Dec 6, 1999-01-15 I'M

Embattled Laborers' President Announcing Retirement

By Kevin Galvin Associated Press writer WASHINGTON (AP)
 Arthur Coia, the embattled president of the Laborers' International Union, has decided to step aside at the end of the year and the union's board has chosen a 44-year-old regional leader to replace him, according to three labor officials.

Coia, whose close support of President Clinton while his union was under investigation drew Republican scrutiny, was cleared in March by an independent hearing officer of charges that he had ties to organized crime.

Cola was fined $100,000 for a separate ethics violation under a process established under an agreement with the Justice Department in 1995 to clean up the union, which had long suffered from mafia influence.

That ethics violation accepting a Ferrari in a I joint arrangement with a dealer who leased cars to the union- had launched a new criminal investigation by federal officials who were disappointed the union process had failed to oust Coia from the union.

Terry O'Sullivan, 44, union vice president who runs the Mid-Atlantic region, was chosen by the Laborers' board on Sunday night to replace Coia when he retires on Dec. 3 1, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the 1980s President Reagan's Commission on Organized Crime accused the Laborers of having mob ties. The union signed the 1995 agreement with the Justice Department to avoid racketeering charges.

In 1996, congressional Republican heaped criticism on the union and the Clinton administration and questioned why the union wasn't placed into federal trusteeship.

But a House inquiry into the arrangement between the Laborers' and Justice found no evidence that prosecutors were improperly influenced by Cola's relationship with Clinton.

AP-ES-12-06-99 13:11 EST

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