NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY CENTER
"Promoting Ethics in Government"
1309 Vicent Place, Suite 1000
McLean, Virginia 22101
703-847-3088, Fax 703-847-6969
http://www.nlpc.org
                                  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 1999
CONTACT: Dan Rene, 703-847-3088 or drene@nlpc.org

TITLE: Coia Out!?!  Statement on the Possible Resignation of Laborers' Union Boss Coia
 
TEXT:
WASHINGTON -- Today the Bureau of National Affairs reports that Laborers' Int'l Union of North America General President Arthur A. Coia will plead guilty next month to a kickback scheme associated with the Rhode Island car dealer. Coia allegedly will be forced to resign from his union post as part of the plea.

The National Legal and Policy Center, a longtime Coia critic, issued the following statement.  Please attribute the following statement to NLPC's Chairman Ken Boehm:
 

"Coia's forced resignation from LIUNA is a major step forward in the fight against union corruption and organized crime.  NLPC has been calling for this action since 1995.  It is long overdue."

"Although we welcome Coia's removal, no one should pretend that LIUNA will suddenly become corruption-free and mob-free.  The 'internal reform effort' is a failure. The fact that Coia has hung on for four years shows that the Justice Department made a mistake in 1995 in agreeing to  allow LIUNA to reform itself.  The Justice Department should now take over the union."

"The fact that Coia reportedly will be forced out by the U.S. Attorney's Office, rather than LIUNA's 'internal reform effort,' demonstrates the the internal clean-up is a sham.  If it were a serious or credible effort Coia would already be long-gone.  Robert Luskin, the overseer of the LIUNA clean-up, is sure to posture that he had something to do with this.  But if left to the machinations of Luskin's effort, Coia would remain in office."


The National Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption watchdog group, has been the foremost critic of LIUNA's 1995 "sweet heart" deal with the Department of Justice allowing this chronically corrupt union to clean up itself.  For a full report on LIUNAs failed "internal reform effort" and its ethically-challenged "in-house prosecutor" Robert D. Luskin, please visit:

http://www.nlpc.org/olap/liuna/failure/index.htm

NLPC's Organized Labor Accountability Project is investigating and exposing corruption in the Teamsters, LIUNA, HERE, AFL-CIO and other labor organizations.  NLPC publishes Union Corruption Update, a fortnightly newsletter. NLPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation promoting ethics and accountability in government through research, education and legal action.

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