Felons Behind the Scenes

Teamsters have long been involved with organized crime. The truck drivers for major Hollywood films have been working toward cleaning up their tarnished image, but they don't seem to be making much headway.

Teamsters Local 25 in Boston was found to allow career felons in their ranks, including murderers, bank robbers, drunken drivers, an armoured car thief, and an accused rapist to work on the set of a recent Bruce Willis movie filmed in Boston. Local 25 president, Sean O'Brian said there have been "no incidents" since he became president in 2006.

He goes on to say that to remove a felon from the movie set would be considered an unfair labor practice. The local does not run background checks.

The Massachusetts Film Office executive director, Nick Paleologos said that he has received "no complaints" and that he doesn't know what O'Brian is doing over there, "but whatever he's doing, it's working."

Not exactly the most stringent safety procedure. Companies run criminal background checks to protect themselves and their clients from future fall out. Many criminals are repeat offenders. To so blatantly allow criminals to work indicates a disregard for safety, however, it is known that Connecticut believes in allowing criminals to pay their debt to society and provide them with the right to work. Perhaps Boston will be following in their footsteps.