Laborer’s Local 91 Business Manager Dick Palladino says he will not apologize for derogatory remarks he made about the French or French Canadians in an article that appeared in this newspaper.

Palladino served up frog legs during an interview about the hiring practices of Norampac, a Quebec-based company building a plant in Niagara Falls after receiving a $142 million incentive package from New York State.

His remarks caught the eye of Operating Engineers Local 463 Business Manager Paul McCollum, who couldn’t have been madder if they had burned his crepe suzettes. He said Palladino gave the impression he was speaking for the entire Niagara County Building Trades Council.

At the July 12 meeting of the council, McCollum called for the organization to disavow Palladino’s remarks lest any bad blood between the French, French-Canadians and the hardworking union men and women of Niagara County ensue.

Along with other labor leaders here, Palladino has been critical of Norampac for bringing in non-union workers from out of state to build its new factory after being granted local tax incentives. The tension has been palpable at the job site; Russ Quarantello, business manager of Electrical Workers Local 237, was arrested on the picket line two weeks ago. Palladino charged that Triad Construction of Wisconsin, a Norampac contractor, was bringing in illegal, undocumented workers from Guatemala to help with construction, and said that the French company should be going out of their way to hire local American workers.

He hasn’t changed his mind.

“We bailed the French out three times – World War I, World War II and Vietnam – and for them to come over here with workers they picked up in the Third World somewhere is inexcusable,” he said. “They ought to be hiring American workers.”
Palladino, who served as a Navy SEAL during Vietnam, cited the French existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre in describing what he called the mealy mouthed capitulation of McCollum and others of the Building Trades Council to the French.

“Sartre wrote a pretty good book once called ‘Nausea’ and that about describes my feelings for the lot of them,” Palladino said. “McCollum, (Building Trades Council Chairman) Clyde Johnson, not one of them is a veteran. What do they know about risking thier life to protect the French.”

The fact that American blood was repeatedly spilled over the past century on France’s behalf makes the Gallic slight at Norampac enraging,he added.

“You know how to get a Frenchman’s attention? Start talking in German,” he said. “But this is their character. They took millions from local taxpayers and don’t hire locals. Pardon my French, but as far as I am concerned my message to those who took our money and do not hire us is a simple ‘Va te faire foutre.’”

Mayor Paul Dyster has welcomed the French invasion. Photographs of him posing with Norampac’s Marc-Andre Depin adorn the Internet. For Dyster, Norampac, who uses the name Greenpac for this project, is the way of the future for Niagara Falls, American workers or not.

He said, “Greenpac is using the latest technology and showcasing the fact that Niagara Falls, New York, is where the public sector and the private sector can work together to deliver high-wage manufacturing jobs.”

Luc Nadeau, vice president of the Greenpac division, originally claimed 40 percent of the workers on the roject would be locals. “It is just a small piece of the puzzle,” he said.

But for Palladino and other labor leaders here, that small piece involves area workers being able to put food on the table to feed their families.

“You know why the French like that stinky cheese?” Palladino asked. “In a room full of Frenchmen, you can’t even smell the cheese.”

Then he added, “No. I love the French. They taste just like chicken.”

Asked whether his comments might be seen as insensitive in this politically correct age, Palladino turned serious. “You know what political correctness is? Keeping your word; being fair. Is it politically correct for politicians and Norampac to cut a deal with our tax money and then use out of state workers while local workers stay home? It is not words but deeds that make a man politically correct. That’s real politically correctness.”'