# Waterfront Corruption: Senate Report 98-369 (March 1984)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/psi-1984-srept-98-369-waterfront-corruption/

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' report on its 1981 waterfront hearings. It describes the FBI's UNIRAC investigation, begun in 1975, records ILA president Thomas W. Gleason's denial that the union was dominated by organized crime, and recommends changes to federal labor law.

The report was ordered printed on 27 March 1984 (legislative day 26 March) and submitted by Senator Roth for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It opens: "Six days of hearings in February of 1981 by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations showed that corrupt practices were commonplace on the Atlantic and gulf coast waterfronts."

It describes the FBI's UNIRAC investigation, which it says began in 1975 and produced convictions of "more than 20 of the ILA's most prominent leaders." It quotes Thomas W. Gleason, ILA president since 1963: "In regard to the information reported in the press about the ILA being dominated by organized crime figures, I am here today to deny that, emphatically, categorically, and without any reservation whatsoever."

Among its recommendations, the subcommittee asks Congress to amend 29 U.S.C. 504, which bars people convicted of certain crimes from union office for five years, and says Congress "should make it a felony to demand payoffs and to make payoffs as well."

The report also describes named union officials as members or associates of crime families, on the Justice Department's identification. Those are the subcommittee's statements, not court findings, and this page does not repeat them about persons who may be living. For the Brooklyn prosecution it discusses, see [United States v. Scotto](/items/courtlistener-us-v-scotto-641-f2d-47/).

## Sources

- U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo: U.S. Congressional Serial Set, S. Rept. 98-369: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-13557_00_00-009-0369-0000