Armed Union Militants Besiege Manchester Mayor and Aldermans' Residences

Excepted from the book Stranglehold: How Union Bosses Have Hijacked Our Government, by Reed Larson:

Stylish, high-tech Manchester, New Hampshire, whose 91,000 residents make it the largest city in a state dominated by small towns, doesn’t seem a likely setting for an armed insurrection.

But that’s just what happened Sunday, March 27, 1994 according to a report by the Manchester Union Leader’s Jack Kenny. Kenny reported that a roving mob of gun-toting, uniformed police union militants, led by the boss of the Manchester Patrolmen’s Association union, besieged the homes and families of the city’s mayor and three aldermen. An eyewitness said 40 to 50 armed police officers swarmed the front lawn of Ward 12 Alderman Ron Machos, who was not at home, and screamed at Machos’ wife and grandchildren.

“We’ll be back,” Patrolmen’s Union President Edward Kelley snarled at Machos’ wife, Ruth, and son, Ron Jr., as he pounded his fist into the palm of his open hand.

“I felt like I had a bunch of thugs coming to my front door,” Mrs. Machos told the Union Leader. She added that her oldest grandchild was crying out of fear her grandmother would be killed by the police.

Ward 2 Alderman Francoise Elise and her family were not at home when the armed union mob arrived at their front door. Elise said she had gotten a “very hostile” call from union President Kelley the day before. Leaving the house was the only security available for Elise and her family, since, as she pointed out, “If I had felt threatened and didn’t want that activity to occur at my house, who was I going to call?”

Edward Kelley apparently staged this insurrection to block consideration by the mayor and aldermen of a reform that would have saved taxpayer dollars by breaking the Manchester police union bosses’ monopoly over traffic control. In Manchester, traffic flagmen duties could only be performed by city patrolmen, who overwhelmingly pay union dues under New Hampshire’s monopoly bargaining law. Kelley seemed determined to keep it that way. After this terror campaign, city fathers quietly killed the plan to hire non-patrolmen as flagmen.

Original Citation:
“Hell’s Angels in Blue,” Manchester Union Leader (29 March 1994).

Read more:
Stranglehold - How Union Bosses Have Hijacked Our Government