IBT spokesman claims "it's no concern to members":
Cash-Man Guilty of Taking Payoffs
George Cashman, the president of Boston Local 25 and Joint Council 10 and Hoffa's Director of the Ports Division of the IBT, pled guilty on April 28 of embezzling union benefits and pocketing kickbacks from employers.
Earlier, Thomas DiSilva, the owner of two trucking companies, pled guilty to splitting with Cashman $100,000 he extorted from Cardinal Health (see story). The newest revelation to come to light is that DiSilva also paid Cashman $1,000 a month for eight to nine years, to buy labor peace. In his plea Cashman admitted falsifying records to provide Teamster health benefits to 19 persons, including gangster John "Mick" Murray and a number of contributors to Cashman's union political campaigns.
TDU is seeking to get the full list of the Lucky 19 who illegally obtained $72,400 in health benefits, to compare to the Hoffa Campaign's donor list, just in case the issue goes beyond the IBT's Director of Ports.
Cashman is facing a reduced prison sentence in exchange for his guilty plea, in the range of 2 ½ to 3 years. Local 25 vice president, William Carnes, also pled guilty to mail fraud and theft from the union's health and welfare fund. They will be sentenced in August.
Cashman was never shy about telling people that his goal was to become Teamster president. He is now barred from union office for 13 years, and his Teamster career is effectively over.
Corruption, RISE and Hoffa
The reaction of top International Union officials to the guilty plea says quite a bit about where our current leadership stands on corruption. Hoffa's spokesman, Bret Caldwell, was quoted in the Boston Globe as saying "the workers are not affected by this."
Teamster members not affected?! Apparently the official spokesman for the Teamsters Union does not realize that this corruption disgraces our union and hurts all of labor.
Hoffa's International Representative assigned to the Ports Division, Ron Carver, issued a statement after Cashman admitted his guilt, in which he compared Cashman to such great labor pioneers as Mary "Mother" Jones and Joe Hill. These heroes put their life on the line time and again to fight for a better life for working people. Hoffa's staffers disgrace themselves and our union by comparing such heroes to someone who took monthly payments from trucking employers for labor peace, and diverted health and welfare money to gangsters and campaign donors. You would think his three union salaries would have been enough.
In exchange for a lighter sentence, Cashman obligated himself to provide testimony against his pals on the Teamster movie crew. That sounds more like informer Jackie Presser than Joe Hill.
Hoffa himself remains silent, as does Ed Stier, the director of Hoffa's "RISE" program which is supposed to be rooting corruption from the Teamsters. RISE has apparently launched no investigation of the corruption in New England, or in the Movie Division, where federal investigations continue. International Rep Carver's statement also claims that submitting phony records to Teamster H&W funds to get certain persons qualified is a "common practice all over the country." RISE should immediately question Carver to follow up on those corruption leads.
Stier has stated that for our union culture to change for the better, top leaders must consider their corrupt associates as traitors to labor, not merely too dumb to pull off a good scam. Apparently Hoffa's administration is failing this test.
