Hoffa’s General Executive Board held a kangaroo court today and suspended six political opponents from union membership, including Teamsters United candidate Tim Sylvester. Members are gearing up for a legal fight to stop Hoffa’s power grab.
Local 804 members voted by 86 percent against Hoffa in the International Union election.
Today, Hoffa moved to protect current Local 804 officials from being voted out of office by retaliating against former local leaders and suspending them from union membership.
Suspended Teamsters cannot run for union office.
Local 804 members have launched the Save 804 Legal Defense Fund to support legal action to overturn the trumped up charges.
The ruling by Hoffa’s GEB clearly violates federal law. Under the Labor Management Report and Disclosure Act, every member who faces internal union charges is entitled to a fair hearing by an impartial hearing panel.
That did not happen here. Hoffa’s own ruling admits that Local 804 officials had predetermined the guilt of all the charged members before any hearing was held. That alone is enough to overturn this ruling in court.
The internal union charges are as phony as the hearing was. Tim Sylvester and other former Executive Board members and Business Agents were charged for taking their unpaid accrued vacation at the end of their term.
No one disputes that the officers and representatives were owed the money for their unused vacation. The expense was reported to the incoming officers.
But Hoffa and his puppets in Local 804 have seized on a routine expense to retaliate against their opponents. They suspended six opponents to prevent them from running for union office.
Members have formed the Save 804 Legal Defense Fund to support legal action to overturn the trumped-up charges and defend Teamster members’ democratic rights.
