Monday, August 23, 2010

Carpenters Union president Joe Firth axed, accused of preferential hiring for Ground Zero jobs

Firth, banned from office.
BY Brian Kates

The boss of a corruption-ridden carpenters union has been fired amid charges he rigged hiring lists to give cronies work at Ground Zero, the Daily News has learned.

Joe Firth, president of Carpenters Union Local 608, has been stripped of his job by the international United Brotherhood of Carpenters and banned from holding union office for 10 years.

Before he was elected president earlier this year, Firth was a business agent whose sole responsibility was, as he put it in court papers, assigning carpenters to jobs at "Ground Zero ... [and] the buildings that were damaged during the attack."

Firth's firing comes as the United Brotherhood cleans house at the local after District Council of Carpenters chief Michael Forde, former Local 608 President John Greaney and six Local 608 business agents pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges.

Allegations of Firth's purported rigging of hiring at the World Trade Center and Ground Zero put him under the microscope of federal review officer Dennis Walsh, sources said.

Walsh declined to comment.

Union dissidents say Firth played favorites in assigning Ground Zero jobs, which usually involve six-day weeks with plenty of overtime.

"Carpenters down there are pulling in $100,000 a year," a former Local 608 official said.

In 2003, one of Walsh's predecessors, federal monitor Walter Mack, said whistleblowers told him Firth had given his two brothers "breaks that others didn't get."

Mack warned him about "keeping a fair playing field for everyone."

Firth was elected early this year as president of the 7,400-member local, which controls union carpenters on the West Side of Manhattan and all of the Bronx. He could not be reached for comment.

12 comments:

  1. time to investigate the firth/608/WTC connection. wouldn't be surprise to see the connection to firth's election. when firth was fired as ba, he was on his tools at WTC within a week. how is this fair? his brothers and sons all work at WTC.

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    1. The entire family are DOUCHE-BAGS!

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  2. Firth's BROTHERS & SONS ALL WORK AT THE WTC SITE???????
    HOW THE FUCK IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE WITH FEDS ALL OVER EVERYBODY IN 608 & 157?????
    Do these assholes even investigate that? What is that piece of shit Scott Danielson doing to arrange that? He's as crooked as they come.

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  3. here is the thing.... what did firth do to get so many people jobs at the WTC? bribes? turned his back somewhere else?

    who is/are the contractor(s) that have all these special hires?

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  4. Forget about Firth and his brother. How did Larwence D'Errico make Paul capeerso Regional manager with no experence

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  5. now daly is the big wig . wheh are the cuffs going on him

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  6. Always we find corrupt people in the important companies, Joe Firth has well deserved the suspension of his work. Very informative post!

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  7. this is nothing new who didnt know about joe firth and his dealings down there. His whole family works down there its more than a coincidence. by the way do they all get to keep there jobs down there

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  8. It should come as no surprise that Business Agents children are working and given preference in hiring. There are children of former BA's whose sons have never done a days work in there life. Some went right from a so called apprenticeship to in house jobs at A&S to Macys to HHC all the while lapping up the OT at the Convention Center.

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  9. YES! the whole family of Hooligans work down there...they yell union and that Dev and everyone else are scumbags and mow look at these fanily of rats and their so called council.All the carpenter stewards/foreman at WTC work all the OT on their own jobs and work on each others as well...i know...i see it...NOW WE KNOW THE MAIN REASON THERE"S SO MUCH "NON-UNION" work...also big man Joe works OT taping sheetrock at the PATH station-instead of putting a member to work...your votes at work!

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  10. Corruption got to love it, shame there are not more honest people in the world be he regrets it all now.

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  11. I thought Joe was cool. Hes got balls. If anyone sees Colm O'connor could you tell him Johnny Detroit says hello to him and Junebug. Moved back to Detroit to marry my sweetheart.

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