what I was getting at was, theres no penalty for turning stoolie today. half the mob are stoolies. and with rico going strong, it's much harder today than it was, to be a made guy.
and young guys see this and nobody wants to be in Lcn anymore.
Much of what you said, though often repeated by many, is false. First, "half the mob" are not stoolies. People just get that image because those that do flip get so much attention. But even today the number of guys who turn is relatively small compared to those that don't. Second, the fact that the families in New York have been able to keep their membership totals relatively steady for the last 20+ years demonstrates there are still plenty of willing guys who want to be made.
OK, so it's agreed that there is a lack of talent in the younger generation and it seems that eventually most of the street rackets may go to newer immigrant crime groups (possibly). But what about the white collar rackets like the unions? If you have let's say Genovese guys that control certain unions or have influence, will these new immigrant groups be able to come in and take over? Or in this case, does the mob have someone to hand it down to. I'm assuming you don't need a "neighborhood" or "street presence" to keep influence in a union. I could be wrong as I have zero experience with unions. Maybe Pizzaboy or others can offer some insight. Thanks.
The lack of quality in the new members, as compared to the old, is certainly true. Though not necessarily across the board. But the idea that most of the street rackets would be taken over by newer immigrant groups (the "ethnic succession" theory in organized crime) that got it's start 40 years ago has been proven largely untrue in New York. One of the earliest to float this predict this was Franic Ianni, who believed that blacks would take over the mob's rackets at the street level. Fast-forward through the years and, with each new ethnic group, you'd have OC experts and even some in law enforcement predicting they would "take over." - the Hispanics, Chinese, Motorcycle Gangs, Russians, Albanians, etc.
One of the more interesting books on this subject is
The New Ethnic Mobs by William Kleinknecht. Through most of his book he tries to build a case for the new groups supplanting the Italian mob. Yet, in the last chapter he almost does a complete 180. The Chinese are the #1 group he pushes but, in the end, he admits that - except for the drug trade - they will probably never go beyond the rackets of their own insular communities. One thing he does point out, and I give him credit for it because it goes against the cliched thinking, is that many people underestimated the tenacity with which the Italian mob would maintain it's presence in many of it's traditional street rackets. Wherever there is still a viable mob family left, it remains the dominant force when it comes to bookmaking and loansharking. The mob has been marginalized in the drug trade but the New York families are still big players in narcotics.
The union influence has diminished a great deal since the '90s. But the Genovese and Luccheses families in particular still have strongholds in certain areas (The Laborers and the Waterfront obviously at the forefront). But I expect those strongholds to also diminish over time. Not any time soon, but over time nonetheless. And I think when they're gone, they're gone (much like what happened with most of the Teamster locals).
So in my opinion, long story short and all that, the unions that are still under the mob's control will stay there but their grip will slowly diminish. And when they're out of the unions, I don't see an other immigrant group picking up the pieces. Because as a guy who dedicated 25 years of service to the Teamsters and organized labor, it pains me a great deal to admit that unions are slowly dying.
While I agree with you about the overall decline in mob influence in the unions, as well as the decline of the union movement in general, there are still some IBT Locals in New York that are interesting to watch; even in recent years. From 2000 to the present, I've counted at least 20 former Local 813 officials and/or members who were booted for their ties to the the LCN, corruption, etc. There's also been several booted from Local 295 at JFK since 2000. Local 282 has continued to have problems in recent years. Local 812 and 1181 are others.
You'll notice that article says the Gambinos control the piers in Brooklyn and Staten Island. That's traditionally been their territory while the Genovese had Manhattan and New Jersey. All of the New York families, except for the Bonannos, are still deep into construction and related fields. Unlike the wholesale food markets, the Javits Center, or even waste hauling, the government was never able to institute the same kinds of industry reforms in the construction trades. It's simply too big and too diverse to remove or at least weaken the mob like they did in other industries.
