Ever since UPS announced it would buy Overnite Transportation, the Hoffa administration has been promising to unveil a “comprehensive plan to both organize Overnite and win a good contract.” Teamster members and officers are still waiting. Nine months have passed. During that time, Hoffa has issued six press releases trumpeting plans, meetings, and the union’s “renewed commitment to organizing Overnite.” Last June, the IBT called Teamster leaders from every UPS local to Chicago for a national meeting where Overnite was to be at the top of the agenda. No organizing plans were announced at the meeting, and no plans have been put in motion since—just four more press releases. In the meantime, UPS management is moving ahead with plans of its own—and those plans do not include Teamster representation at Overnite. “We believe it is important to stay nonunion,” said CEO Leo Suggs. UPS management is backing up its plans with actions—buying Overnite, changing its name, purchasing new equipment, cross-training its sales force, and integrating nonunion operations into the Teamsters’ largest employer. This threat to Teamsters at UPS and freight—and to our union’s benefit plans—needs to be met with more than press releases. It’s time for less talk and more action.

March 16, 2006: Have you seen the photo of Overnite’s new tractor trailers? The ones that say UPS Freight on them? Right there, in a snapshot, is the biggest threat facing our union. UPS is officially rebranding Overnite as UPS Freight.

The best-known name in trucking, and the deepest pockets in the business, are now behind our main nonunion rival in the freight industry. UPS Freight also gives management and UPS Logistics a home-grown nonunion operation where they can direct Teamster feeder work. And you can bet that management will use UPS Freight to undercut our leverage in any future strike—unless we organize UPS Freight and bring those drivers and dock workers into our Teamsters Union.

We really have no other choice. The road to rebuilding our union’s power, strengthening our pensions, organizing in our core industries—all these roads lead through UPS Freight/Overnite. Organizing UPS Freight will not only strengthen our bargaining power at UPS and in the freight industry. It will add at least 10,000 new participants to our union’s benefit plans—helping to reverse the trend that employers and Hoffa’s trustees have used to justify benefit cuts. When you realize the stakes, it becomes clear that Hoffa’s disaster at Overnite marks a turning point for our union.

In the 1990s, our union organized thousands of Overnite workers. Hoffa inherited that organizing drive and drove it right over a cliff. He called a reckless strike with no strategy to win, let it drag on for years, and then pulled the plug as soon as the 2001 Teamster election cycle was over.

UPS Freight is the legacy of that failure. We can overcome Hoffa’s failure. But we need a serious organizing plan to do it. We have to start by cutting dues waste and freeing up money for organizing. We have to train a minimum of 1,000 new member organizers.

If you look at our union’s history, our most successful organizing has been done by Teamsters who are proud of their union. We also must organize strategically to boost the bargaining power of our existing membership. Organizing isn’t just about adding members, it’s about supporting our existing contracts. We need to focus on organizing nonunion competitors like UPS Freight, FedEx, DHL, and other companies who are undermining our industry standards.

The Teamster Convention is three months away. Anyone who attended the last one knows what’s coming. In 2001, Hoffa made organizing Overnite a central theme of the Convention. There were speeches, videos, and resolutions—everything but a plan to win.

We can’t have a repeat in 2006. We can’t play politics when it comes to organizing UPS Freight. When Hoffa ran for General President in 2001, his campaign ads featured a picture of him on an Overnite picket line, promising to “never rest” until the Overnite strike was won.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Look again at that photo of Hoffa’s broken Overnite promise. And look again at the UPS Freight photo. Those pictures sum up the Hoffa record. It’s time for a new direction. 

--Tom Leedham 

Six months after buying Overnite Transportation, UPS unveiled its plan on Feb. 28 to change Overnite’s name to UPS Freight. The company’s equipment will sport a new logo that combines Overnite’s with the UPS brown. “Overnite Goes Brown” screamed the headlines in the trucking press. But this change is about a lot more than looks and a logo. The launching of UPS Freight is part of a long-term plan by UPS management to wed a nonunion freight company with its existing Teamster parcel delivery operations. The goal is to bring customers a “single-source provider for any transportation need,” says Overnite CEO Leo Suggs. The sales force for UPS and UPS Freight will cross-sell a combined “transportation package” of both freight and package services. UPS Freight drivers will soon start using the UPS DIAD, the Delivery Information Acquisition Device that Big Brown is famous for. But that synergy stops at the union hall door, say industry analysts. “UPS Freight’s key competitors are nonunion companies,” Suggs told Traffic World. “So, we believe it is important to stay nonunion.” Allowing UPS Freight to remain nonunion could mean the end of Teamster power in the trucking industry. We can’t maintain union standards in the freight industry if the most profitable transportation company in the world, UPS, is bankrolling and growing a major nonunion carrier. And we can’t maintain our bargaining power at UPS if management can use a nonunion division to undercut us. Management is clear about its plans to keep UPS Freight nonunion and integrate it into the core of the UPS operation. Our International needs to be just as clear with an action plan to organize UPS wall-to-wall. The Hoffa administration has been promising to unveil its plans for months. In the meantime, UPS management is charging ahead. Overnite has gone brown. It’s time for our union to go after Overnite. Click Here: The Road Ahead Runs Through UPS Freight Click Here: PR Won't Organize UPS Freight

1. How soon after the formation of the IBT did reformers challenge an incumbent president?
___Two years ___Twenty-eight years ___Fifty-four years ___Eighty-eight years

2. Which Teamster leader was beaten and nearly killed by opponents?
___ Ron Carey ___ Pete Camarata ___ Cornelius Shea ___ Tony Provenzano

3. Which Teamster leader likened himself to a Roman emperor?
___Tom Keegel ___Jackie Presser ___Mike Ruscigno ___Dane Passo

4. Which are victories won by TDU?
__ Stopped unreasonable rules used to disqualify challengers from running for office. __Wrote and got enacted a new law giving truck safety whistleblowers protection from retaliation.
__Established fair contract votes and right to separate vote on supplements.
__Ended the 2/3 rule used by the IBT to impose contracts even though rejected by a majority of members.
__Established Right to Vote for IBT officers.

5. During which Teamster strike were 21 people killed and 416 injured?
__Steelhaul strike of 1979 __1997 UPS strike __Chicago strike in 1905 __Minneapolis strike in 1934 __1999 strike against Overnite __1990s Detroit Newspaper strike

6. Was TDU the only group in IBT history to put forward the proposal that Teamster presidents be directly elected by the membership? __Yes __No

7. When was the first time that a Black Teamster served on the General Executive Board? __1912 __1946 __1961 __1976

8. When did the first woman serve on the IBT GEB? __1907 __1942 __1966 __1991

9. Which Teamster president brought about the following changes in our union? *Innocent Until Proven Guilty language in contracts. *Expanded protections for local union elections. *Eliminated 100 multiple salaries paid to top officials. *Organizing program with highest number of wins in decades. *Human rights commission.

10. What was the group that called itself BLAST?
___A recreational group of Chicago Teamster officials.
___A fundraising committee for James Hoffa.
___A goon squad that launched violent attacks on TDU.
___ Tom Keegel’s bowling league.

11. In which years did UPS Teamsters strike for better contracts or against serious problems? __1970 __1974 __1976 __1978 __1979 __1994 __1997

12. What was the RISE program?
___ An exercise regime Hoffa implemented for the General Executive Board.
___ Hoffa’s anti-corruption program that is now defunct.
___ An IBT staff wagering pool on which official’s salary will rise the most in one year.

13. Who is the only Teamster president who never made a living as a rank and file member? ___Hoffa Sr. ___Roy Williams ___Cornelius Shea ___Hoffa Jr.

Click here for the Teamster History Quiz Answers Sheet

Before TDU won the right for direct elections of delegates, women and minorities hardly ever made it to the floor of the Teamster Convention. The Right to Vote helped that situation. As we look forward to building a movement that includes the voices of all Teamsters, TDU would like to take advantage of Women’s History Month to acknowledge some exceptional women who have fought for their sisters and brothers against the corruption of previous Teamster leaders.

Diana Kilmury, Vancouver Local 213, enraged the old guard in 1981 when she spoke for ridding the union of its bad apples. “I didn’t say you were a bunch of crooks ... [but] if you’re too damn scared to have an Ethical Practices Commission that you yourselves, the General Executive Board will control, then my God, you must be up to something.” Later, Kilmury would go on to become our union’s first female International Vice President in 1991. Those events inspired the film “Mother Trucker: the Diana Kilmury Story.”

Linda Gregg, Denver Local 435, was one of the first women to become a local principal officer. She spoke in favor of increasing strike benefits at the 1986 convention. The majority of delegates, led by then-President Jackie Presser, voted down the proposal on the grounds that it would be too expensive and make the members too eager to strike. The previous night the Teamsters had footed the bill for giant parties with lobster and free-flowing booze.

Ten years later, Laurie Craig from Minnesota Local 1145, spoke against multiple salaries. “Mr. Chairman, why would a union leader want to be paid two, three, or more salaries? It’s against the principles this union is built upon. We are not a corporation where greed is king. We are a union of brothers and sisters. Let’s unite and do what’s right. Put that money, millions of dollars, to work in organizing and bargaining and strike benefits.”

The proposal to eliminate multiple salaries will again be made at the 2006 Teamster Convention.

The questions these women have raised still resonate with the average Teamster. Local 805 President Sandy Pope, a candidate for International Vice President, is the former director of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). She is one of the three women on the still-growing Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Slate.Hoffa’s slate contains 21 men and no women yet.

Pope says she believes the Teamsters can realize the dreams of the women and men who faced down the old guard in decades past, and that the common-sense, members-first approach advocated by women such as Kilmury, Gregg, and others have given our reform movement a strong base for the work to be done in the twenty-first century.

Review: "I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank 'the Irishman' Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Final Ride of Jimmy Hoffa.

"I heard you paint houses." Those are the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank Sheeran, who would become a top Teamster official in the 1960s and '70s as well as a hired killer for Hoffa and the mob. The words refer to the splatter of blood when the deed is done.

Hoffa hired Sheeran in that first telephone conversation as an "organizer," on the recommendation of Russell Bufalino, the Mafia boss of Pennsylvania.

I Heard You Paint Houses is Sheeran's story of his life with Hoffa and in the mob, as told in hundreds of hours of tapes to one of his former attorneys, Charles Brandt. There have been too many books on the mob and on the Hoffa era in the Teamsters, most of them terrible.

This one is worth reading. Sheeran was close to Hoffa, and gives an insider's feel for the intimate relationship of Hoffa and the Teamster leadership to the mob.

An Insider's Story

Hoffa created a local union for Sheeran: Delaware Local 326 was carved out of Philadelphia Local 107, with Sheeran installed as president. He was identified as a mob leader in the 1987 RICO lawsuit against top Teamsters that led to the present-day consent order.

It's an easy book to read, and even fun, if that's an appropriate word for a book about murder and union corruption. Sheeran and Brandt (half the book is taken verbatim from the Sheeran tapes, the rest written by Brandt) don’t romanticize the mob; to "The Irishman", it's just a business and the way he lives. He matter of factly describes killing three people in one day and then he "met up with Jimmy to give him the report."

There is considerable coverage in the book of Hoffa's trials. Hoffa was tried for taking payoffs from carhaul employers, and got a hung jury by bribing several jurors. His co-defendant was Bert Brennan, his business partner in the scams that sent him to prison. Brennan's son Larry currently heads Michigan Joint Council 43.

Then Hoffa was tried and convicted in 1964 for the jury tampering, and also convicted by a Chicago jury of defrauding the Central States Pension Fund to line his own pocket in a Florida land scam. His appeals ran out in 1967 and he entered Lewiston Prison to serve a combined 13 year sentence.

The chapters on the trials show Hoffa as master strategist and as a brazen crook who used threats and bribes routinely. And they show that his famous ego could be his weakness.

Why Hoffa Was Murdered

James P. Hoffa, the current Teamster president, likes to say the mob killed his dad. It's half true. Mobsters killed Hoffa for sure, but Hoffa was a part of their operation.

Sheeran makes very clear who their victims are: they kill their own. Mainly they kill mob insiders who they fear have information that may be used against them.

Hoffa was too eager to get back into office, and they felt he would trade information in exchange for lifting the restrictions put on him to stay out of the union when Nixon pardoned him in December 1971.

Sheeran adds some details to what is already well-known about the corrupt relationship between Hoffa and the Nixon administration. Sheeran himself delivered a suitcase of money to the home of John Mitchell, the Attorney General who later went to prison himself for Watergate crimes.

After Hoffa left prison in 1971, Sheeran claims he was a changed man. More "puffing," as Sheeran calls it, about what he would do to whom, even though his power was gone. That "puffing" scared top mobsters; it made them think he would make a deal with the Justice Department. That's why Russell Bufalino co-ordered the hit on Hoffa.

Sheeran believes the 1972 book by Kennedy aide Walter Sheridan played a role in the Hoffa murder. That book revealed that Hoffa had snitched to the FBI on Teamster President Dave Beck to help send Beck to prison and Hoffa into the Marble Palace. Bufalino and other Hoffa associates feared that once again he would turn FBI informant to get into the Marble Palace.

That's the FBI's view of the crime as well. Sheeran adds one new twist: that he himself, not Salvatore "Sally Bugs" Bruguglio, pulled the trigger on July 30, 1975. The other new tidbit is a Detroit home address where Sheeran says the Teamster president was killed. (The owner of the house now has a website, apparently shopping for his 15 minutes of fame.)

Whose Union Is It?

I spoke with Dan Moldea, author of The Hoffa Wars, the authoritative 1978 book on Hoffa and his era, about Sheeran's book. Moldea thinks Sheeran embellished the story by making himself the trigger man, but that otherwise there's a lot to learn from the book. It adds some details and intimate connection to Hoffa that only an insider can provide.

Teamsters interested in how the Teamsters Union became corrupted should read it. While mob influence in the Teamsters (and in the USA overall) is lower today, the culture created then lives on inside much of the Teamsters.

Hoffa became obsessed with saying of his former flunky and successor, Frank Fitzsimmons "It's not his union, it's my union."

The idea that the Teamsters belongs to any general president or official is a legacy of the mob era that Teamster members continue to struggle against today.

Ken Paff
TDU Organizer

March 16, 2006: When the Central States Pension Fund trustees, led by chairman Fred Gegare, made drastic cuts two years ago, Teamsters knew their futures were not as secure as they once assumed. Those close to retirement paid the most attention, and took the lead in the Teamster fightback. These Teamsters thought they were set after nearly 30 years of hard work and couldn’t imagine top Teamster officials joining with the companies in such an attack. But now younger Teamsters are also getting informed and getting involved. Our pension and health and welfare benefits are about the future of our union. Restoring benefits will be key to organizing new members. “I’m 34 with six full-time and ten part-time years in at UPS,” said Chris Janssen from Des Moines Local 90. “There’s no guarantee positive changes are coming down the road. Others with my years of experience are getting discouraged. It’s hard to see having to work another 25 years to get to the full pension. What happened to the ‘25 and out’ that we won in 1997?” Janssen isn’t the only one with these views. Ross Thompson, a UPS package driver in Kansas City Local 41, commented, “I started driving full-time at UPS in 1990 and had already done five years part-time. My goal was to raise my family and retire by age 55. Now it looks like I’m going to be forced to work until I’m 59 if I want to collect on a full pension. “I’m not alone. Thousands of package car drivers and Teamsters in other industries are in the same boat. How are our bodies supposed to take it?” New Rule Can Drive Teamsters Out The Teamster leadership has no plan to restore the pension and medical benefits that have been taken from retirees. Those who built the union are being dumped on. But, as the brothers Janssen and Thompson indicate, this problem is about the future of our union. Central States has put into effect a new “seven percent” rule, which could drive more people out of our pension fund. This rule says that every contract negotiated must have a seven percent increase per year, each year, in pension contributions. A business rep with ongoing bargaining at three companies right now told us, “This is going to take most of our bargaining power away. At the top benefit level, we have to bargain over 40 cents an hour every year into the pension fund. Where will we find enough money to maintain health benefits?” If a contract fails to meet the seven percent test, the Teamsters under that contract will be kicked out of the pension fund. They are given no other option. This is likely to be devastating for affected Teamsters, and will reduce the size of our fund as well. The Teamster pension used to be the gold standard for retirement, and can be once again. But we need leadership that has the will to do it. It’s too easy for big-shot union officials who are drawing two or three salaries and earning multiple pensions to forget what it is like for members who are getting their bodies beat up on the job. This is why TDU members will propose an amendment to the Teamster constitution that would require pension trustees to be held accountable to the membership.

On July 24th, Minnesota unionists and other social justice activists held a day-long celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike.

In the summer of 1934, truck drivers demanding that employers recognize and bargain with their union shut down all freight and delivery traffic in and out of Minneapolis for weeks. “Flying squads” of picketers patrolled the streets, stopping all non-union deliveries.

Business, supported by the local police, cracked down violently. Two strikers were killed, and sixty-seven were wounded, when police opened fire on picketers. But the workers held strong, and the employers were finally forced to recognize and sign a contract with the union.

The 1934 strike made Minneapolis a union town. It was also the start of wide-scale national Teamster freight organizing. The leaders of the Minneapolis strike used their base there to start organizing outward to other cities.

The July 24th anniversary commemoration was held at the location where striking Teamsters resisted attacks by the police 70 years before. The celebration included music and speeches as well as a historical display provided by members of Minnesota TDU.

February 8, 2006: Allied management sent thousands of carhaul Teamsters a letter dated January 31 stating that, unless they are given more concessions from Teamsters, then they may “seek appropriate relief from the bankruptcy court…to set aside an existing collective bargaining agreement and authorize reductions in pay and benefits.” It looks like they are testing the waters to see if they can get concessions from the International Union. We cannot have our national master contract busted in court. If the largest carhaul employer could break the contract using bankruptcy court, then other employers under the master agreement would demand parity, and the downward spiral would only worsen. We cannot allow the new corporate tactic of using bankruptcy court to destroy decades of union struggle to win good contracts and decent family benefits to spread into our union and the trucking industry. Allied’s letter does not mention that Teamsters have already gave in to a two year wage freeze, have been hit with pension accrual cuts, and slapped with the destruction of retiree health care benefits. Carhaulers know the industry problems are real. But the answer is not open-ended concessions with no union plan to protect jobs and job security.

February 8, 2006. Local 249 has submitted a request for strike authorization from the IBT in response to DHL’s unwillingness to comply with a September 2005 grievance decision. Five months have passed since the National Review Committee for the NMFA (Tyson Johnson for the IBT and Jim Roberts for TMI) ordered DHL to pay $90,000 worth of back pay to Teamsters in Pittsburgh for subcontracting violations.

In January 2006 the Eastern Conference panel heard a second grievance and ruled DHL must pay a penalty of over $2,000 for each day the company fails to pay the original $90,000 ruling. They now owe over $200,000. Why won’t DHL comply with the contract and pay up?

The answer is Brad Slawson. Last October International Rep. Slawson, the right-hand man to General Secretary Treasurer Tom Keegel, went behind the back of the affected Teamsters to try to cut a deal with DHL and let the company to pay a measly $16,000. In a January 17, 2006 notarized statement, DHL vice president for Labor Relations, Patricia Ann Burke claims that Slawson approached her with the deal. This was after the Pittsburgh Teamsters had been duly awarded $90,000 for two years of giving away union work. This is the same Brad Slawson who was put in charge of DHL Teamsters for the International Union by James Hoffa.

Local 249 members continue to press for the acknowledgement of their victorious grievance and the money owed. The Eastern Region Joint Area Committee met on January 18, 2006 and found in favor of the Local 249 grievance calling for penalty pay from October 19, 2005 forward. Local 249 has received strike authorization from Joint Council 40. The request has been sent to the International.

It’s time for Hoffa to do right thing. Send Slawson back to Minnesota, and support the Pittsburgh Teamsters who are asking for nothing but what they are entitled to.