On March 20, Michael Taylor, ex-general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) Division 815, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to a one-count information charging him with embezzling $24,868.80 in funds from the Joliet-based union. He’s not the only official in this union with a penchant for theft. Last May former Division 815 secretary-treasurer Thomas Miller pleaded guilty to embezzlement from the union. He would be sentenced in November to two years of probation, and ordered to pay $21,070 in restitution and a $2,000 fine. Each case follows an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.
