FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR

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Coia's life is far removed from the asbestos strippers and hod carriers his union represents. He lives in an oceanfront mansion in Barrington, Rhode Island, and drives Ferraris. He does not know his own eventual fate since being tossed into "a game of political football by opponents of change and right-wing extremists," he says. But he is eager to talk down his White House ties. Though he sat at Clinton's table during a fund raiser as recently as May and has enjoyed at least one breakfast meeting with the First Lady, Coia insists he was never really a friend of the President's and did not actually enjoy "putting on a tuxedo to go to the White House." It is "part of my job," he says blandly, to win the goodwill of powerful politicians, and he would gladly meet with Newt Gingrich "if I could." That would take some doing, since the Speaker of the House has named Coia as a figure in "a scandal that's about to break." Well, maybe not right away. As Luskin notes, the union has until Feb. 11, 1998, "to prove the deal was sound" and that the union really can cleanse itself.

--Reported by Edward Barnes/Chicago, William Dowell/New York and Elaine Shannon/Washington