That's where it really becomes the problem - when the racketeering becomes institutionalized. And that means, as Raab explained in his book, as long as contractors could pass along the price of kickbacks to their customers, and that they'd only have to pay off once, they would actually prefer to deal with the mob rather than honest union leaders who have the ability to disrupt their schedules by exercising their collective bargaining agreements.
As a corollary to that: Construction contractors and garbage collection companies that were forced into Mob-run "associations" or "cartels" not only were able to pass along those costs to their customers, but also were protected from competition. The Mob simply assigned them contracts or routes and kept out anyone else. It took a lot of courage and integrity for some to fight that system because the rewards of going along with the Mob were pretty substantial.
