Armand E. Sabitoni of Rhode Island will succeed Carl E. Booker as secretary-treasurer of the Laborers’ Int’l Union of N. Am., according to a union announcement Dec. 20. Sabitoni, currently a LIUNA vice-president, is a second-generation LIUNA boss. He was named assistant to the president Jan. 1, 2000. Sabitoni is expected to run for formal election for secretary-treasurer at LIUNA’s 2001 convention in (where else?) Las Vegas. [BNA 12/21/00]
Here’s a quick Sabitoni bio. Sabitoni was one of 39 named defendants in the U.S. Dep’t of Justice’s 1994 draft racketeering complaint against LIUNA. Another was disgraced ex-LIUNA president and admitted criminal Arthur Armand Coia. DOJ wrote: “Armand Sabitoni is a long-time associate of Arthur A. Coia, whom he replaced as regional manager of the New England Regional Office of LIUNA in February 1993.”
Further, like Coia, Sabitoni is an attorney by trade. Coia recently lost his law license for two years because of his guilty plea to tax crimes. The Providence firm that still has Coia’s name, Coia & Lepore, Ltd., lists Sabitoni on its website: <www.coialepore.com>.
Additionally, at an Oct. 1997 meeting of LIUNA’s Connecticut business agents, dissident leader Ronald Nobili of LIUNA Local 665 was allegedly physically threatened and punched for his pro-union democracy views. Sabitoni, as regional manager, presided over the meeting. He told the Hartford Courant, “Not a word was said by the regional manger. The intimidation was condoned [by Sabitoni] as far as I was concerned.”