Indiana Union President Sentenced to 3.5 Years For ‘Brutal Assault’ On Workers

The former president of the local Iron Workers Local 395 union in Portage, Indiana was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in a federal prison on Wednesday.

Former president Jeffrey Veach and former business agent Thomas Williamson Sr. pleaded guilty in January to what the Department of Justice called a “brutal assault” in a news release.

The assault occurred in January 2016 after the men discovered that a non-union company, D5 Iron Works, had secured a construction contract on a school attached to a church in Dyer, Indiana.

Federal investigators said Veach and Williamson went to the job site to persuade workers to join the union or quit construction. When workers refused either option, Veach and Williamson returned with about 10 other union members. They then attacked the non-union workers with their fists and loose pieces of hardwood. As a result, one worker suffered a broken jaw that required several surgeries.

Under federal law, Veach will forfeit his union presidency and neither men will be allowed to hold positions in the union for at least 13 years following any jail time.

Williamson is scheduled to be sentenced separately on Dec. 15.

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