October 28, 2005: The 14,000 members of Louisville Local 89 elected all 27 members of the United Rank & File Slate as their delegates and alternates to the 2006 Teamster Convention in voting that ended late Thursday night.
The results were an embarrassing defeat for Hoffa who personally campaigned in Louisville for the slate of losing candidates, led by Hoffa’s carhaul director, Fred Zuckerman.
Next month Zuckerman will face David Thornsberry and the United Rank & File team in another election—this one for Local 89 officers. With the delegate victory, Thornsberry is emerging as a favorite to win the presidency of the fourth largest Teamster local in the country.
The Local 89 delegate election win has national implications. Louisville was the first major election for the delegates who will officially nominate candidates for International office at the Teamster Convention in June. Reformers have effectively swept the “New Hampshire Primary” of the 2006 Teamster Election by securing the 17 delegate and ten alternate positions.
“The members have spoken and their message is clear,” Thornsberry said. “It’s time for new leadership that will fight pension cuts and put Teamster members first.”
With so much at stake, Hoffa paid campaign operatives to prepare Zuckerman’s literature and personally traveled to Louisville a week ago. Zuckerman serves as Director of the Carhaul Division in the Hoffa administration. But Hoffa’s efforts could not overcome membership anger at his administration’s failed record, particularly the massive pension cuts in the Central States Pension Fund.
“The defeat of a key Hoffa appointee in the country’s largest UPS local shows that working Teamsters want new leadership that will protect their pensions and bargain strong contracts,” said Sandy Pope, a spokesperson for the Committee for New Leadership, a group of Teamster officers who are assembling a slate to challenge Hoffa in next year’s vote.
The results were an embarrassing defeat for Hoffa who personally campaigned in Louisville for the slate of losing candidates, led by Hoffa’s carhaul director, Fred Zuckerman.
Next month Zuckerman will face David Thornsberry and the United Rank & File team in another election—this one for Local 89 officers. With the delegate victory, Thornsberry is emerging as a favorite to win the presidency of the fourth largest Teamster local in the country.
The Local 89 delegate election win has national implications. Louisville was the first major election for the delegates who will officially nominate candidates for International office at the Teamster Convention in June. Reformers have effectively swept the “New Hampshire Primary” of the 2006 Teamster Election by securing the 17 delegate and ten alternate positions.
“The members have spoken and their message is clear,” Thornsberry said. “It’s time for new leadership that will fight pension cuts and put Teamster members first.”
With so much at stake, Hoffa paid campaign operatives to prepare Zuckerman’s literature and personally traveled to Louisville a week ago. Zuckerman serves as Director of the Carhaul Division in the Hoffa administration. But Hoffa’s efforts could not overcome membership anger at his administration’s failed record, particularly the massive pension cuts in the Central States Pension Fund.
“The defeat of a key Hoffa appointee in the country’s largest UPS local shows that working Teamsters want new leadership that will protect their pensions and bargain strong contracts,” said Sandy Pope, a spokesperson for the Committee for New Leadership, a group of Teamster officers who are assembling a slate to challenge Hoffa in next year’s vote.
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