I’ve been watching Sopranos lately, and a few times they’ve talked about construction jobs, the unions, and getting ‘no show’ jobs (whatever they are) and I realised a lot of Organised Crime I’ve heard about always seems to be tied them, yet I have no idea how it makes so much money for them.
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Organized crime makes money from construction and unions in a few ways. They infiltrate construction companies and unions, controlling who gets contracts for big projects. By inflating costs and demanding kickbacks from contractors, they pocket a lot of money. Controlling unions lets them manipulate labor costs, forcing companies to hire more workers than needed or pay high wages for less work.
The extra money goes to the crime group through bribes or inflated union dues. They also use extortion, threatening strikes or slowdowns unless construction companies pay them off. ‘No show’ jobs are another trick, where someone gets paid without actually working, letting the crime group funnel money to their members. In short, they exploit the construction industry’s complexity and the unions’ power to skim money, extort businesses, and launder illegal earnings through legitimate businesses.
Currently a case in Illinois where the legislature leadership, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, said “nice nuclear plant, shame if someone regulated it away” or whatever and in return [“ComEd arranged payments to Madigan’s associates through third-party vendors to conceal the size of the payments and to assist ComEd in denying responsibility for oversight of Madigan’s associates, who in some instances did little to none of the work for which they were hired.”](https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-illinois-speaker-house-indicted-federal-racketeering-and-bribery-charges)
The CEO of Comed was [found guilty](https://news.wttw.com/2023/05/02/jurors-reach-verdict-comed-four-bribery-case) and the case included testimony from the no shows:
>In one of those conversations from early 2019, Marquez asked Doherty about the subcontractors: “Do they do anything or what do they do? What do you have them doing?”
>Doherty replied: “Not much.” He then goes on to warn Marquez, saying he wouldn’t “tinker” with the specifics of the contract.
>“Your money comes from Springfield, ComEd money,” Doherty said in the recording. “My bottom line advice would be, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it with those guys.”
>One of those subcontractors, former precinct captain Ed Moody, testified that while he received a ComEd paycheck, he did minimal work for the company and believed he was actually being paid to continue working as a political operative on Madigan-connected campaigns.
I used to manage large consturction projects – and people seem to be missing the most important ways a mob can infiltrate these large projects.
1. Rig the bidding process. Mob will use info and pressure to ensure they win the job and make sure the price is as high as possible. Only 2-3 contractors will bid on these big jobs – and it will be the same ones, over and over again.
2. Skilled labour is always in demand and the big projects will fight over the labour pool. Controlling the flow of labour to a project through unions; means you have huge pull within the project power structure.
3. Extra work: make sure your buddy gets any extra work, and make sure he gets it for a very high price – and make sure the work required is greatly exaggerated.
4. Make sure upper construction managment knows you mean business. Everytime they dont give you money when you ask, or expand the quantity of something – they will do everything to cause financial harm to the construction company by frustrating work performance.
These are a few of the key points.
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