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Teamsters arrested on charges they tried to extort jobs from TV reality show last year
By adamg on Wed, 09/30/2015 - 11:07am
The US Attorney's office reports five members of Teamsters Local 25 were arrested today on extortion charges for allegedly trying to get jobs out of the producers of Top Chef when it filmed in the Boston area last year.
Mark Harrington, 61, of Andover; John Fidler, 51, of Holbrook; Daniel Redmond, 47, of Medford; Robert Cafarelli, 45, of Middleton; and Richard Jeffrey, 55, of Woburn, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to extort and attempted extortion of a television production company in order to obtain no-work jobs for fellow Teamsters. If convicted, they face sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
According to the US Attorney's office:
The company hired its own employees, including drivers, for the filming of the show and did not need work performed by union members. Beginning on June 5, 2014, the defendants conspired to force the production company to pay Local 25 members for unnecessary work by threatening physical and economic harm to the company.
Among other things, the indictment alleges that on June 10, 2014, the defendants showed up at a restaurant in Milton where the production company was filming. The defendants entered the production area and began walking in lockstep toward the doors of the restaurant where they accosted film crew members and attempted to forcibly enter the restaurant. Throughout the morning, the defendants yelled racial and homophobic slurs at the film crew and others, threatened crew and cast members, and shouted profanities. The defendants also blocked vehicles from the entryway to the set, and used physical violence and threats of physical violence to try and prevent people from entering the set.
In a statement, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said:
The indictment alleges that a group of rogue Teamsters employed old school thug tactics to get no-work jobs from an out of town production company. In the course of this alleged conspiracy, they managed to chase a legitimate business out of the City of Boston and then harassed the cast and crew when they set up shop in Milton. This kind of conduct reflects poorly on our city and must be addressed for what it is – not union organizing, but criminal extortion.
Innocent, etc.
Neighborhoods:
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| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Indictment against the five | 244.23 KB |
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Comments
End partisan AGs, remove party affiliations from AG elections
Don't worry our own Attorney General is perfectly impartial in labor matters and in no way demonstrated a personal bias in favor of unions at a labor breakfast.
For that matter, we should
remove party affliations from ALL primary elections, declare all voters as independent, and put all eligible candidates on a single ballot. This "which ballot do you choose" nonsense is an idiotic practice that only discourages voter participation.
And the fact that a person's ballot choice becomes a part of the public record for the election, like the practice of keeping records on whether or not a person actually voted, is totally unacceptable. I choose not to vote - MY choice that's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. I choose to vote for a candiate from Party X - MY choice that's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Well, in that case ...
Why not just get rid of primaries altogether?
Just have the governor
Just have the governor appoint an AG like the president appointed Ortiz.
Because then
Doug Bennett's name would be on every ballot in the state!
Yes, primaries are necessary
But there is NO legitimate reason why all primary candidates can't be on a single ballot. The current "you must choose a party affiliation in order to exercise your Constitutional right to vote" restricts a voter's choices even before they step into the ballot box. Now, that thinking mya have been fine in the 1960s when "I vote the party line across the board" was commonplace and accepted thinking, but it's largely irelevant in this day and age.
In N.H., cities have
In N.H., cities have nonpartisan elections where a primary is held to pick the two people who will appear on the final ballot. Often this means you have two Democrats or two Republicans running against each other, but party affiliation is no part of the official process.
Same as in MA
Municipal elections are non-partisan here too.
Oh, this sort of justice
Oh, this sort of justice brings joy to me on this rainy morning.
Unions
Most left leaning, liberals I know hate unions.
Does anyone like unions other than union members?
How can you be a liberal and hate labor organizing?
It sounds like the Teamsters may have gone several steps over the line between legal and illegal picketing, but supporting labor has been part of liberalism for over a century.
umm "several steps"?
There's so much union power out there my post failed the first time.....here goes again:
Several Bigass steps by Paul Bunyan, maybe. But several kajillion steps to the rest of us.
The only surprising part of this story is that the Teamster thugs (yes, I'm being redundant) actually got charged.
Oh Great!
This is exactly the kind of image we want the world to have of us when considering setting up shop and/or doing business here. This and those knuckleheads that caught the sunfish.
Don't forget the cool smart
Don't forget the cool smart kids who still use slurs like XXXX (the one you removed, thanks!).
You're right
that was a bad word choice.
They didn't catch the sunfish.
That was epic.
"dude, "### #### ###"
Funny. Total set up, there's other vids they made, but funny.
Do you seriously think
stuff like this is unique to Boston? google is your friend.
They didn't hire any detail cops for protection?
well, there's your problem right there.
Sarcasm off.
TEAMSTERS
Mr Fidler is a member of a prominent (infamous) Charlestown family. Good to see he's still employed
i dont see the difference
This kind of conduct reflects poorly on our city and must be addressed for what it is – not union organizing, but criminal extortion.
You're not that bright then, are you?
The former has been established law since the Wagner act of 1935 and was critical in the advancement of the American middle class thru the 20th century. The latter not so much.
Try to keep up.
artistic liberty
used to stress an opinion i have
maybe i'm not so bright but A) i am in a union and B) i seem fairly less autistic than you
Typical Union Move
Making fun of people on the autism spectrum. How classy! First the racial and homophobic slurs, now this. Hey don't forget to make fun of blind people next time!
No, anon, YOU try to keep up.
No, anon, YOU try to keep up.
Union organizing itself has led to a particular brand of organized crime. It's all about force, as in compulsory membership (in effect), forcing their way into that Milton restaurant, etc.
Such is the unfortunate evolution of the movement that "brought us the weekend" blah blah blah. Let's get rid of unionism, at least in its current bully-force form.
Color me doubly shocked...
when did Martha Coakley decline to prosecute?
Is there a link?
The facts speak for themselves
The state did not prosecute. The feds are prosecuting instead.
you stated that AG Martha Coakley declined to prosecute
That is completely different. Racketeering is federal. The punishments will be worse in federal court. In state court, all they could pursue is each individual crime which wouldn't add up to the punishment these thugs deserve.
Don't confuse people ...
... with facts.
http://deadline.com/2014/08
http://deadline.com/2014/08/top-chef-boston-teamsters-threats-at-top-che...
http://www.boston.com/entertainment/tv/2014/08/20/what-the-hell-went-bet...
Keep googling there was a lot about this story during Coakley's campaign.
The Globe article has the juicy bits - seems Walsh was involved
Someone within the Walsh administration was coordinating with the Teamsters, and was also calling some of the businesses the crew were planning on using.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/30/teamsters-local-members-faci...
Picketing is legal
criminal assault and threats are not. I am glad these people will be punished. But I am also glad to know which businesses respect workers and which don't.
Glob blob. Walsh never represented teamsters.
They are not a building trades union nor are they affiliated with the Boston Building trades. If the Walsh administration was aware of picketing why wouldn't they give a heads up to the affected business?
No comment?
How about this for a statement, Mayor Marty: "I won't stand for anyone visiting or doing business in the city of Boston to be treated so poorly, it's inexcusable. Women should not be threatened with having their faces slashed or called whores, and homophobic slurs are never acceptable." Or is it too challenging to speak clearly and ethically when the Teamsters have you by the balls?
Marty Walsh is tight with the unions.
I wouldn't be surprised if he was directly related to this thuggery. One and done.
Glad some things never change
Local 25 was the reason why very little TV/film production took place in Boston until relatively recently - they were so extortion-y that they killed the golden goose. Producers blacklisted Boston because the thievery was too bad.
See also http://www.dea.gov/pubs/states/newsrel/2003/boston101703.html
The link was the Cardinal
The link was the Cardinal thing. I see your call and raise you Enron, plus this in the hold ,
The 10 Worst Corporate Accounting Scandals of All Time
http://www.accounting-degree.org/scandals/
Eating crow
When Adam first wrote about this story I made a comment that was basically "this is all too batshit crazy to be real, it might be part of a larger issue, chill out for now."
I was wrong. Local 25 apparently really is that batshit crazy. I publicly apologize for doubting it.
Edit: not sure why the link isn't showing up, but here's the original story and comment: http://www.universalhub.com/2014/teamster-fail-stop-filming-cable-show#c...
The indictment
I've attached a copy to the original post. And yes, indeed, it does say a City Hall official helped out the Teamsters by calling the Omni Parker House, where some filming was scheduled, to let them know it would be picketed. And the hotel immediately canceled the show's use of its facilities.