The biggest issue with the Sopranos is that Tony Soprano, as the boss/head of the family, would never be directly involved in any mafia activities like he does in the show. The fact that Bosses could never be directly linked to mafia crimes was what kept them out of jail for so long. Tony Soprano took insane risks on that show that made his portrayal seem unrealistic.

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However, labour racketeering was a massive source of income of the US mafia. Alongside illegal gambling and loan-sharking, manipulating unions was a mainstay of mafia activity. No-show jobs benefited mobsters by giving them a reliable and legitimate income from large companies who they were extorting. They never had to appear at the construction site because their job didn't exist. The upper management of these construction companies created the fake-jobs and hid them in their books, the legitimate construction workers at the bottom had no knowledge of what was going on.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the exploiting the unions. Other even more profitable ventures included:

1. Money laundering - Filtering dirty money through union health and pension funds to "clean" it.
2. Extortion/Blackmail - By controlling an entire union, the mob could threaten to call a strike that would delay construction work or shut businesses down. Companies had to pay to avoid this situation.
3. Bribes/Strike-breaking - Companies would pay the mob to prevent any kind of striking so that actual unionists had no power to call legitimate strikes. Companies could also pay the mob to get out of union agreements that gave benefits like healthcare or a minimum wage, thus saving them money. Mob unions would just look the other way for a bribe.
4. Embezzlement - Union healthcare and pension pots were massive and since the mob controlled how this money was invested, they directed it towards funding their own companies and projects. This infusion of capital allowed them to invest in larger businesses like casinos (notably in Las Vegas) and construction companies, giving them legitimate business empires.
5. Rigged bidding - With entire work-forces under their control and the means to extort competitors, Mafia businesses could control all of the bids being placed on huge government contracts to build schools, public transport etc. They could artificially inflate the cost of these projects through fake bids and, once the contract is secured, embezzle money by cutting corners. At its peak, the Mafia was powerful enough that almost every construction project in New York had to be approved by them.
6. Theft - Mobsters could blackmail companies into looking the other way when it came to theft and hijacking. Most notably, thefts from JFK airport was a huge source of income for local mafia gangs. Their influence over airport freight and baggage unions meant that the mob could infiltrate the airport with ease. The Lufthansa Heist is the most notorious example of this.

Labor racketeering was very much a white-collar mafia activity, but still involved a lot of threats and violence against unionists trying to take back control or business owners who didn't pay up. It was not as glamorous or exciting as other crimes like hijacking and drug-smuggling, but it was a consistently profitable avenue the mafia and generally still is. Bosses like Tony Soprano would have steered clear of direct involvement, but they also would have received massive contributions from their Capos and Soldiers whose job it was to exploit unions and construction companies however they could.

Other major mafia labor ventures:

• The Windows Case
• The Concrete Club
• Long Island garbage-hauling
• The Fulton Fish Market
• The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)