A former business agent and trustee of Teamsters Local 337 is accused of taking a local produce company's bribes in a scheme aimed at keeping workers out of the union, Tresa Baldas reports in the Free Press.
A new federal grand jury indictment charges Michael Townsend, a 64-year-old Dearborn Heights resident, with trying to keep his local from organizing employees of LaGrasso Brothers Produce in Detroit from 2003-08.
“This defendant was a union official who was entrusted to help working people organize,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in announcing the charges. “He betrayed the Teamsters and workers for his own profit. We are seeking to hold him and the company accountable for their conduct.”
According to McQuade’s office, in January, Sam LaGrasso Produce pleaded guilty to one count of making prohibited payments to a labor official.
