Dive Brief:

• The Carpenters' District Council in St. Louis has been waging a picketing campaign that it hopes will persuade Raineri Construction to hire only union carpenters, but it has led to a federal lawsuit in which Tony Raineri is asking damages, saying he has felt his life is threatened and several employees have been followed.
• Raineri is asking for damages from the union for what he's calling "Mafia-style" tactics and an order for the organization to stop what he asserts is reckless behavior.
• Raineri said cars began following him and his wife to their home, and he said that one time, a man "basically got out of his car and said to watch my back and that if I didn’t sign a contract with the Carpenters' District Council I wouldn’t be around much longer."

Dive Insight:

The union said that no one was acting on its behalf if they followed Raineri or said what he claims. Raineri had asked in the suit that it be looked at under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a tool for fighting organized crime, but a judge said no.