an assistant United States attorney, said that Mr. Walsh would have faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison, but that his sentence had been reduced to 15 years because of his plea deal and could be cut further at the discretion of Judge Baylson.

In his attack on the Quaker building, Mr. Walsh said, he had taken his orders not from Mr. Dougherty but from Edward Sweeney, another defendant, who was a business agent for the union and a leading advocate of violence and arson against nonunion contractors, according to prosecutors.

“I was informed by Ed Sweeney about the nonunion job that was going on,” Mr. Walsh said under cross-examination by Fortunato Perri Jr., the lawyer for Mr. Dougherty.

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Mr. Walsh said he had not seen Mr. Dougherty before the meetinghouse attack.

After identifying a site using nonunion labor, the local would typically send a business agent to talk to the foreman, who would be threatened with violence and destruction of property if union members were not hired, the grand jury said.

Enrique Farias, a construction worker originally from Fresno, Calif., who got a job on a nonunion site in King of Prussia, Pa., during May and June of 2010, told the court that he had needed to wait for a police escort to cross a union picket line when arriving for work.

On a day when the number of union pickets tripled to around 60, Mr. Farias said, three men beat him with baseball bats and smashed the windows of the truck that he was sitting in.

Mr. Farias said he had since moved back to California because he did not feel safe in Pennsylvania.

“We have unions there, but they are not like they are here,” he said on Friday.

Daniel Hennigar, another defendant who has pleaded guilty, said he had agreed to participate in the union’s violent tactics because he needed to win the approval of officers who would help him get work. He said he had badly needed the income because he had two children to support and had been unable to work for some time because of an injury.

Mr. Hennigar said he had been the driver for the group that attacked the Quaker site because he wanted to get in the good graces of Mr. Sweeney, who he said organized the episode.

“If I didn’t get included, I would be blackballed,” he testified.

Source: The New York Times