CLARIFICATION

In Richard Steier's column last week, it was stated that the owner of Atlantic Express bus company, Domenic Gatto, had been identified by Federal prosecutors as having "made payoffs to union officials" of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181. A stipulation by prosecutors in the plea agreement of former Local 1181 President Salvatore Battaglia indicates that, rather than willingly making the payments to "a co-conspirator of Mr. Battaglia," Mr. Gatto did so because he "feared for the personal safety of himself and his family, as well as for the threat that the union posed to his company if he did not make the payments."