August 2, 2010: Veteran Twin Cities labor leader Tom Keegel has been at James P. Hoffa's side in the Teamsters union for 12 years.

The Hoffa-Keegel ticket -- with Hoffa as president and Keegel as the No. 2 man -- has won three elections and was gearing up for the 2011 campaign for leadership of the giant union.

But earlier this month, Keegel abruptly announced his impending retirement and his departure from the 2011 Hoffa ticket, questioning the direction of the union in a letter circulated to the union's leadership.

Click here to read the full article.

July 28, 2010: International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James Hoffa has named Ken Hall to be his running mate as general secretary-treasurer for the IBT election in 2011, replacing Thomas Keegel, who recently announced he will retire at the end of his term, the union announced July 23.

Hall currently serves as international vice president at-large, the director of the package division, representing more than 250,000 workers at United Parcel Service, and principal officer of IBT Local 175 in Charleston, W.Va., the union said. Hall served as the lead negotiator on the last three national UPS contracts in 1997, 2002, and 2007.

“Ken and I have worked closely together for the past decade to grow and strengthen our great union,” Hoffa said in the statement. “I look forward to building our partnership and continuing our efforts to ensure Teamster[s] members continue to have the best wages, benefits and working conditions throughout North America. Ken is acutely aware of the challenges working people face and will join me as an advocate not only at the bargaining table, but in the halls of Congress and as we take the fight for economic justice directly to Wall Street.”

The union said in a statement that Hall's accomplishments include his role as “architect of the 1997 UPS strike,” which resulted in UPS creating thousands of full-time jobs; his success in securing an early contract with UPS in 2007 protecting members from the impact of the economic collapse of 2008; and his ability to “force UPS to accept card check for employees of UPS Freight,” formerly Overnite Transportation, resulting in 12,000 new members.

“I am honored to join Jim Hoffa in tackling the challenges that our union and workers across our great nation face,” Hall said in a July 23 statement. “Workers need strong Teamsters representation now more than ever. Together with the exceptional group of candidates under the Hoffa-Hall slate we will continue to build on the strong foundation that has been laid over the past decade by Jim Hoffa and Tom Keegel.”

Keegel to Retire at End of Term

Keegel July 15 announced he plans to retire at the end of his term, and will not run for re-election, according to letters Keegel sent to the IBT general executive board and IBT union locals, which were posted on the website of dissident group Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

“With Keegel bowing out of the race, Hoffa has chosen International Vice President Ken Hall to run for the union's number two position on his slate,” TDU said in a statement. “Hall has been behind key decisions that have created rifts in the Hoffa camp and alienated many Teamsters local officers and members.”

According to Keegel's letter to union members, he decided to retire after “long and careful consideration of what is in the best interest of our members, our union, my family, and me personally. The programs and policies that we have put in place at the IBT over the past years will serve our members for decades to come.” Keegel was first elected secretary-treasurer in 1999.

Keegel's Criticism

In Keegel's letter to the executive board, he said IBT, its joint councils and locals are responsible for preserving and protecting the jobs, incomes, benefits, and pensions of the union's members and to meet that responsibility, IBT should be run “by the elected Teamster leaders in whom the members have placed their trust, and not outsiders or any one else.”

“Likewise, our 2011 election campaign should be directed by elected Teamster leaders and not individuals over whom we have no control,” Keegel wrote. “The repeated election rule violations must stop. We can no longer allow our names to be used in this manner. We are responsible for what is done in the name of Teamsters, and we must take charge of that responsibility.”

Keegel declined to comment July 27.

TDU said in a July 22 statement, “Keegel says the IBT should be run by elected leaders, and not appointed outsiders. The criticism of Hoffa—that he surrounds himself with appointees and has not been accountable to local leaders—has been raised by other top officers for some time.”

Fred Gegare, the only other declared candidate for general president, told BNA July 27 that Hoffa does not understand what the local leaders and general executive board go through because “he never came up through the ranks.”

“He is surrounding himself with non-elected leaders,” said Gegare, who is the union chairman of the Central States Pension Fund, an international vice president, the head of IBT's dairy division, the head of the food processing division, and the president of Wisconsin Joint Council 39. “Hoffa doesn't listen to his executive board. He's trying to run the [international] union from the top, down.”

Gegare said one example occurred in March 2009, when “Hoffa went behind Keegel's back” to cash in three non-ERISA Teamsters portfolios, because he was told he would get 4 percent on a money market mutual fund. The funds lost some $14 million, Gegare said.

Nominations for general president, general secretary-treasurer, and all vice president positions will take place at the IBT convention in June 2011 and a mail ballot election will be held in November 2011. The new slate will take office in March 2012, IBT spokeswoman Leigh Strope told BNA July 26.

By Alicia Biggs

July 27, 2010: The reelection campaign of James Hoffa has discarded thousands of accreditation petitions which local officers collected for the Hoffa-Keegel Slate, following Tom Keegel’s July 15 defection from the Hoffa camp.

Hoffa’s new campaign accreditation petitions, which are available on his campaign website, list 21 candidates out of a total of 28 positions up for election next year. Notably, only one of the twenty-one members of the Hoffa Slate is African American, one is Latino, and none are women; it’s a slate remarkable for its lack of diverse Teamster representation.

The defection of Keegel, who will retire at the end of his term, has caused quite a stir among Teamster officials. Tom Keegel, IBT Secretary Treasurer, issued a letter critical of the direction of the IBT under Hoffa.

The letter states that “continuing down the same road as the IBT has traveled for the last few years will not lead us out of our present difficulties or help us avoid the problems yet to come.” While respectful in tone, Keegel indicates that he will soon have more to say on the union’s problems.

He says that the IBT should be run by elected leaders, and not appointed outsiders. This criticism of Hoffa—that he surrounds himself with appointees and has been unaccountable to local leaders—has been raised by other top officers for some time.

Keegel also takes the Hoffa campaign to task for being run by those same outsiders, and says that “the repeated election violations must stop. We can no longer allow our names to be used in this manner.” The Hoffa campaign was recently found to have violated the election rules by pasting a signature of International Trustee Henry Perry on an endorsement, when in fact Perry does not support the Hoffa slate.

Ken Hall

With Keegel bowing out, Hoffa has chosen International Vice President Ken Hall to run for the union’s number two position on his slate.

Hall, as the Parcel (UPS) Division Director, has been behind key decisions that have created rifts in the Hoffa camp and alienated many Teamster local officers and members.

In late 2007 Hoffa and Hall signed a contract allowing UPS to pull all its participants from the Central States Pension Fund, leaving that fund greatly weakened, and putting UPS Teamsters into a company fund with benefits far below most Teamster plans.

The UPS contract also completely eliminated the clause forcing the company to create 10,000 additional full time jobs.

These contract concessions were regarded as part of a deal with UPS to gain union recognition for UPS Freight employees. However, those employees were not put under the national master freight contract or into Teamster benefit funds.

All Teamsters to Vote

Nominations for General President, General Secretary Treasurer and all Vice President positions will be held at the IBT Convention in late June 2011, and the mail ballot election of all 1.3 million Teamsters will be in November 2011.

Fred Gegare is at present the only other declared candidate for General President. He is also circulating accreditation petitions, along with three running mates for vice president positions.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the reform movement which previously backed the campaigns of Tom Leedham and Ron Carey has not yet put forward or endorsed a candidate.

July 22, 2010: Tom Keegel, IBT Secretary Treasurer, has issued a letter in which he criticizes the direction of the IBT under James Hoffa, and announces that he will not run for reelection.

As a result of Keegel’s defection, Hoffa has taken down his campaign website, and has substituted Ken Hall to be his running-mate for the 2011 International Union election.

Read Keegel’s letter to the General Executive Board. (Keegel also sent an official letter to local unions, available here.)

The letter states that “continuing down the same road as the IBT has traveled for the last few years will not lead us out of our present difficulties or help us avoid the problems yet to come.” While respectful in tone, Keegel also indicates that he will have more to say on the union’s problems, and “that time will come soon enough.”

Keegel says the IBT should be run by elected leaders, and not appointed outsiders. This criticism of Hoffa—that he surrounds himself with appointees and has been unaccountable to local leaders—has been raised by other top officers for some time.

Keegel also takes the Hoffa campaign to task for being run by those same outsiders, and says that “the repeated election violations must stop. We can no longer allow our names to be used in this manner.” The Hoffa campaign was recently found to have violated the election rules by pasting a signature of International Trustee Henry Perry on an endorsement, when in fact Perry does not support the Hoffa slate.

We contacted the Hoffa campaign to ask for a response, and what they intend to do with the thousands of Hoffa-Keegel Slate Accreditation Petitions that local union officials have circulated, but they declined to answer. Those petitions may well be headed for the recycle bin.

Ken Hall to Run for Secretary Treasurer

With Keegel bowing out of the race, Hoffa has chosen International Vice President Ken Hall to run for the union’s number two position on his slate.

Hall, as the Parcel (UPS) Division Director, has been behind key decisions that have created rifts in the Hoffa camp and alienated many Teamster local officers and members.

In late 2007, Hoffa and Hall signed a contract allowing UPS to pull all its participants from the Central States Pension Fund, leaving that fund greatly weakened, and putting UPS Teamsters into a company fund with benefits far below most Teamster plans.

The contract also completely eliminated the clause forcing the company to create 10,000 additional full time jobs.

These contract concessions were made as part of a deal with UPS to gain union recognition for UPS Freight employees. However, those employees were not put under the national master freight contract or into Teamster benefit funds.

All Teamsters to Vote

Nominations for General President, General Secretary Treasurer and all Vice President positions will be held at the IBT Convention in late June 2011, and the mail ballot election of all 1.3 million Teamsters will be in November 2011.

Fred Gegare is at present the only other declared candidate for General President. He is also circulating accreditation petitions, along with three running mates for vice president positions.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the reform movement which previously backed the campaigns of Tom Leedham and Ron Carey has not yet put forward or endorsed a candidate.

July 14, 2010: General Secretary Treasurer Tom Keegel will not run for re-election next year, according to reports from members of the General Executive Board and officials close to Keegel.

Keegel, the number two officer in the IBT, had previously agreed to run with James Hoffa as the Hoffa-Keegel Slate in the 2011 election. But Keegel also has had disagreements with Hoffa, and at times seemed close to breaking away from him.

The Hoffa administration is reporting that Keegel, who is 68 years old, is retiring for family reasons. Whether Keegel at some point in the future speaks out regarding his tenure and the upcoming election is an open question.

It also remains to be seen whether he will endorse Hoffa.

The Hoffa camp is circulating petitions to accredit the candidacies of both Hoffa and Keegel at this time. Nominations for General President, General Secretary-Treasurer and all Vice President positions will be held at the IBT Convention in late June 2011, and the mail ballot election of all 1.3 million Teamsters will be in November 2011.

Keegel was first elected in 1998, after Hoffa’s first running mate, Billy Hogan, withdrew from the slate with corruption charges swirling around him. Keegel was reelected with Hoffa in 2001 and 2006.

Fred Gegare is at present the only other declared candidate for General President. He is also circulating accreditation petitions, along with three running mates for vice president positions.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the reform movement which previously backed the campaigns of Tom Leedham and Ron Carey, has not yet put forward or endorsed a candidate.

June 25, 2010: An election is just months away in every Teamster local, including yours, to choose delegates to go to the International Union Convention.

In the vast majority of locals, the nominations will be in January or February 2011, and the ballots will go into the mail to members 30 days following the nominations. The elections will be overseen and certified by the independent Election Supervisor and his staff.

The delegates at the Convention, to be held June 27 – July 1, 2011, will have two very important jobs: they will vote on who to nominate as candidates for Teamster General President and all the positions on the General Executive Board; and they will vote on amendments to the Teamster Constitution – either to grant more membership accountability, or to give more power over members to top officers.

A chart of the number of delegates that each traditional Teamster local will elect is available here. Each local will also elect alternate delegates.

IBT Locals-June, 2010:

GCC Locals-June, 2010

BMWED Systems Federations-June, 2010

BLET General Committeesof Adjustment-June, 2010

Contact TDU for further information on these issues.

June 2, 2010: Teamsters vice president Fred Gegare will challenge James P. Hoffa next year for the top job at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Gegare, a vice president at large since 1998, is running for Teamsters general president without a slate of fellow officers or as a candidate supported by a group within the union.

Click here to read more at The Journal of Commerce.

The election for IBT General President and General Executive Board starts this year.

A federal Election Supervisor has been named. Election rules will be final by May 1, 2010.

The Election Supervisor has been named for the 2011 election for International Union officers. And proposed Election Rules, which will go into effect on May 1, are now available for comment before they are finalized.

Richard Mark will be the Election Supervisor for the 2011 IBT officer and convention delegate elections. Mark served as the Election Supervisor for the 2005-2006 delegate and IBT officer elections.

You can see the Proposed Election Rules at www.TDU.org/proposedrules

TDU is preparing to submit proposed improvements to the Rules; proposed changes are due by April 8. The final Election Rules will be submitted to federal judge Loretta Preska for approval; they are expected to be in effect on May 1, 2010.

The Election Supervisor and his national and regional staff will oversee the entire election process for the election of convention delegates and the election of the Teamster General President, General Secretary Treasurer, International Vice Presidents and Trustees. The Supervisor will decide all election protests.

The IBT Convention is slated for the week of June 27, 2011 in Las Vegas; International officer candidates will be nominated there.

All delegates to the convention will be elected by all local unions. No local union officers will automatically become delegates. Most locals will hold those delegate elections in early 2011. A few locals will hold them in the fall of 2010 (only locals with local union officer elections this fall may consider this option).

The Election Rules contain a calendar for all significant dates in the election cycle—including an accreditation petition process that begins later this year.

In 2006 the Hoffa slate was elected over a slate led by Tom Leedham and Sandy Pope.

May 2010: Rules issued for the 2010-2011 Delegate and IBT Officer Election.

Members sign petitions.June 1, 2010: Election Supervisor will announce number of petition signatures required for Accreditation of International Officer Candidates.

June 30, 2010: Deadline for submission of proposed Local Union Plan for locals seeking to hold a Fall election of delegates (this will affect a small minority of Local Unions).

July 1 – December 15, 2010: Petitions to Accredit International Officer candidates may be submitted to the Election Supervisor.

September 30, 2010: Deadline for submission of proposed Local Union Plan delegate elections for most local unions.

September – October 2010: Publication of “battle pages” (candidate campaign material) in the Teamster magazine for candidates who are Accredited by August 15.

October 15, 2010: Publication by Election Supervisor of tentative list of dates, places of Local Union delegate nominations and elections for Locals holding elections in early 2011 (the great majority).

January 3 – March 10, 2011: Nomination period for Local Union delegates (great majority of locals).

February 21 – May 2, 2011: Elections in those Local Unions for delegates.

January – February 2011: Publication of “battle pages” in the Teamster magazine for all accredited candidates.

Delegates speak at 2006 Convention.June 27 – July 1, 2011: IBT International Convention in Las Vegas.

July – August 2011: Publication of “battle pages” in the Teamster magazine by all nominated candidates for International Office.

September – October 2011: Publication of “battle pages” in the Teamster magazine by all nominated candidates for International Office

October 2011: Publication of “battle pages” in the Teamster magazine by all nominated candidates for International Office

October 2011: Mailing of ballots for election of International Officers.

November 2011: Ballots counted for International Officers.

A more detailed timeline is included in the Proposed Election Rules, accessible on the web at www.TDU.org/proposedrules

March 5, 2010: The Election Supervisor has been named for the 2011 election for International Union officers. And proposed Election Rules—which will go into effect on May 1—are now available for comment before they are finalized.

Richard Mark will be the Election Supervisor for the 2011 IBT officer and convention delegate elections. Mark served as the E.S. for the 2005-2006 delegate and IBT officer elections.

The final Election Rules will be submitted to federal judge Loretta Preska for approval; they are expected to be in effect on May 1, 2010.

The E.S. and his national and regional staff will oversee the entire election process for the election of convention delegates and the election of the Teamster General President, General Secretary Treasurer, International Vice Presidents and Trustees. The E.S. will decide all election protests.

The IBT Convention is slated for the week of June 27, 2011 in Las Vegas; International officer candidates will be nominated there.

Delegates to the Convention will be elected by all local unions. Most locals will hold those delegate elections in early 2011. A few locals will hold them in the fall of 2010.

The Election Rules contain a calendar for all significant dates in the election cycle—including an accreditation petition process that begins later this year.

In 2006 the Hoffa slate was elected over a slate led by Tom Leedham and Sandy Pope.

The proposed Election Rules are available here on the Election Supervisor website.

The Notice of proposed Rules and summary of rule changes is available here.