July 27, 2005: The International Union has released the “McDonald Report” (available on the IBT website) which purports to demonstrate that the Hoffa administration is working hard to maintain a corruption-free union.

However, the report actually does not deal with that issue at all. Instead it is an 89-page denunciation of Ed Stier, who was the Hoffa administration’s own anti-corruption director for five years.

The document was prepared by Edward McDonald, an attorney who works with the Hoffa administration. McDonald specializes in representing white-collar criminals.

His clients include one of the nation’s largest waste management corporations (major Teamster employers), domestic and foreign bank officials, a member of the Saudi royal family, and the former chairman and deputy chairman of the Russian Securities Commission.

He admits in the report, which took 14 months and untold dues dollars to prepare, that he never even sought to meet or speak with Stier.

The McDonald Report claims that Stier never accomplished much of anything, although he was paid millions of dollars in Teamster dues money; that Project RISE, which Stier headed, was a failure; that Stier padded his bills; and that he lacks credibility. It also claims that Carlow Scalf, Hoffa’s now-discredited Executive Assistant, was astute enough to figure all this out, so Stier falsely charged that Scalf stifled anti-corruption efforts at the behest of Chicago Teamster officials.

This raises the question of why the Hoffa administration consistently paid the bills and promoted RISE and Ed Stier for five long years, until Stier started seriously investigating powerful Teamster officials.

So, the Hoffa version boils down to this: The IBT paid $15 million over five years for an anti-corruption program, and got nothing. So now they have paid Edward McDonald a whole lot more, to denounce Stier. (They have not revealed how much McDonald was paid, but reportedly it was about $500 per hour.)

As a result, our Teamsters Union has no anti-corruption program, and no hope of replacing the I.R.B. with an internal clean-up program as long as Hoffa is at the helm. With a record like that, no wonder they need a scapegoat.


Click here for past Convoy coverage of the corruption scandal
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Click here for Ed Stier's April 29, 2004, Resignation letter
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Click here for Stier's April 2004 Corruption Report
(Acrobat Reader Required, Very Large File)
Click here for Stier's July 13, 2005 response to McDonald Report
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