Local 82 Teamsters Win Democratic Changes
Local 82 Teamsters in Boston overwhelmingly voted to approve a series of bylaws amendments to give members a stronger voice in the local. More than 140 members turned out to the local union meeting on March 26 and voted by huge margins in favor of the reforms—an impressive turnout given that the local only has 650 members.
The bylaws changes establish sweeping new rights for Local 82 members, including:
· The right to elect shop stewards.
· The right to elect rank-and-file representatives to contract negotiating committees.
· The right to an informed vote on contracts, including the chance to review all proposed contract changes in writing before any vote.
·The right to fair local union elections that are conducted by mail ballot and supervised by an impartial outside agency.
· The right to a membership vote to approve proposed officers’ salaries.
·The right to veto who the local executive board names as trustee to the union’s benefit funds.
“We want to put more decisions in the hands of the members,” said Joe Wright, a commercial mover who helped introduce the bylaws reforms. “When people feel like they’re just being dictated to, they stop coming to union meetings. We want members to feel like their voice counts so they get involved and our union gets stronger.”
The overwhelming Yes vote was a slap in the face to Hoffa Trade Show Director and Local 82 Secretary-Treasurer John Perry, who strongly opposed the changes.
It was a bad week for Perry and a good week for the rank and file. Earlier in the week, Perry’s slate failed to carry the vote in the local’s convention delegate election, managing only a split with the Teamsters for Change Slate. Perry won the delegate slot. But the alternate delegate position was won by shop steward and TDU member Kevin McNiff.
In the 2001 International election, Perry delivered 95 percent of the Local 82 vote to Hoffa. But the tide has clearly turned. Close to 100 members of the local have joined TDU in the last year and they are working together to elect Tom Leedham and to reform their local.
The bylaws changes will now be submitted to General President Hoffa for approval.
Teamsters Will Have Choice in 2006
“Teamsters will have a choice in the 2006 election thanks to the thousands of members who ran for delegate and supported delegate campaigns,” Leedham said.
Delegates who have pledged to nominate the Tom Leedham Slate come from every region and jurisdiction, including the recently merged unions.
“A growing number of Teamster leaders know that our union needs a change of direction if we’re going to meet the challenges we face. We will continue to reach out to Teamster officers and members who feel shut out by the Hoffa administration,” Leedham said.
The Hoffa Campaign coordinated a nationwide effort to deny members a choice—and openly bragged on their website about their efforts to keep the Leedham Slate off the ballot.
“Hoffa tried hard to block any election. He poured money into local delegate elections to keep any opposition off the ballot, but he failed,” said J. Dennis, a delegate from Kentucky Local 89, who will support the Tom Leedham Slate at the convention.
“The decision about our union’s direction and leadership will be where it belongs—in the members’ hands,” said Local 805 President Sandy Pope, a candidate for Vice President At-Large.
| I Supported Hoffa But His Leadership Has Failed “I supported Hoffa at the last convention. The idea was to strengthen the union by all of us coming together. But uniting behind Hoffa didn’t put more power behind the locals or the members. Instead, it’s become all about Hoffa and the top officials in his administration—not about the union or the members. |
Hoffa Loses in Home Local
April 22, 2006: The United Teamsters Against Hoffa Slate swept all six positions in the convention delegate race in Pontiac, Mich. Local 614—the home local of General President James Hoffa.
Hoffa hand-picked Local 614 and transferred his membership there because he considered it safe territory. But Teamsters have turned against Hoffa in his adopted home local.
“It’s time for Jimmy to get out of there. We need a union man running our International, not a lawyer who’s never made a living driving a truck or working on a dock or doing other Teamster work,” said Robert Tibbals, a USF Holland road driver and elected delegate on the UTAH Slate.
Hoffa’s defeated slate was led by International Representative Earl Walker and Karen Lankford, the Hoffa 2006 Campaign Treasurer.
Key issues on the UTAH platform were pension cuts and the dues increase. But this is one race where the slate name defined what was at stake in the race.
Hoffa’s own local is carried by a slate called United Teamsters Against Hoffa. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
Check out the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Website at www.leedham2006.org.
Rail Teamsters Need Change
Michael, a member of the TDU International Steering Committee, was recently elected convention delegate along with alternate delegate Brad Thompson.
Rail Teamsters are up against the most serious threats ever to their job security—from job-killing remote control technology to an employer drive to limit staffing to one crew member. Employers are also pushing to slash members’ benefits.
“When our union merged with the Teamsters two years ago, members like myself hoped that Teamster Power would give us the strength we needed at the bargaining table and in Washington,” Michael said. “But the carriers have handed us the nastiest contract proposals ever, and our leadership can’t seem to muster up a fight. The potential for power is there, but right now it is being squandered away.”
Michael supports a grassroots initiative to give engineers and trainmen the Right to Vote for the national officers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
“We’re also looking ahead to the IBT election and the chance to elect Tom Leedham,” Michael said. “We must have leaders who will fight hard against our employers’ vicious attacks.”
Memphis Voters Defeat Hoffa Running Mate
Hoffa aggressively backed his running mate, endorsing him in a glossy campaign mailer that was sent to every Local 667 member. But Hoffa’s support proved to be the kiss of death.
Three of the four members of the losing slate are Hoffa appointees.
“Teamsters here in Memphis don’t want Hoffa or anyone associated with him” said K.W. Phillips, a Roadway driver and newly elected convention delegate. “They thought that Hoffa’s support would boost him up. Instead it dragged them down.”
Decline in Union Grocery Warehousing a Growing Problem in the Northeast
These two recent events are part of a larger and more disturbing trend in a part of the country that was once a union stronghold for grocery warehouse workers.
Shutdowns have hit other area Teamsters, including Local 445 members at Wakefern, N.Y. (400 jobs lost, shifted to a non-union facility in Pennsylvania) and Local 730 and Local 639 members at Giant in the Washington, D.C. area.
Closings are not the only threat. Teamster employers shift part of their work to nonunion facilities or lose accounts to nonunion operators. Local 118 Teamsters at Wegmans in Rochester, N.Y. learned this first hand. Their local cut a deal with the company to let them shift work to a new nonunion facility in Pennsylvania. While they lost some work, the blow was eased somewhat by attrition and work gained elsewhere.
Teamsters at Topps in Buffalo, N.Y. lost fifty jobs when Ahold sold its Wilson Farms convenience store chain and the new owners switched to non-union McLane Foodservice Distribution. “Organizing these nonunion operators has got to be a priority,” Local 264 steward Darrin Ziemba said. “There was talk at the time about going after McLane, but nothing has come of it. We need a consistent, long-term commitment to bring non-union outfits under contract. “
You would think that the loss in recent years of nearly 2,000 good Teamster jobs in the northeast would get the attention of the Hoffa administration. Not so. The IBT has no plan of action, no organizing drives, no coordinated activity aimed at protecting these jobs or expanding the union’s presence in the jurisdiction. In terms of C&S, in the late 1990s Tom Leedham secured a neutrality agreement from C&S. Rather than build on that gain, Hoffa has let it expire and has failed to organize in this all-important jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, C&S is growing by leaps and bounds. It operates in 14 states now, including areas in the south and southeast, and has projected revenue of $18 billion for 2006.
Hoffa Rep Gives Members’ Money to Wal-Mart
April 22, 2006: Hoffa International Rep Rick Middleton, who also heads Los Angeles Local 572, has a little explaining to do. Middleton has invested $20,000 of members’ dues money in the notorious union-buster Wal-Mart.
“Wal-Mart is hurting the Teamsters and all of organized labor. When our local officials invest thousands of dollars into Wal-Mart, it sends a mixed message to the membership."
Frank Halstead
Ralphs, Local 572
Los AngelesMany members of Local 572 who work in the grocery warehousing and distribution industry have been hurt by Wal-Mart’s predatory practices and low wages. Why is Middleton putting their money into Wal-Mart?
Ironically, three years ago Middleton was named co-chair of a Teamster anti-Wal-Mart committee.
TDU uncovered this information on Local 572’s new LM-2 financial report, which includes a list of all investments over $5,000. Local 572 has put about $200,000 of members’ money roughly equally into the stocks of ten corporations, including J P Morgan, IBM, Hewlett Packard, and…Wal-Mart!
Hoffa and his campaign supporters like Middleton recently spread the ridiculous lie that Tom Leedham is funded by Wal-Mart. The Hoffa Campaign circulated smear materials, but did not even file an election protest let alone a complaint with the Department of Labor.
Why didn’t the Hoffa Campaign turn over its evidence? Because it doesn’t exist. The Hoffa smear about Leedham and Wal-Mart is just dirty politics—a big lie with no basis in fact.
The fact that a Hoffa International Rep is signing over members’ money to Wal-Mart is indisputable. Middletown’s own financial report with his signature on it proves it. You can review it yourself by doing a search on the DOL website for Local 572’s LM-2 (or contact TDU).
If someone tries to tell you that Middleton was just buying a share so he could get the stockholders’ report or participate in stockholders actions, let them know that one share would do the trick. Wal-Mart shares are trading at $46, not $20,000!
How about it, Hoffa. Could you ask your staff to pull Teamster members’ money out of Wal-Mart?
The data for this article come from forms filed with the Department of Labor. You can view them on the DOL website or call TDU for a copy.
Setbacks for Hoffa Tradeshow Director
The overwhelming Yes vote came over the strong opposition of Secretary-Treasurer John Perry. It was the second rank-and-file victory for Local 82 members in a week and the second major set back for Perry, a multiple-salaried Teamster official who serves as Hoffa’s Trade Show Director.
Earlier in the week, Perry’s slate failed to carry the vote in the local’s Convention Delegate election, managing only a split with the Teamsters for Change Slate. Perry won the delegate slot. But the alternate delegate position was won by shop steward and TDU member Kevin McNiff.
In the 2001 International election, Perry delivered 95 percent of the Local 82 vote to Hoffa. But the tide has clearly turned. Close to 100 members of the local have joined TDU in the last year and they are working together to elect Tom Leedham and to reform their local.
The bylaws changes establish sweeping new rights for Local 82 members, including:
• The right to elect shop stewards
• The right to elect rank-and-file representatives to contract negotiating committees
• The right to an informed vote on contracts, including the chance to review all proposed contract changes in writing before any vote
• The right to fair local union elections that are conducted by mail ballot and supervised by an impartial outside agency
• The right to a membership vote to approve proposed officers’ salaries
• The right to veto who the local executive board names as trustee to the union’s benefit funds
“We want to put more decisions in the hands of the members,” said Joe Wright, a commercial mover who helped introduce the bylaws reforms. “When people feel like they’re just being dictated to, they stop coming to union meetings. We want members to feel like their voice counts so they get involved and our union gets stronger."
The bylaws changes will now be submitted to General President Hoffa for approval.
Executive Pay Hits All-Time High
April 6, 2006: Corporate executive pay and perks have gotten more out of line than ever, as detailed in a lengthy report in the April 9 New York Times. "Off to the races again, leaving many behind" the feature shows that average CEO pay went from 33 times average workers' pay in 1980 to 104 times in 2004, with many CEOs of large corporations far higher than that.
The AFL-CIO is asking unionists to do something about it.
Click here for the New York Times article "Off to the races again, leaving many behind"
Click here for a chart of CEO compensation of 200 corporations
Click here for Information on CEO Watch from the AFL-CIO