"The federal trial of four Teamsters accused of using strong-arm tactics against a “Top Chef� production team began Monday with the selection of 12 jurors, who will be asked to decide whether the defendants attempted to extort producers of the popular cooking show or simply exercised their right to picket.

The 14 women and four men, six of them alternates, will begin hearing evidence Tuesday morning in a trial that is expected to underscore the close relationship between the Teamsters and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, a former union leader.

John Fidler, Daniel Redmond, Robert Cafarelli, and Michael Ross, members of Charlestown-based Local 25, are charged with conspiracy to extort and aiding and abetting.

The trial comes at an uncomfortable time for Walsh, who is running for reelection this fall and has seen two of his top administrators indicted for attempting to withhold permits for another event unless organizers hired union workers.

Prosecutors in the current trial say that the Teamsters threatened to picket if the show’s producers did not hire union drivers, and that they intimidated and harassed members of the nonunion crew.

Prosecutors said Fidler tried to block the restaurant’s driveway when Padma Lakshmi, one of the show’s hosts, arrived in a minivan. He allegedly reached into the minivan and said, “Lookie what we have here,� according to federal court documents. He insulted the driver of the van, then said to Lakshmi: “I’ll smash your pretty little face,� prosecutors say.

If convicted, Fidler, 53; Redmond, 49; Cafarelli, 47; and Ross, 63, could be sentenced to as long as 20 years in prison."
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Ahh, unions. Intimidation, extortion, corruption. White men bullying women, trying to hold on to the privilege they believe they've "earned".