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From the May 2005 issue of The $100 Plus Club News #94
How I Became A Union Democracy Activist
by James McGough
AUD $100 Plus Club Member Jim McGough is founding member of Laborers for JUSTICE, a group of reform minded members of Laborers International (LIUNA) He runs the website www.thelaborers.net. Jim's website reports on a myriad of developments having to do with union democracy, corruption, and racketeering in the construction trades. He is a member of Laborers Local 2 in Chicago.
Note: Opinions expressed in the $100 Plus Club
News are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those
of the Association for Union Democracy.
I like to be considered by corrupt individuals as armed and dangerous. I can't stand lying, cheating or fraud -- especially when it involves labor union officials. I demand corruption-free, democratically-run labor unions and will do whatever I can to accomplish that goal. I also teach ex-FBI agents and labor union investigators how to use the internet and computers. Here is my story.
I was second born of seven children and only son of Chicago Police detective, James John McGough, cousin to the Cusack family of Catholic priests and nephew/cousin to many of Chicago's finest. My aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends were priests, police officers, politicians or union officials. "Umbrella Mike" Boyle, business manager of IBEW 134 was a relative. Politics, crime, labor unions and their interconnections were family discussion staples. I learned to read at an early age by perusing the Chicago Tribune comics (Dick Tracy) and Steamfitter magazines. The televised McClellan and Kefauver hearings mesmerized me and engendered a life long interest in organized crime and political corruption
I grew up in Resurrection parish on the west side of Chicago, in the 30th ward, one mile north of the mob-controlled town of Cicero and attended St. Ignatius College Prep at the urging of Francis C. Delaney, my father's lawyer and head of the Chancery Division of the Cook County Circuit Court. I played baseball on Taylor Street with the sons and nephews of well-known Chicago mobsters.
Politics, corruption, and current events were discussed at school and debated at dinner with my sisters, one of whom later became an assistant to a Chicago Police Superintendent, another the first female Chicago Deputy Superintendent of Police and another is a Chicago Police Detective. When I worked to finance my education, I was a member of the retail clerks, the postal workers, the electricians, and the railroad clerks unions. Like most members I was completely ignorant of union constitutions and how my dues money was spent. And I was never encouraged to get involved in union affairs.
As a National Merit Letter of Commendation winner and Illinois State scholar, I choose to continue my Jesuitical education at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. I marched in Cicero with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in the 60's and picketed Mayor Daley's bungalow when I was Housing Director for the Organization for a Better Austin (OBA).
I went to law school at night and soon became involved in computer technology in the course of my employment with the Corporation Trust Company. In the 70's I helped develop and market the computerized law office automation system originally developed in the back offices of the prominent Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn. As new technology was developed in the 80's, I got involved in microprocessors, minicomputers, computer networks, operating systems, and satellite communications. Dealing with the managing partners of prominent law firms who were ethical and trustworthy was a joy. But as I descended down the food chain to smaller law firms, I began to encounter firms that wanted to bill for more than 24 hours a day. I got sick of the chicanery and I left the high-tech world for the low-tech world of construction.
I joined the Laborers Union in 1984 and my first job site was in Calumet City. a suburb south of Chicago in the jurisdiction of Chicago Heights, Laborers Local 5. I began complaining in 1987 to the Chicago Dept of Labor - Office of the Inspector General (DOL-OIG) that my Local 5 was undemocratic and controlled by organized crime. They told me that they knew that and also knew the Cubs would not win the World Series this year or next year. I continued to try and reform the Laborers, and unsucessfully tried to file charges against the appointment of a secretary-treasurer who was not a member in good standing for two consecutive years.
In 1994, my employer sent in payment for one year's dues that was misapplied to another member's account or pocketed by Local 5. I was suspended but never knew it as I worked full time for union contractors in multiple counties and never saw a business agent. I didn't receive the union magazine in 1995 and did not know about the threatened RICO complaint against LIUNA until I read about the appointment of Election Officer Stephen Goldberg in early 1996. When a copy of the Draft RICO complaint was not in the Serpico case file (Serpico, a LIUNA official at the time, was forced to resign from his VP position in 1995 and later was convicted of mail fraud) in the office of the U.S. District Court, I called AUD, spoke to Herman Benson for the first time, and paid $20 for a copy of the RICO complaint. When I read it, I got physically sick at the extent of corruption it exposed. That was the beginning of my compulsive behavior to educate and organize LIUNA members to eliminate corruption and make the union democratic.
I was in a unique position in Chicago with access to information not easily available to other members. I was familiar with the law, computers, information retrieval and had a good memory for all that I learned and knew about organized crime in the past. I started reaching out via email to the few members who had computers or internet access to learn more about the LIUNA-DOJ settlement. When I called the FBI to ask for information I had reported on Local 5, I was told I would have to sue to get it. The next thing I know I am being introduced to LIUNA Inspector General agents.
In 1998, I started The Laborers Network and formed a group of rank-and-file members of the Laborers Union, Laborers for JUSTICE, to educate union members about their duties to self- govern their unions: detect, report, and prosecute corruption: http://www.thelaborers.net.
I was the webmaster for Illinois Police & Sheriff's News in Chicago that reported about organized crime in Chicagoland. As webmaster for the first union for police officers, Combined Counties Police Association, and under the mentoring of a Chicago Crime Commission Executive Board member, I was able to continue my efforts to reform LIUNA.
In 1999 I helped organize members of Local 2 to mount an electoral challenge to the election of the business manager. Members came out to the Palatine office of Combined Counties Police Association and were taught about LIUNA's constitution, Robert's Rules of Order, how to make motions, etc. The General Executive Board (GEB) attorney put Local 2 into an emergency trusteeship when the business manager refused to accommodate member's legitimate demands to accept a voluntary supervision and denied them their rights to nominate delegates to the district council.
I remained a member of Local 5 because the trustees of the Chicago District Council denied my right to transfer into Local 2. I could attend union meetings in Chicago but not in distant Chicago Heights. But union democracy activists were reforming local 5 without my help. When one of them was made trustee of Local 2, he accepted my transfer into Local 2.
My vetted candidates were defeated in the March 10, 2001 election by the ousted business manager's successor. I continued complaining about corruption in Local 2 and forced the removal from office of the business manager, President and Secretary-Treasurer, all of who m signed settlement agreements with the LIUNA GEB Attorney rather than face disciplinary charges. None of my favored candidates got appointed in their place. The supervisor didn't like me or my attempts to make union finances and operations completely transparent to the members. After much effort, I am delighted to say that to the best of my knowledge Local 2 has been reformed completely and is a model for other unions to emulate.
I now worry about Laborers Local 1001 falling again under the control of organized crime As well as monitoring LIUNA, I am helping reformers in the Carpenters and Operating Engineers reform their unions.
It's compulsive behavior. Give me coffee, cigarettes, high speed internet access and a chance to do God's work and I am in seventh heaven.
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