A Teamsters union leader who is also director of the union's port driver organizing efforts has been charged with embezzlement.

According to published reports, George Cashman, leader of the Local 25 in Boston and a member of the Massachusetts Port Authority board of directors, was indicted along with seven other people in an alleged scheme to give union health benefits to 19 people who did not work at his local. He has pleaded not guilty.
Cashman was elected president of Local 25 in 1991 and was re-elected in 1994 and 1997. He is the director of the Teamsters Port Division, which seeks to organize the owner-operators hauling containers in and out of the nation's intermodal ports.
Local 25 members were under investigation by a federal grand jury because of allegations they extorted moviemakers of such films as "The Perfect Storm" and "The Cider House Rules" during filming in New England.