Hello all, lately I came upon one of the mobs money making schemes that I couldn't seem to understand. How does the Labor racket work? I've always been fascinated as to how these individuals generate their ill-gotten money, and I usually catch on to it quick, but this one hasnt been explained to me in the book im reading. For those curious its called the Sixth Family.
Cheers
- O'Pazzo, or Oobatz if you prefer
One of my favorite Mob related books.
To add to what Turnbull so thoroughly and correctly said, many years ago workers, who were exploited by big corporations and mangement, began to try and unionize themselves. The companies would go out and hire, (what was referred to back then, as the "law and order" people) goons from the mob. The corporations would hire these mobsters, or should I say the mob would hire out their goons, to beat up these strikers who were trying to form unions so that they could get better wages, working conditions and benefits.
Then the Mob got really smart. Not only did they hire their goons out to the corporations and the companies, but they offered those same services to the labor unions. The mob now began playing both sides of the fence. As time went on the mob realized that the Unions were becoming a rich source of money for them. They saw that it was becoming much easier for them to embed themselves within the unons. And as more time went on the mob began actually running many of the unions. They began, as Turnbull has said above, utilizing the pension funds that the unions had built up, taking ridculously low interest loans to get into "legitimate" businesses, to build places like casinos and hotels in Las Vegas. Then when those "legitimate" businesses were built, the mob went to work skimming profits from those casinos which they had initially used union money to build.
Welcome to the boards Oobatz!
