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FBI files on William Dugan, late operating engineer Local 150 boss, detail heavily omitted Chicago-area union investigation | Jobs Vox

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From the 1980s to the early 2000s, non-construction contractors in the Chicago area vandalized heavy machinery at their work sites to resist union organizing efforts by Operating Engineers Local 150.

Acid was poured on the engine parts. A bulldozer and a front-end loader were lowered into the mine. Pipe bombs were detonated at the asphalt plant.

In one incident, 100 or more people stormed a non-work site, and equipment was “shot and set on fire, windows were broken, tires were slashed and three people were killed,” according to authorities. A job trailer was also dropped.”

In a 1999 Chicago Sun-Times interview, William Dugan, the late leader of Local 150, said that his group was not behind any of the vandalism and suggested that contractors were damaging their own equipment for insurance money and an easy target. were blaming.

William Dugan, longtime head of Operating Engineers Local 150, in 2004.

William Dugan, longtime head of Operating Engineers Local 150, in 2004.

Dugan said, “It would be ridiculous for us to picket a contractor and then do some damage to that owner’s property.” “We don’t resort to that stuff.”

But the vandalism and violence prompted federal agents to launch an investigation into Local 150 in 1998, according to Dugan’s FBI file, recently obtained by the Sun-Times. The investigation, dubbed Operation Paving Justice, ran for six years before being closed in 2004 without any criminal charges, although investigators estimated there was $70 million in “equipment and property” damage.

Union officials say the investigation did not lead to charges because the labor group was not to blame.

“This six-year, multi-office investigation was terminated nearly 20 years ago . . . due to lack of evidence,” says a Local 150 spokesperson. “No charges were ever filed as a result of this investigation, and we vehemently deny any suggestion that Local 150 was involved in the activity being investigated.”

Furthermore, he says, “Nowhere in these documents is any current staff member of Local 150 mentioned or associated with any of the activities that are being investigated.”

At that point, Dugan’s FBI file shows, an official in the U.S. attorney general’s office—who had been contacted by someone, possibly one of the contractors—asked the FBI agent “Had the FBI investigated the matter to the best of its abilities.” , and if every incident and possibility was investigated,” according to a 2003 FBI memo.

A record in William Dugan's FBI file shows that questions were asked about the thoroughness of the federal investigation of Operating Engineers Local 150.

A record in William Dugan’s FBI file shows that questions were asked about the thoroughness of the federal investigation of Operating Engineers Local 150.

The memo stated that the agent’s opinion was that the case had not been adequately investigated and that further investigation of the case was not supported by FBI supervisors.

When the investigation was closed in 2004, another FBI memo labeled “Case Closing” stated: “All investigative leads regarding previous incidents on Local 150 have been exhausted. The most recent incident in northern Indiana ties to In, [the FBI] The Chicago Division’s efforts to obtain US Attorney’s Office authorization to conduct a consensual recording between an associate and a Local 150 business agent failed when “a prosecutor” refused to grant the authority to record.

The same memorandum stated, “the various local 150 tactics should properly be investigated as state crimes” because “such conduct and [of] did not in itself amount to a federal violation.

An old portion of the Dugan FBI file from 2000 states that the investigation involved possible violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is perhaps best known for its use in taking down mobs: ” Chicago’s investigation centers on violations of federal RICO statutes using the Illinois state anti-bullying statute or any other predicate offenses of the RICO statute.

“Since the title case was opened, several victims have been located in northern counties of Illinois and Indiana.

“Each victim has had virtually the same experience. At some point during a non-union contractor’s labor dispute with Local 150, the contractor’s equipment is damaged. The damage is usually caused by acid or some other substance placed in the equipment’s hydraulics. Damage amounts range from $1,000 to $500,000 or more per occurrence.

“Some non-union contractors choose to accept the union contract and the vandalism stops after the contractors sign with Local 150.”

Local 150 operating engineers on strike in Orland Park in 2000.

Local 150 operating engineers on strike in Orland Park in 2000.

Members of Local 150 — located in rural areas and representing workers in northern Illinois and parts of Indiana and Iowa — operate heavy equipment “in a variety of industries, primarily associated with the construction industry,” according to the union. and maintainers, who say that, under Dugan’s leadership, the group “doubled its membership from about 10,000 in 1986,” when Dugan became boss, to “more than 22,000 members in 2008,” when he retired.

Taking advantage of its members’ clout as a voting bloc, Dugan used a political fund to which members of both major political parties contributed, some of them to government-funded road works and other infrastructure projects. But were in a position to say.

Dugan, who died in 2020, was appointed by Illinois governors to government boards and commissions with authority over taxpayer spending and policy decisions. They included the Illinois Gaming Board and CTA and the governing boards of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, where Dugan secured “the first significant multi-project labor agreement in Illinois, guaranteeing that all tollway construction work would be performed by union contractors”. . For a union biography.

Dugan’s successor James Sweeney, who is still in charge of Local 150, also a member of the tollway board, was reappointed in 2019 by Gov. JB Pritzker. Sweeney, who, according to the union, was hired by Dugan in 1987 as Local 150’s first full-time organizer, would not comment on the closed FBI investigation.

The FBI will, upon request, release some or all of its files on people who have died. In releasing Dugan’s file, it redacted parts of some records and withheld others entirely.

The material released by it offered a glimpse into Local 150’s relationship with political figures and the police.

For example, a portion of the files discusses the 1986 arrest of a union member in the southwest suburbs for flipping a trailer and those charges were dropped by the Will County prosecutor.

According to an FBI document, the member whose name was blacked out was “arrested on charges of armed violence, arson and mob activity.”

The Will County State’s Attorney’s Office “dismissed the charges without [name blacked out] ever got a chance to testify,” the document shows. “That former state’s attorney is now a state senator who has received generous financial support from Local 150 and its members.”

The same document says: “During other investigations into the activity by Local 150, witnesses changed their stories, suddenly refused to cooperate, and a key witness in the bombing investigation allegedly committed suicide shortly before trial. Took. Woke up one morning to find a man testifying against members of Local 150 in a civil case [blacked out],

According to another document in Dugan’s FBI file: “Local 150 [blacked out] The case agent acknowledged that law enforcement officers run license plate numbers for Local 150 members to identify the addresses of non-union contractors or other persons in which Local 150 has an interest.

An FBI record that says police departments ran license plates for Operating Engineers Local 150, something that prompted federal agents to question police chiefs.

An FBI record that says police departments ran license plates for Operating Engineers Local 150, something that prompted federal agents to question police chiefs.

According to records, agents interviewed three suburban police chiefs about this.

Federal authorities later launched another investigation into Dugan. In that case, he pleaded guilty in 2010 to using his union position for personal gain and was sentenced to probation.

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