The assumption that they would have to be hallucinating to be recounting a standard tale of union intimidation is very funny. That's what a union is for: thugging on people. You have to have soft hands to believe anything else.
I find it hard to believe stuff like this would fly in a major city of a western country in 21st century, even in the United States. Though I can't honestly discount it completely either...
Commissioner Heydon found that corruption was widespread and deep-seated, and recommended a new national regulator with the same powers as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission be established to combat corruption in the trade union movement. The Report highlighted insufficient record keeping (including false invoicing and destruction of documents); "rubber stamp" committees which failed to enforce rules; payment of large sums by employers to unions; and influence peddling by means of the inflation of union membership figures. The Report recommended a toughening of financial disclosure rules, new civil penalties to bind workers and officials on financial disclosure provisions; a new criminal offence.[50] Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History at the Australian National University, has described this report as having "all the impact of last year’s telephone book being dumped in a wheelie-bin.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/mick-gatto-broug...
Mafia boss settles disputes between real estate developers and union boss, no worries mate! "Building industry sources said it appeared the parties had opted to use Mr Gatto to settle their issues rather than involve police."