FBI raids New York central labor office

In the early morning hours of March 2, the FBI raided the headquarters of New York City’s AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, which represents more than 1 million workers in 400 affiliated unions. Agents sealed the office for hours before carting off 50 boxes of paper and electronic files.

The alleged reason for the raid was to establish a “paper trail” linking council president Brian McLaughlin, who is also a business agent for Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, with a bid-rigging scheme in the awarding of New York City street lighting contracts. McLaughlin is also a state assembly member from Queens.

But the image of 20 FBI agents sealing off and searching the headquarters of one of the largest labor councils in the country and hauling off files had all the earmarks of a fishing expedition. Particularly since no one has yet been charged in an undercover probe that also involves the city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) and dates back to the late 1990s, according to billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who finally admitted being “briefed” on the investigation.

This raid should raise an alarm among workers, their unions and progressive forces. None have forgotten that at least since the days when Rudy Giuliani was district attorney, the FBI in this federal district developed a reputation of being viciously anti-union. Giuliani’s relentless attack on the Teamsters led to a federal trusteeship of the union. Later the federal charges were pursued against Teamster President Ron Carey after the successful 1998 UPS strike until he was finally acquitted. Many workers have reacted with surprise and shock since learning of the latest FBI sweep.

Ed Ott, a progressive trade unionist and the labor council’s policy director, spoke to Newsday about the raid. “[He] said he arrived yesterday at 8 a.m. at the union offices at 31 West 15th Street and was asked his name by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the paper reported. “Told he was not a subject of the investigation, he was asked to leave, which he did.” (Newsday, March 3).

Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, an active unionist at the paper, called news of the raid a “thunderbolt” that hit labor leaders while they were gathered for a fundraiser to help CWA Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes pay off campaign debts from a 2001 City Council race.

“In a city that has seen its share of rascal labor leaders, yesterday’s raid came as a shock. Because in all the years that McLaughlin, a tall strapping former electrician from Queens, has been a union leader there has never been any public hint of scandal around him,” wrote Gonzalez on March 3.

“Under his leadership, the Central Labor Council, a toothless tiger for decades, gradually emerged as a major force. Just ask the people at Wal-Mart, the nation’s biggest private employer—and one of the most miserly to its workers—about McLaughlin. He’s kept Wal-Mart from opening its low-wage operations in this town, at least until they agree to pay a living wage and provide health insurance to their workers.”

The raid raises many questions for workers, unions and the progressive movement. What did the FBI take? Did it include records from the hundreds of unions who belong to the labor council? The FBI and DOI admit the investigation has been going on for years. So why was the raid conducted now—when the Transport Workers Union is still fighting for a contract and TWU leaders still face possible imprisonment, hotel workers’ contracts are set to expire soon, and the city’s 300,000-strong public employee workforce is poised to begin contract bargaining? Why now, when the labor movement needs to be strong and united?

“All of a sudden there is a dark cloud over McLaughlin,” Gonzalez wrote. “There is no indictment, no official accusation of wrongdoing, but the terrible cloud looms nevertheless.” And it’s a dark cloud that benefits the ruling class, the corporations, the super-exploiters like Wal-Mart, and the highway robbers like the MTA who want to keep the workers and their unions on the defensive at a time when there are stirrings of new resistance and struggle.

Labor quickly closes ranks

Aware of this, labor leaders—many of them furious about the raid—worked quickly in the days after the sweep to pull together a “rapid response” team, in consultation with the New York State and national AFL-CIO, that would allow the NYC Central Labor Council to continue to function. Juan Gonzalez described it in his March 7 Daily News column:

“Under a plan fashioned by Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, McLaughlin would continue to serve as president, but Ed Ott, a top staff person, would assume some of the public functions normally handled by the president.

“At the same time, the labor council…would create a small ‘rapid response’ team of about a dozen city labor leaders to handle the federal probe without any involvement from McLaughlin, a Queens assemblyman. The council would also hire its own independent attorney to handle the feds.

“With the federal investigation of McLaughlin likely to take months, Hughes and other top union leaders have reluctantly concluded that the council can’t risk being paralyzed until the results are known. ‘Dennis has stepped in and taken charge and the national is onboard,’ a labor source said.”

As of March 7, the Central Labor Council was planning an emergency meeting to finalize the strategy and close ranks in unity to keep its critical daily work going on behalf of more than 1 million workers in 400 metropolitan area unions. A key step in implementing this strategy would be for the leadership to reach out to these rank-and-file workers for support in resisting this outrageous federal raid. This would move the union movement forward in unity to build for coming labor struggles.