FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR

Both documents were dated Nov. 4, 1994. One was a four-line, handwritten note from President Clinton to Arthur Coia, signed "Bill" and thanking Coia for the gift of a handcrafted golf club ("It's a work of art!"). The second was a draft 212-page complaint from the Justice Department, previewing a lawsuit to place the Laborers' International Union of North America under federal control and oust Coia as general president, on grounds that he had knowingly let mobsters run the 750,000-member union.

After three months of negotiations, however, the Justice Department persuaded the union to sign a consent decree acknowledging Mob influence and conceding to court-appointed officers. But the department agreed to hold off filing the decree as long as the union makes progress cleaning itself up. The deal left Coia on the job even though the original complaint described him as "associated with and controlled and influenced by organized-crime figures."

Those are documentable facts. But almost every other statement that can be made in the case of Coia, the union and the feds is open to question. Did Justice make a deal because of Coia's White House connections? Or because that seemed a quicker and more effective way of getting rid of the thugs? Though there is no evidence of a White House-engineered fix, the Laborers' lavish donations to the Democratic Party and Coia's frequent appearances at the White House--as well as deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes' past life as a lawyer for the Laborers--may hand the Republicans a campaign issue.

Already the deal is a cause celebre in law enforcement. The unprecedented agreement dismayed some investigators in the field, who had spent years building the case against the union. Justice Department prosecutor Paul Coffey, who closed the deal, says he understands these misgivings and admits that "the jury is still out." But, he adds, "if we are not satisfied that [the union] is doing a job as good as or better than a court-appointed officer would," Justice might move for a takeover after all.

Yet the progress--or lack of it--in the cleanup efforts is also in sharp dispute. Some initial skeptics took heart from the high caliber of FBI agents hired by the union: Robert Luskin, a former federal organized-crime prosecutor; Douglas Gow, formerly the No. 2 man at the FBI; and a fleet of seasoned former agents. They insist they are totally independent of Coia. Critics point out that they are paid by the union, which Coia still heads.

So far, say critics--including disgruntled union members and some federal prosecutors and FBI agents outside Washington--this dream team has mostly moved against Coia's rivals within the union. And some of the targeted mobsters still have jobs in the Laborers' health and safety or political-action committee funds, beyond the reach of the deal.

The government's contention that the union really is being cleansed got a boost Friday when Luskin and Gow moved to expel 28 suspected mobsters and associates from Local 210 in Buffalo, New York, and bar them from ever resuming membership. Under the Justice-Laborers deal, the expulsions can be contested before a union legal officer, and then another official can be designated to hear appeals. If the expulsions hold up, however, they will accomplish something that has eluded the government for three decades: breaking Mob control of Local 210.