A Rhode Island grand jury indicted three Providence officials of the Intl. Longshoremen’s Assn. in early April for extortion and conspiracy. The three indicted officials of Local 1329 are president Raymond Silva, vice president Domingo Silva and secy.-treasurer John Carnevale.
According to the indictment, the three conspired to “verbally and maliciously threaten to injure” David Borque, president of the scrap company at the Providence port between January 1, 1999 and October 22, 2002. The three officials were reportedly enraged when Borque refused to hire a member for a no-show job for 30 hours a week. In addition to threatening Borque personally, the three also allegedly threatened his family. Borque eventually began wearing protective padding in case union goons attacked him.
Borque contacted police in February 2002, who monitored a series of meetings between him and the union officials via a hidden microphone worn by Borque. During one of those meetings, Borque said he was grabbed around the neck. State police arrested the Sivas on Oct. 23, the day after they led a mob of 10 militants toward a confrontation with Borque at the port that state police broke up. [Providence Journal-Bulletin, 4/14/03]