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Despite the looming specter of federal indictments, an increasing isolation from the rest of Niagara County's labor community and an ailing leader, it's business as usual for Laborers Local 91.
In yet another shameful episode, work halted on the Williams Road rehabilitation project after an altercation between three Local 91 members and a New York State Department of Transportation official, state police said.
On Nov. 28, state Trooper Keith Lucas charged Salvatore Bertino, 49, of 3512 Jerauld Ave., Anthony Bertino, 24, who lives with his dad, and Patrick J. Ciccarelli, 50, of 6824 Plaza Drive, with second-degree harassment.
Salvatore Bertino, apparently, was the union's job steward.
The incident occurred when a car carrying members of the troubled local was driven the wrong way through constricted traffic.
"These gentlemen came through, apparently in the wrong lane," Trooper Lucas said. "They were asked to move and they took offense to that. Words were exchanged and it turned into a physical confrontation."
No breathalyzer tests were administered, police said. The three were scheduled to appear in Wheatfield Town Court last week, but the hearing was postponed until Dec. 18 at the defense's request.
Because of the incident, the DOT halted work on the project, which connects Niagara Falls Boulevard and River Road and passes between Summit Park Mall and the southern end of the LaSalle Expressway. All three Local 91 members involved were dismissed from the project.
The shutdown cost the project two days of unseasonably good weather, prolonging the delays experienced by motorists passing through the area. With the holiday shopping season in full swing, that can't help the already customer-starved Summit Park Mall or other Williams Road businesses.
It was not the first time the Laborers have screwed up progress here.
Local law enforcement officials are all too familiar with physical violence and vandalism at Local 91 work sites and picket lines. Over the past five years, more than 20 such police incidents have been reported in area newspapers. And police say the ones that make it into the papers are just the tip of the iceberg.
Niagara County District Attorney Matthew Murphy III and county Sheriff Tom Beilein both use the word "problem" when discussing the Laborers.
"These guys play rough," Beilein said.
The last time a Local 91 steward was arrested in connection with job site violence occurred in September, 1998, when Town of Niagara police charged site steward Andrew Tomascik with assault and inciting a riot.
Police said a gang of up to 15 men including Tomascik attacked six tile setters belonging to Bricklayers Local 445 during construction of the Wegman's supermarket on Military Road.
Although four of the tile setters were injured so badly they required hospitalization, town prosecutors only succeeded in obtaining a disorderly conduct conviction against Tomascik. Likewise, the Williams Road incident wasn't the first time members of the local allegedly showed utter contempt for governmental authority.
"They even flattened the tires on one of my deputies' cars at a picket line out in Wilson," Beilein said. "They threw metal 'stars' under the car while it was moving."
The most recent arrests came on the heels of Local 91's expulsion from the Niagara County Building and Construction Trades Council.
Building and Construction Trades Council President Clyde Johnston confirmed that the organization revoked Local 91's membership after a dispute over back dues. When the Council sent a letter to Local 91 Business Agent Michael "Butch" Quarcini, he refused to pay up, Johnston said.
"They felt when they put up picket lines, the trades weren't paying attention to them," another union official told the Reporter. "They felt the money they paid wasn't going toward their way of thinking."
Local 91 leadership also bristled after getting shut out of the observation tower rehabilitation project at Prospect Point. Members of Ironworkers Local 9 wound up with jobs to which Local 91 felt entitled.
"The Ironworkers' business agent got in there and organized it before Local 91," a union official said. "So, of course, the Laborers got mad."
The tower project has gone smoothly, one contractor said, with members of various skilled trades unions cooperating. The first phase of the rehabilitation is nearly complete, with the rebuilt tower and elevators into the gorge expected to be finished by the time tourist season opens in the spring.
"Because there are a couple groups that don't work together, they give everybody a bad name," the contractor said. "But on this job, everybody has been working together. A lot of these people have apprentices to help with the labor end of things, and don't mind running a jackhammer or pushing a wheelbarrow if it means they don't have to put up with the other crap."
The split with the Trades Council could mean even fewer jobs for Local 91 members, since deals with developers and contractors would have to be made separately from the primary project labor agreement. Many Local 91 members already make as little as $17,000 a year.
"If the Building Trades sits down and negotiates, the Laborers are not a part of it," the union official said. "They're on their own."
If contractors choose to utilize non-union laborers, more Local 91 picket lines could result. Use of sometimes unruly pickets was another source of contention between the local's leadership and the Trades Council.
"The Building Trades Council has a whole different philosophy," the official said. "They don't just throw them up. We think talking beforehand is the way to handle it. Picket lines are for if you have no other way to go."
Future Local 91 pickets may not be honored by trades members as a result of the split.
"Most times, most guys won't cross a picket line," the union official said. "But if they're not sanctioned, then it's a different ballgame."
While some developers and contractors worry that labor tensions could scare away investors already hesitant to do business in Niagara County, others think it could make it easier to circumvent Local 91's demands.
"It could be the best thing that ever happened (for developers)," a union official said.
But less work for rank-and-file members poses just one of the problems facing the beleaguered local.
A federal grand jury seated in Buffalo is winding up its work, and could file indictments shortly after the New Year. Federal prosecutors are seeking to establish "a pattern of intimidation and violence" that has chilled the construction industry in Niagara County, forcing costs to spiral out of control for the rare project that goes ahead.
"They burn trailers, they curse and spit on you when you cross their line to go to work," one prominent Erie County drywall contractor told the Reporter. "I don't want to put myself in that position and I don't want to put my employees in that position."
While industrial developments such as Crosspoint Business Park in Amherst have a hard time keeping up with the demand for lots at $150,000 an acre and up, the financially troubled Inducon Industrial Park in Wheatfield found itself unable to sell similar parcels for $18,500.
Additionally, union boss Michael "Butch" Quarcini, 70, is a longtime cancer survivor who was recently hospitalized with an unspecified illness.
In his absence, control of the local rests in the hands of his daughter, Local 91's den mother,
Cheryl Cicero, who earns $89,713 as the local's second-in-command, according to U.S. Labor Department records.
Sources close to the grand jury investigation question what would happen should Quarcini be forced to step down due to health or other reasons.
"The rank-and-file have a lot of reasons for being loyal to Butch, but whether they have that same loyalty to Cheryl remains to be seen," one law enforcement source told the Reporter.
Whoever is calling the shots for Local 91, its members could find themselves frozen out of already scarce jobs, thanks to past decisions of its leaders.
"They used the strength of the Building Trades to get certain jobs," the union official said. "Now they're going to have to go on their own, and it's going to be a tough situation for them. But they did it to themselves."