[SML] Boston Mayor's aides convicted of demanding music festival hire union stagehands.

[E R Casey]

Not to doubt for a moment the potential for corruption in a big city political machine but I’m not clear from this article how ‘the union’ ( IATSE? ) is responsible for this what was described here.  Also not clear from the article how this was judged to be a demand rather than a suggestion as the defendants claimed. It seems they had gotten permits in previous years without union labor.  Short of a recording of the meeting I’d be curious to know what constituted evidence.  Was this a jury trial or decided by a judge?  


E. R. Casey

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> On 9 Aug2019, at 2:15 PM, stagecraft-request at theatrical.net wrote:
> 
>  Dale Farmer <dale at cybercom.net <mailto:dale at cybercom.net>>
> To: Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net <mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net>>
> Subject: [SML] Boston Mayor's aides convicted of demanding music
> 	festival hire union stagehands.
> 
> https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/08/07/verdict-reached-in-city-hall-extortion-trial/ <https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/08/07/verdict-reached-in-city-hall-extortion-trial/>
> 
> I don't think this one is behind a paywall, unlike the boston globe's 
> story.
> 
> Short version.   Two senior city hall staffers were in a final meeting 
> with the Boston Calling music festival organizers days before the event. 
>  They say they asked the organizers to hire union stagehands.  But they 
> still had not handed over the final city permits needed for the event 
> when they asked.  The festival organizers felt that if they didn't agree 
> to what they viewed as a demand, they wouldn't get the needed city 
> permits.    They hired union stagehands and got the permits.  Someone 
> asked the FBI to investigate and this trial resulted.
> 
> My memory (Unreliable on this, as I never worked the event myself) was 
> that in prior years, they used a mix of paid non-union stagehands, and 
> volunteers. anyone with first hand knowledge, feel free to correct facts.)
> 
> My opinion, big black eye to the union's reputation.
> 
> Dale
> 

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