In the old days before Appalachian, they would meet if necessary, or they had a personal relationship. Once the 1960s rolled around, the bosses would put a capo or soldier as their contacts and would handle any problems and if it was serious then it was brought to the boss. When Paul Castellano became boss he was greedy and too hands on, which pissed alot of other family administration members, who were trying to avoid LE.
The mafia did not pay taxes on the deals unlike many of the big members of the construction companies. (I dont think Donald Trump paid taxes some of those years) Construction is more profitable than the garment business, but there is always something that needs to be fixed or a new Construction building, infrastructure. Garment has many aspects but Construction has more, construction has steel, framing, cement, electrical, plumbing, tar, masonry.