Judge Charles Haight, who oversees the carpenters' case in federal court, ordered most of the documents kept secret, but a letter in the case file indicates that Mack was exam- ining allegations of rigged job referrals at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the secret use of cash payments to workers by some of the industry's largest contractors, questions surrounding a maintenance company at big midtown office buildings that has close ties to top union officials, and other topics.
After reading the memos, Callahan, the new investigator, asked Mack to divulge the names of the sources he cited, saying he needed to be able to debrief them. Mack, in an echo of the "Officer Otto" episode, has refused to do so. The standoff has resulted in a series of letters between the two men, and Callahan has said he is prepared to press the matter in court if necessary. But Mack is adamant. The tipsters, he said, were promised confidentiality. "I don't see how I can go back on that now," he said.
photo: David Yellen
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In the meantime, Mack's road map has been helpful. In late September, federal labor-racketeering agents arrested a shop steward and union organizer named Michael "Mickey" Annucci and charged him with taking bribes during a years-long renovation project on the massive art deco buildings on lower Madison Avenue that now house the financial firm Credit Suisse. According to the complaint against him, the shop steward allegedly saved the contractor millions of dollars by leaving workers off his union reports, while Annucci went to play golf during the day.
The company Annucci worked for, L&D Installers, has not been charged, but it had been a prime target of Mack's inquiries before he was forced out. Despite Annucci's long association with the firm, the union's top officials, Thomassen and Michael Forde (who is awaiting retrial on his own long-standing mob bribery charges) promoted him in January to a $120,000-a-year organizer position, one of the union's prize jobs.
Shortly before Annucci's arrest, Callahan sought to question him about his on-the-job performance. When the organizer refused to cooperate, he was immediately suspended without pay, said Audra Donohue, a union spokeswoman. But when Annucci was told he was off the payroll, he reportedly pointed toward the office of Forde, the union's top officer, who was never suspended despite his own indictment back in 2000. "How come that guy gets to stay and I got to go?" he asked, according to union sources.
Mack said he still gets called by the rank-and-file members who became his informants, but he said he has largely chalked up the carpenters' union experience as more lessons learned. "I am not saying I got it all right," he said. "If I give people opportunities to convince me I am wrong, and I still come out of it thinking I am right, that's the way it should be." He paused.
"And if the result of all of that is, I get fired on occasion," Mack added with the self-awareness that has defined his dogged career, "I will just have to deal with it."
