Chicago, IL – Richard Lopez, once the overpaid $160,000-a-year president of Teamster Local 743, was sentenced to two years of prison on Aug. 27. His co-conspirators and former employees, Ted Bania and David Rodriguez, are going in for 40 months and 18 months respectively.

The federal time is a result of rigging two union elections in 2004. They did this to keep from being voted out of office and replaced by the reform group, the New Leadership Slate, headed by Richard Berg.

Jean Moore, a housekeeper at the University of Chicago Hospitals, said Lopez and company are “…dirty dogs, and they got what’s coming to them.” When they ran the local, Moore noted, “If you filed a grievance or called the union office, you never heard from them.” Further, Moore explained that Lopez even got her co-worker Berg fired from his job. “They didn’t like Richard because he was a union steward that raised hell with management.”

Now president of the local, Berg commented, “Stealing elections worked for 10 years for the criminals who controlled our union. But in the end, through unity and hard work, we were able to figure out how they stole the election; we gathered the incriminating evidence; and in 2007, with our election, the members finally won. With their jail sentences, we are getting a little more justice.”

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