Using a database for the period 1975-96 assembled by the Springfield, Va.-based National Institute for Labor Relations Research (NILRR), study authors Armand Thieblot, Thomas Haggard and Herbert Northrup counted 9,785 incidents of criminal acts or threats in 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Union member or official-initiated violence accounted for nearly 250 deaths during this time, 97 of them from a single act of arson at a San Juan, Puerto Rico hotel on December 31, 1986 following a meeting by Teamsters Local 901 to discuss a strike against management. Go To Site

AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka: "You're going to burn your finger."

Crime, Union, Violence, Character, Threats

"I'm saying if you strike a match and put your finger in, common sense tells you you're going to burn your finger." In other words, Eddie York had it coming. His widow, Wanda York, saw things differently. She sued the union for $27 million, naming Trumka and other union officials as co-defendants.

JUDGE IMPOSES 99-YEAR TERMS IN SAN JUAN FIRE - New York Times

Crime, Union, Violence, Vandalism, Convict

The maintenance worker who set the hotel fire that killed 97 people here on New Year's Eve was sentenced to 99 years in prison today by a Federal judge who said Puerto Rico was ''fed up'' with violence.
The three men were members of Local 901 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which was involved in a labor dispute with the hotel magement at the time of the fire.