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Ruling: Mob-union ties long | TribLIVE.com
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Ruling: Mob-union ties long

Joseph D. Wilcox

Findings of the report from independent hearing officer Peter F. Vaira on Local 1058 of the Construction, General Laborers and Material Handlers Union:

  • Joseph LaQuatra was the president of Local 1058 from 1968 to 1984. He served as business manager from 1985 until May 2000 when he retired. LaQuatra was appointed by John LaRocca Sr., boss of the southwestern Pennsylvania La Cosa Nostra mob from the late 1930s until his death in 1984. LaQuatra visited LaRocca Sr. at his car wash 38 times in the 1970s and 1980s, during which he never purchased gas nor had his car washed.

  • Thomas Pecora served as Local 1058 business manager from 1968 to 1984. He made 13 visits to LaRocca's car wash in the 1970s. LaRocca Sr. directed Pecora to make John LaRocca Jr. a business agent for Local 1058 in 1976. LaRocca Sr. told Pecora to switch the local's insurance carrier to give the union's business to a friend of LaRocca Sr., the report said.

  • Louis Dennis Martire served as Local 1058 president from 1985 to May 2000, when he succeeded Joseph LaQuatra as business manager. Martire visited LaRocca Sr.'s car wash 56 occasions in the 1970s and 1980s without washing his car or purchasing gas. LaRocca greeted Martire with a kiss on the cheek.

  • Gerald Pecora Jr. became president of Local 1058 in May 2000. Pecora served as the local's recording secretary for 25 years before becoming president. Pecora's father worked for LaRocca Sr. at the North Star Block Co. for 10 years and accompanied his father to LaRocca Sr.'s home at Christmas each year.

    • One of Pittsburgh's largest labor unions was influenced for decades through business and social associations with top La Cosa Nostra figures, a hearing examiner has ruled.

    Peter F. Vaira, independent hearing officer for the union's international organization, on Friday ordered that Local 1058 of the Construction, General Laborers and Material Handlers Union should be placed under supervision. The supervisor will be chosen by the general president of the international organization, the Laborers International Union of North America.

    That is a step down from the trusteeship that the international organization had requested last year for the local because of its officers' alleged ties to organized crime. Vaira said a trustee wasn't warranted because of a 'lack of any recent evidence of (organized crime) contact.'

    The supervisor appointed by the international union to oversee Local 1058 will determine whether local officers still associate with organized crime figures, and the reasons why local elections have been uncontested for 30 years.

    The supervisor also may remove any officer and call for a special election, Vaira said.

    Vaira found that four officials of Local 1058 had associated with Mafia figures in the early 1970s through the early 1980s: president Gerald Pecora Jr.; business manager and former president Louis Dennis Martire; former business manager Thomas Pecora; and former president and former business manager Joseph LaQuatra.

    According to Vaira's report, they are the only four to hold the offices of president or business manager since the 1970s, when the local's associations with organized crime began. None of the men has been charged with a crime in connection with the union investigation.

    Local 1058, Pittsburgh's sixth-largest local, represents about 4,100 general laborers.

    The 800,000-member international union has operated under a federal consent decree since 1995 to undertake internal reforms to rid itself of connections with organized crime. The union has imposed trusteeships and supervisions on more than 20 locals and district councils.

    The four officers of Local 1058 associated with known crime figures, including area La Cosa Nostra boss, the late John S. LaRocca Sr. of Ross Township, and the late underboss Joseph 'Jo-Jo' Pecora (no relation to Thomas Pecora), Vaira found.

    Vaira said the La Cosa Nostra bosses hand-picked Local 1058 officers.

    All four local officers regularly visited LaRocca Sr. at his North Side car wash, dined with and played golf with organized crime figures, according to the report.

    The report states that during the 1990s, LaQuatra was observed playing golf at Rose Ridge with Wango Capizzi, identified as a La Cosa Nostra soldier. LaQuatra was also seen dining at a restaurant with Sonny Ciancutti, who controlled New Kensington, according to the report.

    Thomas Pecora also attended a meeting of organized crime members at Sonken's Gold Coast Restaurant in Florida with Paul 'No Legs' Hankish. Hankish headed a criminal organization in Wheeling, W.Va., that engaged in cocaine and heroin trafficking, gambling, extortion and loan-sharking, Vaira said.

    The report also stated that Thomas Pecora and Martire visited Jo-Jo Pecora at his West Virginia home.

    After LaRocca died in 1984, evidence of ties between the La Cosa Nostra and Local 1058 were isolated and sporadic, the report stated.

    Former U.S. Attorney Frederick W. Theiman and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman, the lawyers representing Local 1058, declined to comment on the ruling yesterday.

    Zach Matus, spokesman for the international, also declined to comment.

    Joseph D. Wilcox can be reached at jwilcox@tribweb.com or (412) 391-8793. Staff writer Christopher Zurawsky contributed to this report. He can be reached at czurawsky@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7991.