By Tom Deignan

BACK in March I got an email from a man who described himself as an extraordinarily frustrated member of Local 608 — long known as the “Irish local” — representing some 7,500 carpenters in New York City.

The man said he felt the mob and their associates were still running the union. He did not offer much in the way of specifics, but as an explosive new book as well as a recent court decision indicate, the Irish local has been in and out of trouble for well over three decades now.

Just two months ago, workers James Noonan and John Corrigan were among a number of 608 guys arrested following what police described as a protest-turned-riot on West 26th Street. Union workers were none too pleased to learn that many working at the site of a future $9 million Hampton Inn hotel were non-union laborers.

The union workers, meanwhile, claim the police were abusive towards them.

Either way, the type of trouble 608 — as well as their parent New York City District Council of Carpenters — has often gotten into has had less to do with flying fists and more to do with accusations of bribery and mob links.

Recently, District Council of Carpenters President Michael Forde as well as Clare native Martin Devereaux, 608’s business agent, saw earlier convictions on bribery charges thrown out by a judge.

“I want to thank my family, friends and brother and sister carpenters for their support during recent events,” Forde said in a statement on the District Council web site.

“I can only repeat what I have said all along, I have never betrayed my union or my brother and sister carpenters.”

For now, Forde, whose father came to the U.S. from Mayo and was also a 608 leader, and Devereaux are off the hook. Prosecutors, however, have indicated they will appeal and press on with their case.

This is perhaps because they, too, have seen emails like the one I received back in March, and heard testimony from working carpenters who are satisfied with neither their leadership nor the shady cast of characters with whom they associate.

If you want to get a sense of the carpenters’ unions long problems with the law, take a look at James B. Jacobs’ new book.

Entitled Mobsters, Unions and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement (NYU Press), Jacobs takes a long look at the close links between Italian American mobsters and some Irish-dominated unions.

As early as the 1950s these links were made evident in Marlon Brando’s famous film On the Waterfront.

But these links remained tight into the 1990s, when the Gambino family and the Westies dominated the West Side. Perhaps because this is a fairly well known story, it is Jacobs’ work on the New York City District Council of Carpenters that is most interesting for Irish American readers.

Jacobs, who is the Warren E. Burger Professor of Law at NYU’s Center for Research in Crime and Justice. dedicates an entire chapter to the carpenters and their ties to organized crime.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, the Genovese crime family controlled the district council through Vincent Di Napoli, a capo in the crime family,” Jacobs writes.

“Thereafter, the mob continued its control over the district council through (Irish) presidents Paschal McGuiness (1982 to 1991) and Fred Devine (1991 to 1996).”

McGuiness was a Cavan native who, Jacobs writes, put John O’Connor in charge of the District Council’s daily operations. In 1990, O’Connor pled guilty to receiving a bribe from an employer and was sentenced to one to three years in prison, and fined $25,000.

McGuiness was acquitted of charges in this case but, according to Jacobs, “violence and corruption flourished under McGuiness’ presidency.”

A hit was eventually put out on O’Connor. John Gotti ordered the hit, according to government investigators.

The government’s case against the carpenters was settled in 1994, but trouble still loomed.

Local 608’s president Michael Forde became head of the District Council, and later “became the fourth consecutive district council president since 1980 to be charged with labor racketeering,” Jacobs writes.

Forde was charged with, among other things, accepting $100,000 is cash as a bribe from a construction company.

Union dissidents claimed they lost work because they spoke out against Forde, who, although indicted, won the 2002 District Council election.

For now, Forde and others who rose up through the Irish local received good news from the courts. But, every time I check my email, I can’t help but think that their problems are far from over.

(Contact Sidewalks at tomdeignan@earthlink.net.)