Canada's largest construction union signed an unusual agreement two years ago with a private labour firm connected to what police have described as one of the country's top organized crime figures.

The Labourers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) entered into a collective bargaining agreement in 2012 with Construction Labour Force (CLF), a company tied to reputed crime family head Cosimo Commisso, the Star and the CBC's the fifth estate have learned.

Commisso was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes in the 1980s and remains on the police radar as "one of the heads" of an "Italian-based traditional organized crime group."

Prompted by questions from the two news outlets, LIUNA's massive Toronto local has asked police to investigate whether organized crime controls CLF.

Questions about the relationship have also triggered repercussions at CLF.

This week, Giomino Commisso, a nephew of Cosimo and general manager of CLF, told the Star his company had lost its contracts with builders "due to the investigation you have conducted."

"I have been stripped of my responsibility I had at CLF," he said in an email. "My name has been negatively portrayed since the start of your investigation and the company which was offering me a bright future has been destroyed."

CLF supplies labourers to GTA job sites for general cleanup work on a temporary or long-term basis. A construction union deal with a labour supply company — rather than directly with a builder — has been called "odd" and "contradicting" by industry insiders.

Decades of Mafia infiltration within LiUNA's international union based in Washington, D.C., led to a strict ethical code in the 1990s prohibiting association with known organized crime figures.

On March 12, union officials in Toronto sent a letter to the deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police seeking "assistance to investigate and determine, if you see fit, whether (CLF) is controlled by organized crime or whether (it) is of interest to the OPP Organized Crime and Enforcement Bureau or the OPP generally."

In a letter dated March 27, the OPP advised the union local that their inquiry had been forwarded to the Toronto Police Service, which "may request the assistance of the OPP if they deem necessary."

"I can confirm we've received the document you've referred to," Toronto Police spokesperson Mark Pugash said this week. "I'm not able to discuss this any further at this point."

LIUNA's Toronto Local 183 — with 40,000 members across the GTA — has also contacted its senior legal counsel in Washington, D.C., asking if the agreement breaches the union's ethical code prohibiting union employees from "knowingly associating with any member or associate of any organized crime syndicate."

While the Commisso name is not found on the provincial corporate registration of CLF, Cosimo Commisso is named as a company representative in LIUNA documents obtained by the Star and the CBC.

In two rare interviews — including his first face-to-face meeting with a journalist — Commisso, 69, said he isn't a company official but has represented CLF in "one or two meetings" with the union and assists his brother and nephew with the firm's operations.

"If I can find work for them, I find work for them. I have no problem with that," he said during an interview in a north Toronto coffee shop.

His 1981 conviction for conspiring to kill two mobsters resulted in an eight-year jail sentence. Three years later, he received concurrent sentences ranging from three to eight years after convictions for counselling to commit murder conspiracy, conspiring to set fire to a building, obstructing a police officer and uttering a death threat.

Commisso's brother, Michael Commisso, 67, was also convicted for conspiracy to commit murder in the same 1981 case and received a two-and-a-half-year sentence. He has since been pardoned. Giomino described him as a "part owner" of CLF.

"Let's put it this way," Cosimo said in an interview last month, "if my brother needs me, I'll be there 100 per cent."

This week, he said in an email to the Star: "I went thinking I was gonna help my nephew, instead … I have caused my nephew harm."

LIUNA names Cosimo Commisso as the contact for the company in two separate documents.

Cosimo said he doesn't know why his name is on those documents.

In the two interviews with the Star, Cosimo acknowledged his criminal past for which, he said, "I did my time." He said police routinely monitor his activities and he suspects his phone is being tapped.

He vigorously denies being an organized crime boss.

"What makes you think I'm organized crime? What is organized crime?" he said. "I know how I'm making my living … Believe me, if I was doing those things, the RCMP would (have arrested) me by now."

Documents supporting a 2004 search warrant detail how the RCMP investigated Cosimo Commisso and his associates for alleged involvement in "murder, extortion, drug trafficking, gambling and fraud along with other criminal offences."

The allegations were never tested in court and no charges were laid.

His name appears again as a "person of interest" in a 2008 RCMP-led organized crime investigation called O'Peggio.

And in 2011, Toronto police monitored Cosimo's activities while conducting surveillance at a high-profile wedding anniversary party of a well-known Mafia figure.

A police intelligence report noted Cosimo, whom they describe as "executive of the Commisso et al Organized Crime Group," was in attendance.

Officials with CLF and LIUNA have expressed some discomfort with their agreement. And outside observers are puzzled by the arrangement and the reasons behind it.

Construction companies on unionized projects normally hire workers directly from unions, not from subcontractors like CLF.

That direct relationship improves work quality and availability of manpower and typically eliminates bureaucracy and overhead, industry experts say. Builders pay wages to the workers and remit money for benefits to the union.

"To do it another way is really odd," said an operator of a labour supply company for non-union projects in Ontario who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of industry reprisals. "It makes no sense. There would have to be other reasons."

Builders who have signed collective bargaining agreements with LIUNA must pay the same wage rates and benefits to all union members who work for those companies. That would include any subcontractors such as CLF.

The genesis of the deal between LIUNA and CLF remains a mystery. Neither side would comment.

It's clear that the relationship has triggered concerns inside LIUNA about potential association with organized crime. A sweeping U.S. government investigation into LIUNA in the 1990s revealed organized crime's extensive control of the union's operations south of the border. It led to firings and some reform.

Joe Mancinelli, a LIUNA international vice-president and Canadian regional manager, declined to be interviewed for this story. But he responded to questions about CLF in writing saying he has had no direct dealings with CLF and does not know the principals behind it.

"LUNA does not investigate who a company's principals are since our interests lie in representing the workers as members of LIUNA," wrote Mancinelli.

As regional manager for central and eastern Canada, Mancinelli oversees LIUNA locals such as Toronto's Local 183. But locals operate with autonomy, including the election of executive boards.

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Citing LIUNA's International Code of Best Practices and Ethics, Mancinelli said the ban on organized crime involvement does not restrict union officials from associating with "barred" organized crime figures if they are discussing "the negotiation, execution or management of a collective bargaining agreement."

A letter dated March 24 from Local 183 officials to LIUNA's general counsel in Washington, D.C., seeks advice on whether a formal relationship with CLF "is contrary to the constitution or the code of ethics" given that the union has "entered into a collective agreement with an employer who, taking the assertion at its highest, may have or does have links to organized crime."

The letter seeks the advice of counsel Theodore T. Green on "what level of inquiry is required of a LIUNA local before entering into a collective agreement with a particular employer or employer association." It further asks whether there is anything in the LIUNA constitution preventing the local from "obtaining bargaining rights against a labour supply company."

The letter says that while there is nothing preventing a union from representing employees of a private labour supplier, it is "preferable to organize the builder or contractor directly" and calls companies like CLF "a regrettable reality in the construction and non-construction industries in Ontario."

"Labour supply companies are a relatively new creature and what is really required are legislative amendments to prevent their use or existence," reads the letter signed by Local 183 business manager Jack Oliveira, who declined a request for an interview.

CLF manager Giomino Commisso said he didn't know why a union would enter into a relationship with a labour supply company like his to provide workers.

"That's a good question," he said. "It's one that I'm not really able to speak on … it's rather contradicting."

Over the past two years, Local 183 has filed three grievances against CLF for alleged violations of the agreement, including "employing persons who are not members of the union to perform work," "refusing to make remittances to the union" and failing to pay the "proper wage and overtime rates to each of its employees."

All three grievances are in arbitration, said Local 183 lawyer John Evans.

Giomino Commisso said the grievances are rooted in the "uncomfortable relationship that we have with the union because we are essentially offering the same service."

His uncle Cosimo was less charitable, calling unions a "cancer" and criticizing LIUNA's treatment of CLF.

"God knows how much problems they give us," he said in one interview. "They are the people that do wrong. They are the people that they don't care about the workers. They care about themselves."

According to CLF's corporate registration documents, the company was established in 2009 with Joe Ieradi listed as the only official principal.

The Star requested an interview in writing with Ieradi. Through his lawyer, he said allegations of a relationship between his company and organized crime "is without merit."

Cosimo and Giomino Commisso described Ieradi as a longtime family friend with a history in the construction industry.

Michael Commisso joined Ieradi in the company's operations and later brought in his son Giomino, who said he managed the company's daily operations.

Michael declined to be interviewed.

Giomino said that while his uncle Cosimo is not an official principal of the company, he offered assistance with advice and guidance.

"He's my uncle and if I need advice or if I need help in a certain situation when his expertise will come in handy, then … he will advise me on how to go about things," Giomino said last month.

In an interview at CLF's offices in Toronto last month, Giomino dismissed the organized crime connections with the Commisso name, calling the inference "an attack on my family and it's completely inconsiderate to the realities of things."

He described himself as "a young entrepreneur who is just trying to make a living and support myself and help my family at the same time."

CLF had about 10 labourers and is "a completely legitimate company," Giomino said in the email this week. "It's just unfortunate that the things that have happened in the past in my family keep being thrown back in our face … We've moved on from the mistakes that my family has made."

"Ten good men who all have families which they support through CLF were (sic) forced to be let go due to a shortage of work" caused by the Star/CBC investigation.

One LIUNA labourer who worked on job sites alongside CLF workers, and who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said there was a "rift" between union members and workers from the labour firm.

There was little clarity, he said, on why the CLF workers, many of them new migrants to Canada from the Philippines, had been hired.

"The union reps have never … explained to us what CLF is exactly," he said. "Anytime a union rep would come on the site and the CLF members were there, the union reps would ask who they were. The CLF member would say they were supplied by the Construction Labour Force and that would be the end of the conversation."