, Research Paper

Introduction

The competition for leading of the Teamsters reflects a deep battle over cardinal rules. The brotherhood today is a battlefield between reformists committed to brotherhood democracy and workers & # 8217 ; power in the workplace, and a little group of functionaries supporting their ain power and the fringe benefits of office. Two theoretical accounts of unionism & # 8211 ; truly two theoretical accounts of society and political relations & # 8211 ; postulate for the Black Marias and heads of the Teamster members. This is a battle for the psyche of the brotherhood.

They were one time called the New Teamsters but the reform disposal of former president Ron Carey has shattered into pieces since Carey stepped down because of corruptness charges last twelvemonth. Three rival cabals in the brotherhood & # 8211 ; sometimes called the Old Guard, the Reformers and the Traditionalists & # 8211 ; postulate for power. Each has a presidential campaigner running for office, severally: Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. , Tom Leedham, and John Metz. The national brotherhood leading and staff have become profoundly divided.

The calamity of all of this is that with the election of Ron Carey in 1991 it seemed as if the immense brotherhood so long dominated by organized offense had eventually turned the corner. Six old ages subsequently the promise of reform seemed fulfilled when Carey led 185,000 Teamsters in a work stoppage against United Parcel Service ( UPS ) , the powerful bundle bringing company. With months of careful readying and rank-and-file organisation, the Teamsters succeeded in maintaining full-time and parttime workers united. In August 1997, after a solid work stoppage that got the support of two-thirds of the American people, the brotherhood won against UPS on such issues as making more full-time occupations and halting the tendency toward undertaking out.

Although UPS is now seeking to renegue on on engaging more full-timers, the triumph represents non merely Carey & # 8217 ; s achievements, but the gradual transmutation of the brotherhood over some twenty old ages, mostly through the attempts of the reform group Teamsters for a Democratic Union ( TDU ) . Over two decennaries a quiet revolution in the Teamsters had brought about new degrees of rank engagement, the reform of local bylaws, and the election of new leaders in many local brotherhoods. The UPS work stoppage gave look to those alterations, the consequence of long old ages of battle which had created a more democratic and hawkish brotherhood.

But merely three months subsequently Carey resigned after charges by the Federally appointed Independent Review Board ( IRB ) that he had failed to forestall the abuse of over $ 700,000 from the brotherhood & # 8217 ; s exchequer. Carey & # 8217 ; s run advisers Martin Davis and Jere Nash, and their associate Michael Ansara, all pleaded guilty to holding embezzled and laundered brotherhood financess to profit the Carey run and their ain concerns. Carey claimed he ne’er knew about the embezzlement.

Some Questions Being Asked

Question: What & # 8217 ; s behind the contention?

Answer: A complex, and illegal, fund-raising strategy engineered by the run organisation that backed Carey & # 8217 ; s command for reelection in 1996 to a 2nd five-year term as Teamsters president. Three Carey associates have pleaded guilty to the confederacy. It besides prompted election proctors to invalidate Carey & # 8217 ; s narrow triumph over Hoffa last twelvemonth and put up the rerun election.

Conboy stated that Carey volitionally participated in the attempt, despite the brotherhood leader & # 8217 ; s claims he was left in the dark. Conboy reported that Carey authorized the recreation of $ 735,000 of Teamster exchequer financess to his reelection run.

Q: How is the contention impacting the Teamsters & # 8217 ; anti-corruption attempts?

A: Although the convulsion won & # 8217 ; t assist affairs, optimists say there is no turning back on the reform procedure. They theorize that many more members have become active in the brotherhood and participated in corruption-busting brotherhood democracy, doing it improbable that the Teamsters will lapse well.

Although Carey and Hoffa both called themselves the campaigners best able to clean up the brotherhood, both have come under inquiry. Working with authorities functionaries, the Carey-led Teamsters removed or sanctioned 390 allegedly corrupt local brotherhood functionaries and put 70 locals into trust territory. Questions were raised, nevertheless, about whether some of the Carey moves on that mark really cleaned up the brotherhood, or merely rewarded his political friends and punished his enemies.

Hoffa, boy of legendary Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, has been tainted by the company he keeps and the memory of his male parent, who spent more than four old ages in prison related to brotherhood corruptness.

Four of the original 27 members of younger Hoffa & # 8217 ; s run slate were suspended from the brotherhood or pressured to bow out of the election. A 5th slate member & # 8211 ; Jim Santangelo, caput of a Southern California Teamsters local based in El Monte was under examination by the IRB for allegedly taking an illegal loan. He denied any error.

Q: Who else stood to be hurt by the run finance dirt?

A: The left wing of the national AFL-CIO, including some of the the top functionaries seeking to regenerate the American labour motion. Although everyone denied error, Conboy found that Richard Trumka, the No. 2 functionary of the AFL-CIO, was involved. In his study, Conboy said that Trumka & # 8211 ; widely regarded as the likely eventual replacement to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney & # 8211 ; helped in a Carey run money-laundering manoeuvre and improperly raised extra funds.1

Testimony besides was cited bespeaking the improper parts for Carey were raised by Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union ; Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and Paul Booth, the brotherhood & # 8217 ; s national organizing director.2

Conboy found that the Carey run tried to draw off a mutual-assistance trade with the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton-Gore run, but that the strategy ne’er was activated. All the same, it could intend large legal jobs for the Democrats, amid the go oning enquiries into their run fund-raising last twelvemonth.

Q: What are the California connexions?

A: The Teamsters brotherhood itself is one of the biggest in California, with an estimated 270,000 members. Santa Barbara-based fund-raiser Charles Blitz was named by Conboy as a cardinal figure in the money-laundering strategy.

Blitz is said to hold lined up affluent California subscribers who gave money to the Carey run in exchange for the funneling of Teamsters money to groups favored by the affluent Californians. Some of that Teamsters money reportedly was contributed to a group that supported California & # 8217 ; s Proposition 215 in 1996, a step approved by electors to legalise the usage of marihuana for medical intents.

An overview of the participants involved in the dirt and on-going contention follows.

Carey

The autumn of Carey led straight to the dissolution of the reform alliance he had led. As President, Carey had been a strong leader who held together a diverse alliance that included the hawkish Democrats of TDU, other echt brotherhood reformists, some traditional Teamster leaders, and a few absolute self-seekers. After his election Carey even won over some members of the Old Guard & # 8211 ; broadening his base, but besides drawing the whole alliance to the right.

Carey held that alliance together with his ain repute and a straightforward serious plan of brotherhood reform based on greater brotherhood democracy, more organizing, and an adversarial attack to the employers. Beyond that, Carey became the taking voice against the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) , a cardinal protagonist of John Sweeney & # 8217 ; s command for the AFL-CIO presidential term in its first-ever contested election, and moved the Teamsters from the Republican to the Democratic Party.

Over six old ages Carey cut brotherhood functionaries & # 8217 ; wages and set more money into forming. He increased instruction for stewards and rank and file members, seting accent on contract runs, local brotherhoods and store floor organisation. He got rank-and-file workers instead than merely paid staff to form new workers into the brotherhood. With that plan he succeeded at companies such as Overnite, the largest nonunion hauling company which no old president had been able to form. Carey launched an forming run among low-paid Mexican workers in the apple groves and packing workss of Washington. He besides carried out contract work stoppages among cargo and carhaul workers. Finally in 1997, Carey called the meticulously planned and carefully executed national work stoppage against UPS.

Hoffa

When Carey fell, the route to the Teamsters & # 8217 ; Marble Palace in Washington seemed to open before Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. Hoffa is convinced that his name, a large brotherhood bank history, and friends in the Republican Party will do him a great brotherhood president.

In the 1970s Hoffa, Jr. entered into a partnership in a high hazard loan concern with Alan Dorfman, a ill-famed gangster associate of his male parent who ended up dead & # 8211 ; assassinated & # 8211 ; in 1983. Today Hoffa associates with some of the most unsavoury characters who remain in the Teamsters brotherhood, such as James Santangelo of the California Teamsters who is charged by the International with doing himself illegal loans of brotherhood financess, and Larry Brennan, president of Michigan Joint Council 43. It was under Brennan & # 8217 ; s watch that the Labor De

partment forced Council 43 to pay back $ 723,000 in inordinate disbursals including $ 99 000 spent on strip articulations and golf classs.

Hoffa negotiations about conveying integrity back to the Teamsters, nevertheless, Hoffa & # 8217 ; s executive board slate is made up of 18 work forces, all high paid brotherhood functionaries, merely two are black, none are Latino. There are no adult females on the slate, though the Teamsters is estimated to hold 200,000 female brotherhood members, 15 % of the rank. Despite talk of integrity, Hoffa s slate represents the white, male bureaucratism of the brotherhood.

Employers represent another Hoffa constituency. UPS was caught by a tribunal appointed election officer administering stuff to workers to assist Hoffa & # 8217 ; s run. A UPS lobbyist in Washington attended Hoffa fund raisers and made parts ( as an independent contractor he was permitted by jurisprudence to make so ) . UPS besides helps Hoffa by making jobs for local reformists, doing it clear that it would prefer an Old Guard disposal.

Finally, Hoffa has the backup of one of the most conservative leaders of the Republican Party. Representative Pete Hoekstra, Republican from Michigan, has carried out an probe of the 1996 Teamster election which has served as a platform for the Hoffa run.

What would a Hoffa disposal be like? The brotherhood & # 8217 ; s freight division, dominated by Hoffa-supporter Phil Young of Kansas City Local 41, gives an thought. Preston Transportation late came to the Teamsters pleading economic adversity and inquiring for & # 8220 ; alleviation, & # 8221 ; in the signifier of lower rewards. Young permitted the company a pay grant without traveling through freight contract procedures.3

Metz

At the terminal of June, John Metz, the caput of Joint Council 13 in St. Louis and the Public Employees Division, besides became a campaigner for Teamster president. Metz represents a group of older brotherhood functionaries, sometimes called the Traditionalists. They reject reform, but are loath to be identified with Hoffa and the Old Guard. The existent power behind the Metz slate is John Morris, an influential Teamster leader from Philadelphia. The Reformers call Metz & # 8217 ; s group the & # 8220 ; Waste Your Vote Slate, & # 8221 ; reasoning that the existent competition is between Hoffa & # 8217 ; s Old Guard and Leedham & # 8217 ; s Reformers.4

In some parts of the state, Metz has attempted to claim the mantle of Carey. But he seems closer to Hoffa. For illustration, in June a local election took topographic point in Chicago & # 8217 ; s ill-famed Local 714. For old ages 714 was dominated by William T. Hogan who has been linked to the Accardo rabble and was found guilty by the Teamsters Independent Review Board of nepotism and negociating bogus contracts. The June election pitted William Hogan & # 8217 ; s boy Bobby Hogan against a reformist named Mike DiFrancisco. John Metz supported Hogan.

Leedham

Leedham heads the Warehouse Division which claims 400,000 members ( there may merely be half that many ) , but unlike UPS or cargo, the warehouse division has small coherence. While Leedham himself is a really effectual candidate, he does non hold much of an organisation. TDU provides much of his organized support.

Part of Leedham & # 8217 ; s scheme is to make out to brotherhood members who have non voted in old elections. While still runing among truck drivers and dock workers, Leedham will besides travel after low-paid workers, minority members, and adult females in countries such as the nutrient processing industry.

Both Hoffa and Leedham compete for the ballots of members, many of whom have become profoundly disillusioned with the political battle in the brotherhood. Hoffa will seek to convert workers to swear him to take them back to a fabulous yesteryear. Leedham will inquire the members to take duty for themselves in a democratic brotherhood as they go frontward into a sometimes awful hereafter. The ballot from the & # 8220 ; reformed & # 8221 ; Teamsters put Sweeney over the top in the national AFL-CIO & # 8217 ; s foremost contested elections three old ages ago. The following few months will make up one’s mind the destiny of the Teamsters, and possibly the destiny of the American labour motion for decennaries. The dirt itself has far reaching deductions, as shown below.

Teamsters & # 8217 ; Scandal Threatens the Administration

The Teamsters & # 8217 ; fund-raising dirt that brought down the brotherhood & # 8217 ; s president now threatens to make the highest degrees of the White House.

Attorney General Janet Reno & # 8217 ; s determination to look into former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes for alleged bearing false witness could uncover the extent of possible Teamster-White House collusion during the 1996 elections.

There have been allegations that Ickes and other top President Clinton functionaries agreed to make favours for the Teamsters in exchange for brotherhood parts to Democratic campaigners and organisations. A web of illegal fund raising strategies in 1996 led to Teamster President Ron Carey & # 8217 ; s ejector from the brotherhood this twelvemonth.

Reno said her 90-day probe would concentrate on whether Ickes committed bearing false witness when he swore to a Senate commission that he did & # 8220 ; nil & # 8221 ; to coerce functionaries of Diamond Walnut Growers in California to settle a acrimonious labour difference with the Teamsters.5

The investigation is one of three probes Reno is carry oning affecting the Clinton/Gore 1996 reelection run.

She launched a 90-day preliminary probe of Vice-President Al Gore & # 8217 ; s personal fund raising activities tardily last hebdomad and besides is looking at possible illegal coordination between the run and issue ads paid for by province parties, labour organisations and other protagonism groups.

At the terminal of 90 yearss she must make up one’s mind if the grounds warrants the assignment of an independent advocate.

Congressional Republicans are claping the renewed possibility of Justice Department probe of political traffics between the Clinton/Gore run and the Teamsters. & # 8220 ; This is an country that is mature for probe, & # 8221 ; said Michigan GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra, president of a House subcommittee that has been look intoing the Teamsters & # 8217 ; failed & # 8216 ; 96 election. & # 8220 ; We have found that every clip you peel off another bed of what went on with the Teamsters, it gets ugly and uglier. & # 8221 ; 6

The dirt already has taken a heavy toll. Carey was forced to step down as president and so expelled from the brotherhood because of the part barter strategy affecting broad protagonism groups. Three of his top run Plutos and a affluent California man of affairs behind one broad fund-raising group have pleaded guilty to taking portion in the strategy. And William Hamilton, the brotherhood & # 8217 ; s former political manager, has been indicted on similar charges.

Other internal brotherhood paperss show that the Clinton disposal was active in assisting the Teamsters in their thrust to form Pony Express, an Atlanta-based bundle bringing company, and the successful hold of a North American Free Trade Agreement proviso that allowed Mexican trucks and drivers to travel anyplace in the state.

An independent advocate likely would besides look into allegations of a part barter affecting the Democrats and Carey & # 8217 ; s 1996 run against James P. Hoffa. Harmonizing to tribunal paperss and a study by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, top Clinton reelection run fund-raisers agreed to happen person to lend to Carey & # 8217 ; s run in exchange for the Teamsters giving 1000s of dollars to province Democratic parties.

The Teamsters gave the money. A affluent Democratic giver, harmonizing to the paperss, was found to lend to Carey & # 8217 ; s run. But the trade was ne’er consummated because the giver was an employer and ineligible to give to Carey under federal labour Torahs.

The Senate Committee concluded in its study that extra attempts were made to trade parts and urged the Justice Department to investigate.7

Decision

Carey & # 8217 ; s leading had a annihilating impact on the brotherhood and on the full labour motion. Carey & # 8217 ; s run advisers discredited and finally destroyed the reform disposal of the Teamsters that represented one of the most of import progresss of the American labour motion in more than 50 old ages.

Bibliography

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La Botz, Dan, Rank and File Teamsters Fight for Labor s Future, Dollars & A ; Sense, 19 September 1998.

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