October 30, 2005: Teamster organizing figures have decreased for the second straight year, according to the latest figures available from the National Labor Relations Board. A new report on Teamster organizing reveals the Hoffa administration is lagging far behind the organizing levels achieved in the 1990s.

Hoffa recently pulled the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO, supposedly to free up resources for organizing. But only one percent of Teamster dues were going to the AFL-CIO. Half that amount is now going to the Change to Win Coalition for a net savings of just $4 million per year.

In contrast, Hoffa’s broken campaign promises to "Cut and Cap" officers’ pay and to introduce other financial reforms have cost our union more than $15 million that could have been put toward organizing.

Click here: Organizing Report Shows Need for New Strategies to Build Power
Click here: Study Reveals Cost of Hoffa's Broken "Cut and Cap" Promises
Click here: NLRB Statistics on Teamster Organizing

October 30, 2005: At $345,408 total compensation, John Coli is the top Teamster fat cat in this year’s $100,000 Club. He is also the newest member of the Hoffa Slate. Coli has announced that news to various Teamster officials.

Coli is best known for his prominent role in the scandal that led Hoffa’s anti-corruption czar Ed Stier to resign last year, along with the entire staff of Project RISE, Hoffa’s anti-corruption program. Coli was accused of using his influence in the General President’s office to shut down Stier’s investigations into organized crime influence and corruption in Chicago. Hoffa pulled the plug on Stier’s investigations—and Stier resigned in protest—before these allegations against Coli could be proven. But here is what is definitely known about Hoffa’s newest running mate.

Coli is the head of the powerful Chicago Joint Council and of Local 727. He inherited the leadership of Local 727 in 1992 after his father retired and his brother was removed from the Teamsters by the Independent Review Board (IRB). Coli’s father was a member of the Chicago mafia, according to the Stier Report of 2004, but he himself has never been identified as a mob associate.

Coli’s local is being investigated by the FBI, and a Grand Jury has issued subpoenas regarding alleged kickbacks and fraud involving the members’ dental plan. A report by Stier details a scheme where money from the plan travels to an “insurer” owned by a Florida dentist, then to an account in Illinois, before a lesser amount is deposited in the dental service providers’ authorized account.

What It Means
Why would James Hoffa name this man to his slate, hoping to make him a top leader of the Teamsters Union? This is a man who inherited his power, is under FBI investigation, helped kill-off the Teamster anti-corruption program, and whose first love is the members’ money.

He is doing it because Coli is a Teamster power broker: he has personal influence in high places inside our union.

This is the same reason Hoffa put another Chicago power broker, Billy Hogan, on his slate ten years ago, until investigations of his operations got too hot. Eventually Hogan was removed from the union for trying to implement a sweetheart contract with a company that his family had an interest in.

This is the opposite of the way power should flow in our union. It should flow upward, from the members, stewards and local organizers. Leadership should be earned, not inherited or extorted. Leaders should be selected for their integrity and their ability to win strong contracts.

In 2006 Teamster members will have a choice between those two kinds of leadership.

October 30, 3005: Our study looked at the salaries paid by almost all Teamster locals. The data revealed a wide range of officer compensation:

• The median salary for a local union principal officer is $86,000. Half of all local principal officers make less than that.

• About one-third of local union principal officers make more than $100,000 in total salaries.

• Just 51 local union principal officers, or about 11 percent of those covered by the report, make total salaries of more than $150,000. Most Teamsters would agree that is excessive. Thirty-five of these 51 officials are on the Hoffa administration payroll.

• Twenty-two local union principal officers, or about 4 percent, get salaries of more than $200,000—and 18 of them are on the Hoffa administration payroll.

Each year, the Teamster Rank & File Education and Legal Defense Foundation (TRF) compiles and analyzes hundreds of Teamster financial documents filed with the Department of Labor. Convoy Dispatch publishes the results in the “$100,000 Club.”

At one time, the “$100,000 Club” was basically a list of Teamster fat cats. Over the years, inflation has pushed a growing number of officials who just slightly make six-figures into the club. In all, 368 officials make more than $100,000. Seventy-three of these officials make $150,000 or more. And 131 make $125,000 or more.

How much is too much? Should multiple salaries be banned? We give you the facts and lets you decide.

This study is non-partisan, and includes all Teamster officials, whether elected or appointed, reform or old guard.

October 18, 2005: Pension reform legislation was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in early September and appeared to be on a fast track. But then business interests intervened and the bill was postponed, apparently until the end of the year.

The HELP bill would provide a range of financial relief to defined benefit pension funds, like the funds that cover many Teamsters.

A negative provision called the Red Zone amendment was not included in the HELP version—thanks to some hard work by Teamster local officers and rank and filers who traveled to Washington to meet with Senate staff about the provision. Had it not been defeated, it would have allowed troubled plans to cut back pension benefits that have already been accrued.

Different corporate and union interests have voiced opposition to the pension bill based on particulars of their industries. Continental and American Airlines opposed parts that would benefit their bankrupt competitors. General Motors and the United Auto Workers attacked a provision that would tie pension contribution requirements to a corporation’s credit rating, noting that the auto industry has cyclical ups and downs.

A coalition that includes UPS management, the IBT and some Teamster pension plans offered amendments to provide more breathing room for under-funded multi-employer plans that were hurt by the stock market in 2000-2001.

Meanwhile, the International Union has been on its own roller coaster regarding the legislation. Last spring, when the house passed a similar bill, HR 2830, the IBT was pressing locals to circulate petitions in support of the legislation. Later they said they would take a wait and see attitude, and in late September the IBT issued a bulletin stating they now oppose both the House and Senate versions as drafted.

October 30, 2005: When Hoffa launched his candidacy for General President, he pledged to implement a series of financial reforms at the IBT. Instead, bloated IBT salaries and perks are at an all-time high.

Our $100,000 Club study reveals that Hoffa’s broken “Cut and Cap” pledge has cost our union more than $15 million since he took office in 1999. That’s $15 million that could have been spent to organize new members and increase our bargaining power—nearly four times what
Hoffa saved by pulling the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO, a move that was supposedly made to free up resources for organizing.

Hoffa made his promises to “Cut and Cap” and “Eliminate Expensive International Union Perks” in an official Hoffa Slate platform. These broken promises include:

Hoffa promised to cap the General President and Secretary-Treasurer’s salaries at $150,000 a year. Hoffa’s salary in 2004 was $251,529; Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel’s was $228,277. This broken promise drained $179,806 from the treasury in 2004.

Hoffa promised to cap the aggregate salaries of everyone on the IBT payroll at $150,000. Our $100,000 Club data reveals that 44 officials on the Hoffa payroll are in violation of this cap. The cost of this broken promise for 2004 alone was more than $1.66 million.

Hoffa promised to “Eliminate expensive International Union perks,” including the IBT’s practice of paying the employee portion of social security taxes. This amounts to a 7.65 percent tax on Teamster members and hidden extra compensation for International officials. For the 119 International officials listed here, this is costing Teamsters $628,000 every year.

Hoffa also broke his promise to prohibit payment of housing expenses for officials in Washington, D.C. He pays himself and Keegel about $66,000 a year to live in a fancy Washington hotel. Hoffa and Keegel signed checks of $2,000 a month for a phony housing allowance to Carlow Scalf until the IRB caught wind of it and forced Scalf to pay the money back.

TDU members intend to give Hoffa a second chance to implement his abandoned reforms by submitting them to a binding vote at the 2006 IBT Convention in Las Vegas.

Click here: Organizing Report Shows Need for New Strategies to Build Power
Click here: IBT Organizing Lags Again in 2004
Click here: NLRB Statistics on Teamster Organizing

October 5, 2005: The negotiations covering approximately 8,000 members in the Southern California grocery industry have concluded.  The five-year agreement contains wage increases of 50 cents, 45 cents, 50 cents, 45 cents and 50 cent; pension contribution increases of 10 cents, 0, 10 cents, 0 and 10 cents: and maintenance of benefits over the life of the agreement.  
Even though members overwhelmingly ratified the offer, many were disappointed by the paltry pension increases and by the leadership’s inability to negotiate improvements in other areas. 

Huge issues face workers in the grocery industry:  Unreasonable production standards, harsh attendance policies, disregard for seniority and parity.
 “I work for the largest company and we have the worst contract.  While the industry standard is 7 to 1 for part-time ratios we have a 2 to 1 ratio.  We make 33 cents less an hour than the average for the industry. We don’t have Sunday Premium, averaged vacation pay or the overtime optional provision”, says Frank Halstead, member of Local 572 employed by Ralphs Grocery (Kroger).

With the big employers still recovering from the UFCW strike/lockout, the opportunity existed to resolve some of these issues.  Instead of patting themselves on the back and saying “It’s the best contract in the Southern California grocery industry ever; the biggest and the largest that’s ever been bargained” as Paul Kenny, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 630 and Co-Chairman of the negotiating committee put it, our leaders should have used the leverage we had to make the improvements members have requested for years.  The Chairman, J.C. 42 President Jim Santangelo said “we’re very happy with this deal, because the employers were generous.” But this  “generosity” is going to result in less buying power, lower pensions and fighting the same old issues for five  years.