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PALADINO COMES OUT SWINGING WITH BID TO UNSEAT CONNOLLY IN LOCAL 91

By Mike Hudson

Leadership of Laborers Local 91 here has become so fragmented that current kingpins Rob Connolly and Rico Liberale have been unable to put together a full ticket to run with them in the May elections.

And with 60 to 65 percent of the union's roughly 700 workers currently jobless, dissatisfaction among the rank-and-file has reached unprecedented proportions.

Late last week, and against that backdrop, Dick Paladino formally announced his intention to run for Connolly's job, telling the Niagara Falls Reporter that the once-powerful union local has slipped into near irrelevance under the current regime.

"These guys have alienated the membership, and they've alienated many of the contractors," Paladino said. "Now they're starting to go after people for political reasons, and that has to stop."

Connolly and Liberale do have the support of longtime union power brokers Angelo Massaro, Ronny DeGrillo and Johnny Cheff, though much of the positioning is taking place outside the union's Seneca Avenue headquarters, at places like the Bakery Lounge on Niagara Street and the Seneca Niagara Casino.

"What I want is for Angelo Massaro and Ronny DeGrillo to know that I know what they are. I want Johnny Cheff to know that even though he's stayed away from the union hall, he's holding his private meetings as well," Paladino said. "What they are doing is to the detriment of this union and I know what's going on."

One recent dispute centered around a conference, to be held in Hawaii this coming November. Connolly, Liberale and DeGrillo sought authorization for the trip, citing a recent trip to Florida taken by Massaro to attend a similar conference.

"Angelo spent a lot of money in Florida, and these guys were planning on spending $15,000 to go to Hawaii," Paladino said. "How can you go to Hawaii? We've got nobody working."

Paladino threatened to take the matter before the membership.

"They were going to take that money out of the Welfare Fund. They were going to go," he said. "These things are voted on by the committees, behind closed doors, and the membership never even knows about it."

Last week, Connolly fired union President Michael Paladino, Dick Paladino's brother, from his salaried position as an assistant business agent. Recording Secretary Billy Grace, who has also run afoul of Connolly and Liberale, said over the weekend that he expects to be next in what has developed into a purge.

"They fired Mike, and he has three weeks of vacation to use. I've got three weeks too," Grace said. "The election's in five weeks, and those guys are going to be history. I'm not worried, they can have at it."

Paladino said that at least two local contractors have been pressured into supporting Connolly and Liberale, and that the contractors seem prepared to use their influence as employers with their employees.

"That is a federal offense," he said. "You cannot actively interfere with a union election. I can't tell you the contractors' names, because it would single out my sources of information."

Paladino added that he wouldn't hesitate to turn the information over to the Inspector General's office of the Laborers International Union of North America, which is actively cooperating with federal law enforcement authorities in monitoring the activities of Local 91, particularly with the election approaching.

Union investigators -- and FBI agents -- have been particularly interested in both union hiring practices and the complicity of union leaders in a fraud and embezzlement scheme involving Newfane dentist Scott Geise and Local 91 member Tony Fazzolari, both of whom have pleaded guilty to federal charges and are actively cooperating with the feds.

Fazzolari is partners with Rico Liberale in a private snowplowing business, an arrangement that has also come under close scrutiny.

Three months ago, Connolly and Liberale were confident of re-election and had assembled what they thought of as a viable slate of candidates for the May elections.

But as of Friday, they were scrambling to find Local 91 members willing to run on their ticket, numerous union sources confirmed.

"They're desperate, offering people sub-time work if they'll support them," said one longtime union member last week in a conversation at Jimmy's on Niagara Street. Sub-time is generally offered to laborers during the winter months, when construction work slows, sometimes to a standstill. "Not too many of the guys are falling for it."

Paladino said that he's holding the slate of candidates running with him close to the vest until Wednesday's 7 p.m. nomination meeting at the Laborers' Seneca Avenue headquarters.

"One of the ways we know they're having a problem is that they've been asking guys who have already committed to run with us to run with them," he said. "We've had our slate lined up for a while."

At stake is nothing less than the survival of Local 91 in Niagara Falls. The union, which has been the primary source of income for 700 workers and their families in recent years, disappointed many with its failure to proceed with highly touted plans to build a $1 million training center at Inducon Park, a project seen as key by leaders in the International.

The blame for that failure rests squarely on the shoulders of Connolly and Liberale, and combined with continued criminal activity, has led top union officials closer to handing the training mission off to the Rochester local and subsuming Local 91 into Laborers Local 210 of Buffalo.

Such an outcome would be disastrous not only for workers here, but for the community as a whole.

"I've never been angrier or had more resolve," Paladino said. "I really should have a thicker skin after all this time, but I guess I don't.

"Right now, the betterment of that local is first and foremost. If we get away from that, and what we're here for, then shame on us."

Anyone carrying a Local 91 card probably ought to be on Seneca Avenue at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28. Not only is the future of the local at stake, but the fireworks should be pretty spectacular.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com April 27, 2010