They say loose lips sink ships. But when Margaret Dillin got diarrhea of the mouth it cost her her job.
Dillin, a single mom, makes $77,000 a year as member of Local 1588 of the International Longshoremen’s Association. There is an explicit court ruling that prohibits any union member from associating with organized crime figures, including ex-waterfront kingpin Nicholas (Nicky) Furina. Law enforcement officials describe Furina as the “central figure in mob influence that has infiltrated Local 1588 for two decades.” After his 2005 racketeering conviction, Furina was banned from the waterfront, where he had served as the hiring agent for longshoremen in Port Jersey.
“Nicky Furina still has the reputation of a very powerful organized crime figure in Bayonne,” Walter Arsenault, executive director of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, told The New York Daily News.
Still, Dillin was indiscrete enough not only to casually associate with Furina, but in fact, went to a swanky 2007 Christmas party where alleged organized crime figures, including the 80-year-old Furina, ‘Pepe’ LaScala, Carlo Bilancione and Nicky Romano, all were present. Then, according to a letter written to the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, she constantly bragged to her co-workers about her meeting with Furina and other alleged organized crime figures.
Several of Dillins co-workers testified at Dillin’s hearing about her frequent boasts that she “broke bread” with Furina. One co-worker recalled Dillin talking about a Furina wine-tasting: “She described one time during which one or more of the wives present complained about her misbehavior,” court papers say. Dillin also blabbed about a second party where Furina provided the homemade vino, according to another worker.
As a result of Dillin’s hearing before the Waterfront Commission, a federal judge approved Dillin’s expulsion from Local 1588. She faces a hearing before the Waterfront Commission, which seeks permanent revocation of her license to work on the docks.
Dillin defended herself, saying,“These people are old. These people are in their 90s, for God’s sake. I have nothing in common with these people. If I was a gangster’s girlfriend or a gangster myself, I’d be living in a beautiful house and wearing furs and driving an expensive car. I have none of that. I’m a mother taking care of my children. I live in the attic on the third floor of a house.”
The sad part about this story is Dillin is probably telling the truth. She was at a Christmas party maybe she shouldn’t have had attended, because of the known alleged mob figures who were also in attendance. And as insecure people are wont to do, she couldn’t help but brag to her co-workers about her casual association with these same people. Then of course, there’s always a rat (the letter writer) and rats (her co-workers), who love putting the screws to someone who maybe they don’t particularly like.
This is a sad story, and the right thing to do is maybe suspend Dillin with, or without pay for a specified period of time; not expel her from the local and deny her the right to ever work on the docks again.
“This is overkill, it’s the sledgehammer approach,” said Dillin’s lawyer James Lisa, suggesting a suspension was a fair penalty.
I agree with Attorney Lisa; give the 48-year-old single mother a break.
The article below can be seen at:
Margaret Dillin may have shared some wine with a mobster, but says that’s no reason to be fired
Working on the New Jersey docks, she socialized with Nicholas Furina, a Genovese honcho
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By John Marzulli / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Margaret Dillin, a longshorewoman who has been expelled from her union local after associating with Nicholas Furina.
Too much Christmas cheer and homemade wine with a powerful Genovese gangster cost a chatty longshorewoman her union job on the New Jersey docks, the Daily News has learned.
Margaret (Margo) Dillin had pleaded ignorance to a court order barring members of Local 1588 of the International Longshoremen’s Association from associating with organized crime — including ex-waterfront kingpin Nicholas (Nicky) Furina.
But Dillin was dimed out by an anonymous letter-writer, then done in by a tidal wave of evidence — and her own big mouth.
Investigators obtained a photograph of Dillin, swathed in a black cocktail dress, inside Furina’s swanky 2007 Christmas party at a New Jersey banquet hall.
“She was in the banquet area with Nicky Furina, ‘Pepe’ LaScala, Carlo Bilancione and Nicky Romano, a significantly high density of convicted racketeers and reputed organized crime figures,” Robert Stewart, the deputy court-appointed monitor of Local 1588, stated in court papers.
Several co-workers also testified at Dillin’s hearing about her frequent boasts that she “broke bread” with Furina.
A co-worker recalled Dillin talking about a Furina wine-tasting: “She described one time during which one or more of the wives present complained about her misbehavior,” court papers say.
Dillin also blabbed about a second party where Furina provided the homemade vino, according to another worker.
“He overheard Dillin talking in the van … that she got so drunk that she made out with” an ex-longshoreman who was also banned from the waterfront.
Dillin was also accused of bragging about her relationship with the 80-year-old gangster and flaunting her cushy job assignments — like driving a shuttle van — over more senior and qualified union members.
The single mom earns $77,000 a year.
Law enforcement officials describe Furina as the central figure in mob influence that has plagued Local 1588 for two decades.
After his 2005 racketeering conviction, Furina was banned from the waterfront, where he had served as the hiring agent for longshoremen in Port Jersey.
“Nicky Furina still has the reputation of a very powerful organized crime figure in Bayonne,” Walter Arsenault, executive director of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, told The News.
Dillin, 48, claimed the allegations were inaccurate and ridiculed the idea that she was a Furina friend, comparing him to the chrome-domed dancing mascot for Six Flags Great Adventure.
“These people are old,” she said, according to a transcript from her hearing. “These people are in their 90s, for God’s sake. I have nothing in common with these people.”
Former NYPD Commissioner Robert McGuire, the chief monitor of Local 1588, noted in his decision to expel Dillin that he had given “clear and unambiguous directions” to all union members about avoiding Furina and other organized crime figures.
“I am required by law and the federal court orders relating to Local 1588 to do everything in my power to eliminate the influence of organized crime over the affairs of this Local,” McGuire stated.
Last month, a federal judge approved Dillin’s expulsion from the local. She faces a hearing before the Waterfront Commission, which seeks permanent revocation of her license to work on the docks.
Dillin told The News she is definitely not a mob princess.
“If I was a gangster’s girlfriend or a gangster myself, I’d be living in a beautiful house and wearing furs and driving an expensive car,” she said.
“I have none of that. I’m a mother taking care of my children,” she said. “I live in the attic on the third floor of a house.”
Dillin has a daughter who is a longshorewoman and is also raising a 13-year-old daughter. Women comprise about 10% of the deep-sea longshore workforce.
“This is overkill, it’s the sledgehammer approach,” said Dillin’s lawyer James Lisa, suggesting a suspension was a fair penalty.
jmarzulli@nydailynews.com
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