Despite being indicted Thursday for a scheme to grant union health benefits to ineligible workers, local Teamsters President George Cashman is remaining silent in response to demands from acting Gov. Jane Swift that he resign from the Massachusetts Port Authority’s Board of Directors.
Following the indictment’s announcement, Swift said in a statement she hoped Cashman would “do the right thing and resign” from the board that oversees Logan Airport. His indictment would make it “impossible to restore that credibility” needed “to make Logan Airport a national model of safety and security.”
Cashman did not attend Thursday’s Board of Directors meeting, nor has he been available for comment since the indictment was made public. Messages left for him at the Teamsters Local 25 office in Charlestown by The Daily Free Press have not yet been returned.
Swift’s office will give Cashman until Tuesday to announce his resignation from the board, according to Boston Globe and Herald reports. If Cashman refuses, he will be suspended and replaced on the seven-member board.
The indictment names Cashman, as well as four others and three businesses, in defrauding the Local 25 health plan by falsely reporting the hours worked of 19 members. With their hours increased, workers were able to qualify for benefits they hadn’t otherwise earned. In all, over $72,000 was embezzled from the fund.
“The case will continue to be investigated,” U.S. District Attorney Michael J. Sullivan told the Boston Herald. “It’s been an intense investigation for a long period of time.”
One of the 19 men who received illegal benefits, the suit claims, is John J. Murray, a man reputed to have solid ties to mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger and partner Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi.
According to reports in the Herald, the indictment names Murray as a member of “the Charlestown group,” a crime gang for which most members belong to Local 25. The group has both ties to Bulger and Flemmi and has exerted influence over Cashman in the past. Crimes include everything from shaking down a bookmaker to stealing truckloads of computer parts intended for high-tech companies in Marlboro.
Cashman was named to the Massport board in 1993 by then-Gov. William Weld and was re-appointed in 1998 by Weld’s successor, Paul Cellucci. Democrats attacked the appointment, saying it is just another sign patronage appointments have run rampant while the corner office has been under Republican control.
Other Local 25 members have been under investigation for strongarm tactics used within the film industry. The Teamsters “movie crew” handles all negotiations for filming within northern New England and Massachusetts, which has led to disruptions on sets when too few union members are hired. Herald sources report that at least 11 of the 19 receiving illegal benefits in the health scam once worked on the “movie crew.”
The 53-year-old Cashman pled not guilty at his arraignment Thursday and was released on a $25,000 bond along with Local 25 Vice President William Carnes. Cashman was elected president of Local 25 in 1991 and was reappointed to a seven-year term on the Massport board by Cellucci in 1998.
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