On January 16, James Babcock, former financial secretary of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 121, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to one count of embezzling funds from the Baltimore union in the amount of $24,854. Babcock had been charged in September after admitting to investigators in May that he had written himself more than 100 union checks over a five-year period for unauthorized purposes. The charge and plea follow a joint probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.
