Off the Waterfront

The bistate Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, enacted in 1953 by New York and New Jersey and enshrined in federal law signed by Ike, was created to battle pervasive mobbed-up union corruption on the docks. The New Jersey Legislature, in thrall to the International Longshoremen’s Association and shipping concerns, thinks the crime is gone and the commission should be shut down.

Trenton passed a law to walk away and last week, Gov. Phil Murphy sent a letter to Gov. Hochul that he’s quitting in 90 days. Actually, it was Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, as acting governor, because Murphy was vacationing in Costa Rica.

Hochul must say no, but don’t take our word, listen to the Manhattan U.S. attorney, the FBI Special Agents in Charge of the New York and Newark offices and the U.S. Department of Labor inspector general, who have written separately that the docks and the ILA have “long been plagued by extortion, thievery, and fraud schemes” and the ILA is influenced by the

Genovese and Gambino families and the commission “has been instrumental in investigations and prosecutions.”

Hochul should also read what our former Gang Land columnist, Jerry Capeci, is writing now about the ILA and mob on the docks.

But instead of cracking down on crime, Murphy just appointed construction firm owner Joe Sanzari to be Jersey’s new commissioner on the agency, replacing a former prosecutor in the part-time $48,013 post. Sanzari happens to be buddy-buddy pals with the head of the ILA, Harold Daggett, and was the keynote speaker at the ILA’s last convention held before COVID, in 2019, where Sanzari bragged that he has an honorary ILA member card that he keeps in his wallet.

The crimefighting Waterfront Commission bars anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony from being a union official and also caps the ILA to 50% of all new waterfront jobs, requiring openings be fairly advertised to limit the ILA’s control. No commission, no control. Just what the ILA wants. Hochul must refuse.