Robert Walston joins his immediate successor Richard Lopez in indictment for participation in a criminal conspiracy to rob hundreds of Teamsters members of their right to vote in two elections, one occurring in October 2004 and the other in December 2004. Several of the indictments focus on the second rerun election which was called when it was evident that reform candidate Richard Berg and the 743 New Leadership Slate would win. Berg and the New Leadership Slate won the 2007 election, which was supervised by the Department of Labor.

The charge further states that Walston and Lopez shall forfeit “approximately $2,364,533 in authorized salary, expenses and benefits…for the period of January 2005 to December 2007.”

“That chapter of Teamsters 743 is almost over and a new one is beginning,” said current 743 president Richard Berg. “We will move forward with the task of making this a real union again. Members can now participate freely.”

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Since that day, Richard Berg, the new president of Local 743, and his staff have been working around the clock to repair a broken union.

“They said that there were two break-ins, one a couple of days after we won the election and one right before they had to hand over the keys,” said Richard Berg, the new president. The walk-through that night told a different story: The old guard leaders had done their best to cover up their theft and wrongdoing.

Massive bags of shredded documents were found in the garbage. Most of the computers were gone. Bills were gone. The phone system was sabotaged. Trustee documents for the pension funds were gone, and the list goes on and on.

Members of the local have expressed excitement about the new leaders and the staff. “I was just happy someone returned my call,” said one caller from Bagcraft, a local manufacturer of boxes. Hundreds of other members have joined in this sentiment.

“There were 175 messages on the phone at my new desk, the old desk of Michael Corrigan. They went all the way back to March of 2007. These guys were really vacationing on the members money,” said Tony Caldera, union representative.

“We are committed to turning this local around and making it a fighting union once again,” said Berg, “I put the union on notice that we are going to train and educate workers from bottom to top about effective union leadership and building a fighting movement of workers.”

Berg continued, “We had over 50 people attend our first stewards and activist training with very little notice. Our members are hungry for change.” The road ahead is going to be tough in the down-turned economy and the new leadership is asking all members to step up and play a role in re-building the union.

As staff and members try to unbury themselves from the years of neglect and theft left behind by the old officers – Walston and Lopez and the others – they are realizing a new thing lies underneath: The members have expressed hope and are now getting involved in the affairs of the union like they have not done since 30 years ago.

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