Union president attacks non-union workers for encroaching on Indiana job site, feds say
The president of an Indiana Iron Workers union and a colleague pleaded guilty Friday to assaulting a group of non-union workers at a construction site for a Christian school, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prior to his guilty plea, Iron Workers Local 395 President Jeff Veach also resigned from his roles on the Portage, Indiana Plan Commission and Park Board, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
The attack by Veach, 56, and Thomas Williamson Sr., 68, left multiple workers with serious injuries in the union workers’ attempt to obtain a contract to assist on the construction of the school, the Department of Justice said.
“Both men will be barred from holding any union position for at least 13 years” following their prison sentences, which have not been announced, the court said.
The federal court said that in January 2016, Williamson and Veach tried to obtain contracts from D5 Iron Works for work on Plum Creek Christian Academy, a school affiliated with Dyer Baptist Church. The union workers claimed the church was in Local 395’s “territory,” according to the plea agreement.
On Jan. 6, 2016, Williamson visited the job site and met with the D5 foreman to convince him to join his union or stop working at the site, according to the Department of Justice. He also confronted the youth pastor of the church and told him it was “unethical” to use non-union labor for the job, the federal court said.
Williamson returned to the site the next day with Veach, and when the foreman again refused to join the union, Williamson grabbed the man’s jacket and called him a “scab bastard,” according to the court. They later returned with around 10 members of the union and immediately attacked the D5 workers with fists and loose hardwood, then kicked them while they were on the ground, the Department of Justice said.
The attack lasted for around an hour, Center on National Labor Policy attorney Michael Avakian told InsideSources. One of the non-union members had his jaw crushed and broken in three places, the attorney told InsideSources.
“Here’s the kicker for the employer,” Avakian told InsideSources in 2017. “Its cost of doing business has now increased dramatically because the medical worker comp insurance kicked in to take care of the medical expenses for the four guys.”
Veach and Williamson each pleaded guilty to one count of extortion conspiracy, according to the Department of Justice. Under the plea deal, they could face prison terms between 24 months and 54 months, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana.
Robert T. Hanlon, the attorney representing D5, told The Times of Northwest Indiana that the union members were “cowards” and “acted like a bunch of animals.”
Brett McMahon, the chairman of the Center on National Labor Policy, said in a statement to The Indiana Lawyer that the union members “made a mockery of worker free choice.”
“These employees were beaten without any opportunity to register their desires,” McMahon said. “The criminal pleas send a powerful message to union officials nationwide and to their supporters who think America’s workers have one choice — union exclusive representation.”
