Union Accused of “Terror” Campaign
A general manager of a New York construction firm has asked a federal judge to dissolve an 800,000 member union because several supporters of the local in New York allegedly waged a three-year “campaign of terror” against him, according to the New York Sun newspaper.
The lawsuit filed against the Laborer’s International Union of North America claims that a group of members of the Local 78 threatened and stalked the employees of a nonunion construction firm in Queens. The construction firm, Asbestos & Lead Removal Corporation, and its general manager, George Kourkounakis, filed the suit recently in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
The legal complaint catalogs a long list of alleged run-ins between Mr. Kourkounakis and local union members. Most recently, a union member last month struck Mr. Kourkounakis with a billy club, breaking his hand, according to the legal complaint. Starting three years ago, union members have been harassing Mr. Kourkounakis by throwing bricks through the windows of his home, leaving threatening phone calls, and vandalizing his car and his employees’ cars, the complaint alleges.
The suit claims the union would also tamper with his job sites in order to create safety violations for regulators to discover. In one instance, union members littered one of the company’s job sites with asbestos roofing material so the company would be fined, the complaint said.