Organizing Under Hoffa
- Cut Dues Waste & Put Money into Organizing: The Hoffa administration wastes $3 million every year on multiple salaries for union officials who already have another full-time union job and salary. That money and other dues waste should be put into organizing.
- Strategic Campaigns: To organize nonunion competitors and build Teamster bargaining power, our union needs to make a long-term commitment to strategic organizing efforts in our core industries.
- Fight for Strong Contracts: Concessionary contracts undermine Teamster organizing. Fighting for good contracts—and good first contracts—is a must if we want to grow our union. In industries targeted for organizing, we need to work toward coordinated national bargaining and contract language that builds our bargaining leverage by allowing workers to respect picket lines.
- Support Local Union Organizing Efforts: When local unions are organizing nonunion competitors, the IBT needs to be there with organizers, resources and strategic support.
- Build an Organizing Army: There are many skilled, highly dedicated organizers in the Teamsters—at the International and in the locals. The IBT needs a strategic plan to grow an even bigger army of staff and volunteer organizers. To win against the union busters, we need organizers who are trained in proven tactics and best practices.
Organizing in Waste
Port Organizing
Locals Start Freight Organizing. Where's the International?
“It’s great that we’re finally making some gains in organizing FedEx Freight and Con-way. It’s a long time coming. But if we’re going to win on a wide scale, we need to shore up Teamster pride in freight. That starts with much better contract enforcement.”
Organizing in Waste
Port Organizing
Making the Case for the Right to Vote
September 18, 2014: Petitions signed by more than 12,000 Teamsters are on the way to Judge Loretta Preska calling on her to rule against the Hoffa administration’s bid to end fair elections for International Union officers.
TDU legal counsel, Barbara Harvey, has submitted a letter to the court defending the Right to Vote and asking the Judge to hold a hearing on the issues.
Judge Preska oversees the consent order, a court-approved agreement that guarantees Teamster members the Right to Vote in independently-supervised elections with fair rules. The Hoffa administration is going to court to overturn this agreement.
The Hoffa administration has already pushed through an amendment to the Teamster Constitution that would give them the power to hand-pick the election supervisor and write their own election rules. (See Article III, Section 5(a)(2))
We know what that would look like.
Earlier this year, the Hoffa administration re-wrote the rules in the middle of the UPS contract vote so they could impose UPS contracts that had been rejected by the members—including a 93 percent No Vote in Louisville.
In an earlier contract vote in the carhaul industry, TDU exposed in federal court that Hoffa’s handpicked election supervisor had certified fraudulent voting results without ever seeing the ballots or voting results let alone supervising the vote count.
The consent order agreement overseen by Judge Preska is the only thing standing in the way of an election with sham rules and a phony election supervisor controlled by Hoffa.
That’s why Hoffa administration attorneys are going to court to try to gut it. And that’s why Teamster members are fighting back.
TDU has always opposed government interference in the union. But we support the consent order’s requirement that Teamster members have the Right to Vote for International Union officers in independently-supervised elections with fair rules.
Teamster members have made their voices heard through the petition drive. TDU and our legal counsel will continue to press the case.
Hoffa Targets Teamster Voting Rights
August 29, 2014: Hoffa administration lawyers are filing a motion before Federal Judge Loretta Preska in a bid to curtail fair, independently supervised elections in the Teamsters.
Judge Preska can’t just hear from Hoffa. She needs to hear from us.
More than 10,000 Teamsters have signed an Open Letter to Judge Preska—including over 3,700 online signatures.
Help defend our right to vote:
Sign the petition online and make your voice heard.
Email a link to the petition to your friends and asking them to and sharing it on your Facebook wall?
We've Topped 12,000!
Updated September 12, 2014: More than 12,000 Teamsters have signed the petition to save the Right to Vote for International Union officers. There's still time to make our voices heard.
Hoffa administration lawyers are filing a motion before Federal Judge Loretta Preska in a bid to curtail fair, independently supervised elections in the Teamsters.
More than 12,000 Teamsters have signed petitions to save the Right to Vote for International Union officers. This includes more than 4,000 Teamsters who have signed our online petition as well as 8,000 petition signatures that have been collected by TDU members.
What Happens Next
The Hoffa administration is filing papers with Judge Preska. Later in September, Judge Preska is expected to meet with attorneys for the Hoffa administration and the U.S. Attorney.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) will present our position to the court—and we will deliver petition signatures from over 10,000 members. A decision from the Judge could come in early Fall.
Help defend the Right to Vote.
Sign the petition online and make your voice heard.
Copy and Email this link to your friends sharing it on your Facebook wall.
Mail your completed petitions immediately to:
TDU
PO Box 10128
Detroit, MI 48210
If you’d like to learn more about this important issue, contact TDU at 313-842-2600 or info [at] tdu.org. We’ll be happy to answer your questions and let you know how you can be involved in the work to defend Teamsters’ right to vote.
IRB Charges All Local 710 Officers
August 21, 2014: The Independent Review Board (IRB) has moved to bring charges against all the officers of Chicago Local 710. According to the report of charges dated August 15, all members of the Executive Board violated their fiduciary duty when they repeatedly approved the purchase of excess visa gift cards under the control of Local Secretary Treasurer Pat Flynn.
Flynn was charged in July, and on July 30 the local was put into trusteeship following a recommendation by the IRB. Those actions are detailed here.
The new charges hit Local 710 president Mike Sweeney and fellow officers Gerald Pauli, Charles DeCola, Larry Alexander, Anthony Lamy, and Kevin Wagoner. They were already removed from office when the trusteeship was imposed. Now they face a hearing and possible expulsion or suspension from Teamster membership.
The report states that between 2008 and September 2013, the officers breached their fiduciary duty and failed to protect the members’ assets. For example, in November 2011 they approved the purchase of 1000 visa gift cards to be given to meeting attendees, but only 600 members were present, and the remaining 400 cards were under Flynn’s personal control.
Hoffa appointed International vice president John Coli as Trustee of Local 710. Coli has no experience in representing the UPS, freight, trucking, and grocery Teamsters who make up the 13,000 member local. He has political operative Brian Rainville running the local. Rainville was paid $178,080 in 2013 by the International and Chicago Joint Council 25. Some 7000 UPS Teamsters in Local 710 rejected a concessionary contract last February by 73% No vote, and have heard nothing since about negotiating an improved contract.
Trusteeship Hits Chicago Local 710
July 31, 2014: James Hoffa yesterday imposed an “emergency” trusteeship over Local 710, and appointed Chicago Teamster boss John Coli as trustee. The trusteeship follows a July 17 report by the Independent Review Board on the lack of financial controls in the local union.
Many members of Local 710 are eager to clean house in the next election, and want to know how this trusteeship will affect those efforts.
A trusteeship is “presumed invalid” after 18 months, so we fully expect an election on that time schedule. That will be in early 2016, just the same time that Local 710 – and almost all locals – will elect delegates to the 2016 IBT Convention where candidates will be nominated to run for General President and all IBT offices, including Coli’s office.
A majority of the local’s 13,000 members are employed by UPS, ABF, UPS Freight and YRC. All of those groups of workers have rejected concessions by big margins in the past year, and are ready for real changes. Many have contacted Teamsters for a Democratic Union since yesterday to talk about future plans
The local includes all UPS Teamsters in Illinois outside the Chicago area, as well as Northern Indiana and Davenport, Iowa.
Those 6,000 UPS Teamsters rejected their contract last February by a 73% margin, and since then have been in the dark. The union falsely put on the ballot that a rejection would lead to an immediate strike.
Trustee John Coli will now oversee bargaining with UPS. Coli supported every concessionary deal that the IBT has served up at UPS, UPS Freight, ABF and YRC.
The IRB Report details the charges against Local 710 secretary-treasurer Pat Flynn for purchasing $58,000 worth of gift cards over several years, without any accounting of what happened to those visa cards. It goes on to note that the local entered into leases and car purchases without executive board approval; that the trustees on the executive board did not review the cancelled checks compared to the books; and that the local financial reports failed to disclose $494,468 in “commissions” owed to officers. That liability would have led to the local reporting large negative net assets.
Members of Local 710 interested in being kept informed of developments can contact TDU by calling 313-842-2600 or emailing info [at] tdu.org
Hoffa Escalates Attack on the Right to Vote
July 30, 2014: The Hoffa administration is escalating its attack on Teamster voting rights. Hoffa administration lawyers are filing new papers with Judge Loretta Preska in a bid to end fair, independently supervised elections in the Teamsters. The case could be decided as early as September.
Judge Preska can’t just hear from Hoffa. She needs to hear from us.
More than 3,000 Teamsters have signed an Open Letter to Judge Preska, including 1,744 who have signed online.
We’ve set a goal of delivering 10,000 petition signatures to Judge Loretta Preska by Labor Day.
Can you help us reach our goal and save the right to vote by:
Clicking here to sign the petition?
Emailing a link to the petition to your friends and asking them to sign and sharing it on your Facebook wall?
If you’d like copies of the petition form and a leaflet explaining the issue to distribute, please contact TDU at 313-842-2600 or info [at] tdu.org and we’ll be happy to mail you a packet immediately.
You can click here to read more background on this campaign and on the importance of independent oversight in protecting members’ rights.
Corruption-Free? Not so Fast
July 24, 2014: Hoffa claims there’s no need for an anti-corruption body in our union because corruption is a thing of the past. Meanwhile, two Hoffa campaign donors have been busted this week on charges of stealing members’ dues and taking employer payoffs.
The Hoffa administration has retained two attorneys who formerly worked for President George W. Bush to try to end the members Right to Vote, and also the Independent Review Board (IRB).
The IRB independently investigates corruption in the Teamsters. The Hoffa administration says the IRB should be eliminated because Teamster corruption is a thing of the past.
That is news to Teamster members in Connecticut Local 1150 where the IRB has charged the top official with embezzling union funds and in St. Louis area construction locals where the IRB has caught a union representative taking payoffs in exchange for sweetheart contracts.
When TDU was founded organized crime dominated the Teamsters Union at its highest levels. There’s no doubt that Teamster corruption is down since then, but that is precisely because members have the Right to Vote and an independent anti-corruption watchdog.
TDU is organizing members to defend the Right to Vote and root out corruption in the union. If you share these goals, you can say so by signing this petition.
More coverage:
IRB Charges Connecticut Local 1150 President
IRB Charges St. Louis Bad Apple
Petition: Don’t Let Hoffa End Fair Elections in the Teamsters