December 15, 2008: A long-troubled Teamsters local has elected a leadership slate of reformers, throwing out incumbents accused of steering nonunion work to preferred companies in exchange for favors and jobs for relatives.

Teamsters Local 631 represents 6,500 workers in the convention industry, in trash collection, and for United Parcel Service and other companies. A slate led by Kevin Hardison and John Phillipenas solidly defeated the incumbents, headed by Wayne King and Tommy Blitsch, in a bitterly contested election.

Click here to read more at the Las Vegas Sun.

November 20, 2008: On Nov. 19, the 3,500 members of Local 249 voted current President Wayne Shatkoff out of office by a vote of 1,178 to 884.

The Respect, Experience, Dedication Slate (R.E.D. Slate), headed by Joe Rossi and made up of some of the existing executive board and rank and filers, won all ten positions.

Earlier this year, the Local 249 executive board found Shatkoff guilty of blacklisting members in the movie industry. Charges filed with the NLRB cost Local 249 well over $100,000.

Also dumped from office was Recording Secretary Ed Dini, a proponent of the failed DHL Master Agreement.

September 19, 2008: It’s illegal to use union funds to promote a slate for union office. But it happens sometimes, and members have a right to file an election protest when it does.

Knowing that 2008 was an election year in their local, Local 439 officials in Stockton, Calif. used union funds to print T-shirts with the slogan, “Stronger Together.” Business agents were given boxes of T-shirts to distribute for free by Local 439 Secretary-Treasurer Sam Rosas.

This month, Rosas issued campaign T-shirts for his “Stronger Together Slate.”

Coincidence? Hardly, say Local 439 insiders who say that Rosas planned the T-shirts as a one-two campaign punch from the beginning. 

An election protest has been filed citing the violation of using union funds and staff time for campaign purposes.

A large group of Teamsters attended a recent meeting hosted by the Fighting for the Future slate in Local 726. Many work for the City of Chicago and responded to recent headlines that threatened major layoffs.

The meeting discussed how an active membership could address the issues.

Vince Tenuto, a leader of Fighting for the Future, outlined plans to continue to inform and educate members on developments in Local 726.

He reported on continued efforts to challenge the results of the 2007 local election. A suit has been filed in federal court, and the U.S. labor department is conducting initial interviews regarding complaints lodged against Local 726 and other issues.

Members want change in our local. Fighting for the Future has consistently addressed the issues facing working Teamsters. We’re committed to make real changes in Local 726 and the membership knows we mean it.

Leo "Duke" Clark
Local 726, City of Chicago

August 29, 2008: Last October, Local 355 President Denis Taylor told Baltimore UPSers he was “taking care” of their pension problems.

Four months later, Taylor announced he was cutting pension accruals to zero.

Here’s what Taylor had to say when he was selling the UPS contract back in October: “Under this agreement, we have gotten the company to make record pension, health and welfare contributions. We are taking care of the problems sooner rather than later, which is what our members wanted us to do.”

Taylor’s comments were part of the International Union’s sales job to approve the new UPS contract. Click here to read Taylor’s comments in the IBT’s UPS Contract Update.

“Did Taylor know cuts are coming back in October? Or did he not know the situation our fund was in?” asks Gary Payne, a Local 355 feeder driver. “Either way, I can’t trust him to manage my pension anymore.”

Payne and other Local 355 Teamsters are getting organized to run for local union office this fall.

In New York Local 804, UPS Teamsters voted to reject the UPS contract. They won improvements that restored their pension benefits. “I want to know why Taylor didn’t hold out until our pension issues were fixed.” Payne says.

“In the end, he was just a rubber stamp for Hoffa’s contract. He didn’t take care of our pension problems.”

What do you think? Click here to send a question or comment to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

* Source: International Brotherhood of Teamsters. UPS Contract Update. Oct. 18, 2007.

August 22, 2008: Last Saturday, over 100 Local 396 sanitation Teamsters came from across Southern California to have a picnic and build solidarity.

Teamsters drove from Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, and northern Los Angeles to the picnic in Long Beach.

Local 396 members are getting organized to build a stronger local and hold their leaders accountable. Sanitation Teamsters were joined by supporters from UPS in Local 396 at the picnic.

Many sanitation Teamsters are still angry after they voted down a tentative agreement with Waste Management in L.A. County three times last year. Local 396 leaders took over 500 members out on strike with no plan to win, and members were forced back to work with no improvements in their contract.

The same thing happened to over 350 Local 396 Teamsters at Republic (Taormina Industries) in Anaheim last year too. Members stood together on the picket line, but then local officials took them back to work with no improvements.

Want to find out more? Click here to visit 396watchdog.com.

See pictures from the picnic below!

August 5, 2008: Months after New York UPSers approved new bylaws for their local, members are still having trouble getting straight information about their benefits.

This spring, UPS Teamsters in New York Local 804 voted by over 90 percent to require the Local 804 Executive Board to provide members with information about their pension and health funds.

In July, the Local 804 Pension Fund finally responded to members’ requests for pension documents—and turned over some information, including reports from various investment managers.

But the fund continues to violate federal law by refusing to turn over the most important documents that members requested—including the Actuarial Valuation Report and other actuarial reports, despite a specific request for this information from members’ legal counsel.

Members are legally entitled to these documents. Every other major Teamster fund has provided this information to members within 30 days or less—sometimes without charge.

In contrast, the Local 804 Pension Fund not only refused to turn over documents, it even charged members for documents it refused to provide. Local 804 shop steward Tim Sylvester was billed more than $125 for pension documents—but more than 25 percent of these documents were missing!

Sylvester and other leaders of Local 804 Members United are following up with the fund through their legal counsel, attorney Ann Curry Thompson.

Concern Over Health Benefits

Local 804 members are also still looking for straight answers about the Local 804 Health Fund and the future of members’ health benefits and retiree healthcare.

An investigation by Local 804 Members United revealed that the Health Fund lost $18 million over four years—according to the fund’s own financial reports.

Their investigation also revealed that Local 804 officials voted to reduce UPS’s contributions to the Health Fund and divert the money to the Pension Fund—a move that accelerated the Health Fund’s multi-million dollar losses.

Local 804 officials have responded by telling members that the Fund did not “lose” $18 million; it just “spent” $18 million more than it took in! Accountants call that losing money—and so do the fund’s own financial reports.

Local 804 members deserve more than word games—especially when their health benefits and retiree healthcare are at stake.

No one has suggested that the fund’s money mysteriously disappeared! Leaflets can be downloaded at www.804membersunited.org that explain how the fund’s losses occurred.

What Local 804 members want to know is whether the money that was negotiated under the new UPS contract will be enough to rebuild the Health Fund’s depleted reserves and maintain current health benefits without cuts, increased co-pays or hikes in the cost of retiree healthcare.

Local 804 and UPS promised members in a signed a memorandum of agreement that 70¢ out of the $1.00 negotiated for benefits in the first year of the contract will go to the pension fund.

That leaves only 30¢ for the Health Fund, not much money to cover protect the benefits of members and retirees and rebuild the fund’s reserves.

August 1, 2008: More than 80 Teamsters wear TDU T-shirts to work every Thursday at the UPS hub in Manhattan.

Our message? We are informed and united Teamsters working together to enforce our rights and rebuild union power.

There is a question being asked by the Local 804 rank and file at the 43rd Street Hub and the question is: “What happened to the local that we were once proud of?”

The recent giveback contract cemented our feelings on this question. My opinion is that Local 804 has become too much of a private club and members are not invited to join. Sure, our officials still handle grievances. However, I find it amusing when they win a grievance and then they obligate a member or members to take a photo with check in hand to show how magnanimous they are.

We once had a union that we were proud of, but let’s face it: the Hoffa crowd at Local 804, as well as in the International Union, has lost their moral compass.

That is why I decided to join Teamsters for a Democratic Union. This organization of proud Teamsters and union organizers has given us information and facts while those whom we have placed our trust in have not!

A Sea of Solidarity

I find it quite interesting that UPS management and local officials, who were recently touting how great our contract was, were once again united in fear and anger when they started seeing more than 80 rank-and-file Teamsters wearing 100% cotton pre-shrunk t-shirts at the 43rd Street Hub every Thursday.

Could it be the large TDU logo on the back of the shirts? You bet! And I wear it with pride.

I can understand why UPS management reacts when they see a sea of Teamsters uniting in solidarity. That is what UPS fears the most.

But why the negativity from our local officials? The slogan of the Local 804 Members United movement is: Informed and United Teamsters Building a Strong Local 804. Which part of that equation does our Executive Board have a problem with?

We are not “dividers,” nor are we “troublemakers.” We are proud and powerful rank-and-file Teamsters—men and women—who are uniting and working together to enforce our rights and rebuild our union’s power.

Our involvement is paying off. In the last eight months, we have voted down contract givebacks, beaten pension cuts, passed bylaws that require our Executive Board to give members real information about our benefit funds and during contract negotiations, and exposed the loss of $18 million in assets by our Local 804 Health Fund.

The power of our once proud union is on the decline. But it doesn’t have to be that way. At the 43rd Street hub, we are doing what we can to put the movement back in the labor movement.

By William Riley, UPS
Local 804, New York

Wear Your TDU Pride! To buy a TDU t-shirt, available in sizes S-4XL, click here.

July 2, 2008: A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that a Teamster official who stole a union election must repay his salary and benefits.

Chuck Crawley, then the incumbent president of Houston Local 988, faced a stiff challenge by reform members in 2002. He won the election after he added hundreds of fraudulent ballots.

A jury found him guilty of stealing the election as well as embezzling union funds, and ordered him to pay restitution to the local union of $1.01 million—including his full salary and benefit costs for the term.

Crawley appealed, claiming that the local received his services as president so he should not have to repay his full salary and benefit costs.

But in a victory for union democracy and against corruption, the court ruled that he had in effect stolen the salary and deprived the members of their right to honest services.

Prior to his removal from office, he was an International Representative as well as local president. The former head of the RISE anti-corruption program, Ed Stier, charged that James Hoffa was protecting Crawley despite extensive corruption found by Stier's investigation in Houston.

Crawley is currently residing in the Oakdale Federal Prison in Louisiana, and is expected to be released in August 2012.

Precedent for Chicago Local 743

Currently five former officers and business agents of Chicago Local 743, including former president Richard Lopez, are under indictment for stealing the 2004 election by redirecting hundreds of ballots to friends and employers.

If they are convicted in federal court, this restitution verdict in Houston provides an appropriate guideline for restitution that is owed to the local union and its 12,000 working members.

Click here to read more about the verdict in the BNA Daily Labor Report.

July 2, 2008: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit June 27 rejected an appeal of the conviction and sentencing of Charles "Chuck" Crawley, the former president of the Houston-based International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 988 (United States. v. Crawley, 5th Cir., No. 07-20461, 6/27/08).

In May 2007, Crawley was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to a 78-month prison sentence and ordered to pay penalties of $121,478 on charges of union election fraud, embezzlement, and mail fraud (104 DLR A-2, 5/31/07).

A jury convicted Crawley in December 2006 of mail fraud related to the union's 2002 election, embezzling union funds through election fraud, accepting a $20,000 cash kickback from a telephone system vendor, and making false entries into the union records (238 DLR A-10, 12/12/06).

Crawley served as president of Local 988 from 1997 until his ouster by Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa in October 2003. Crawley was permanently barred from the union in September 2004.

Crawley was convicted for devising a scheme to defraud union members by placing 362 phony ballots marked in his favor for union president into false return envelopes representing members of Local 988 whom Crawley thought would not be voting in the election.

Crawley also was convicted of trying to ensure his re-election as union president by secretly increasing the number of votes registered on his behalf, thereby not entitling him to his salary as president beginning in January 2003. Crawley's conviction on embezzling union property arose from his use of the union's computer system to generate the fraudulent ballots, according to U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle.

Crawley's Appeal

Crawley's appeal to the Fifth Circuit was based largely on a two challenges to his sentence. Crawley maintained it was an error for the district court to use his pension and salary both as a measure of "dollar loss" for its increasing his offense level and as a basis for restitution.

A pre-sentence investigation report determined Crawley's base offense level to be six under sentencing guidelines. It further determined the intended loss to be $1.01 million, which was his salary and pension for 2000 to 2005 with the $20,000 kickback. The loss amount increased the base offense 16 levels.

Crawley argued that the dollar loss should only be the kickback. He contended the intended loss was zero because he intended only to deprive Local 988 of the right to elect their officials in an election free of voter fraud, but not to deprive them of the salary and pension he would receive.

"This contention, however, is inconsistent with the offenses with which Crawley was charged," Judge Rhesa H. Barksdale wrote for the panel of appeals court judges. She was joined by Chief Judge Edith H. Jones and Judge Carl E. Stewart.

The indictment given to the jury stated that Crawley "intended to obtain Local 988 property consisting of a designated salary for the president of Local 988 and associated benefits for the period of January 2003 until January 2006." The court noted the indictment also stated that Crawley "intended to deprive Local 988 and its members of their intangible right to [Crawley's] honest services."

"Although we cannot know which of these theories (if not both) was the basis for Crawley's conviction, each provides a sufficient basis for the district court's determining the intended loss constituted Crawley's salary and pension," the judge wrote.

Defense Attorney's Response

Houston attorney Richard Kuniansky, who represented Crawley, said he was "stunned" by the 3-0 court decision. "I thought we had an excellent case," Kuniansky said.

Kuniansky said he argued that Crawley should have received "some credit" for the work he did for the union, and that it was not fair to take an entire year's worth of salary and pension from his client.

"[Local 988] will get paid back even though they had a president," Kuniansky said. "They're having a windfall."

Kuniansky said he urged the court to apportion the restitution, but the judges could not determine "what part was used for corruption" and asked for his advice.

"I said, 'I don't know, but I do know you don't just tag him for the whole amount,' " Kuniansky said.

Kuniansky said he is unlikely to appeal to the court for an en banc hearing or to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that he has not made a final decision.

Crawley currently is serving his time in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana and is expected to be released in August 2012.

Calls to IBT were not immediately returned.