Leedham’s Grassroots v Hoffa’s Glossy Ads
Both Hoffa and the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Slate have campaign pages in the February Teamster magazine and on their websites. But the similarity ends there.
While Hoffa is struggling to keep defectors in the fold and put a glossy sheen on his failed record, Tom Leedham is drawing in new support and building a grassroots network of Teamster campaigners.
Leedham has built on the vote he got in the last election—picking up support from Teamster members and officers who are disaffected with
Hoffa because of the decline in Teamster power during his seven years in office.
Hoffa may be his own worst enemy. He is haunted by his broken promises of “No Dues Increase,” “25-and-Out,” and “No Corruption”—and by his broken pledge that “Health and pension benefits are guaranteed” under the master contracts he negotiated.
The Hoffa “Unity” that was formerly rock solid among Teamster officials is cracking, if not crumbling. It took an all-out pressure offensive to hold together his Unity Slate when Freight Director Tyson Johnson launched an aborted third slate in December. While Johnson is back in the fold, other key Hoffa supporters have turned against him or dropped away from active campaigning.
Third Slate?
Johnson, who announced his candidacy for Teamster President on Dec. 12, abandoned that campaign just two weeks later. Reportedly Johnson will retire from office. At the eleventh hour, Hoffa vice presidents and consultants convinced Johnson to drop out, all using the argument that Leedham would surely win a three-way race.Some Teamster officials would rather let the union continue to go downhill under Hoffa than risk a Leedham victory.
But many officials, including several in the Freight Division, refuse to come back to Hoffa. Some allies who helped put Hoffa in office are no longer with him. Even his former Executive Assistant, Carlow Scalf, is working against Hoffa’s reelection. Former Freight Director Phil Young, International Vice President Tom O’Donnell, New Jersey Joint Council President Don DiLeo, among others, have split from Hoffa.
To many officers it looks like Hoffa has not only abandoned Teamsters in freight, but he relies more on his consultants and handlers than the local officers who put in power.
Whether these developments will lead to a third slate, a coalition with Leedham, or something else, remains to be seen. In any event, they show that Hoffa has lost key support, at the same time that Leedham is reaching out to draw leaders who formerly backed Hoffa into the campaign and slate.
With no positive record to run on, Hoffa’s strategy is to go negative. Hoffa’s campaign ads call Leedham a “loser,” because Leedham lost to Hoffa in 1998 and in 2001.
But that approach may fall flat: thousands of Teamsters feel like they have been the big losers under the Hoffa administration.
Since Hoffa took office, our union has lost 100,000 members; hundreds of thousands of Teamsters have had pension and health benefits cut; and many officers feel Hoffa has lost touch with local officers and lost control of our union to inside-the-beltway consultants.
PR Campaign vs Ground War
The Hoffa Campaign will rely on a big fundraising advantage to bankroll a glossy PR campaign. Hoffa pays some 148 multiple salaries to Teamster officials—not including the hundreds more on the Hoffa payroll, most of whom can be made to pony up big bucks to his campaign.Leedham is relying on grassroots fundraising to finance a “ground war” campaign based on Teamster-to-Teamster outreach.
The campaign has launched a Strong Contracts, Good Pensions tour that is putting candidates in the field to talk with Teamsters about what it will take to rebuild our union’s strength.
Hoffa can only buy another term of office if we let him. The PR attacks of Hoffa’s consultants are no match for Teamster members if we’re organized in the terminals, hubs, factories, warehouses, job sites, and other Teamster workplaces.
The Leedham Campaign is building a Teamster army. It’s time for you to enlist.
Carhaul Leader Joins Leedham Slate
“Under Hoffa, we’ve got a shrinking union and shrinking Teamster power,” Thyer said. “Hoffa has lost touch with the members and cut local officers out of the loop.”
Thyer has been outspoken against weak enforcement of the national carhaul contract, a lack of effective organizing, and concessions that the Hoffa administration has given the employers that violate the contract and have locals underbidding each other. Stewards and members from other locals often rely on him for help.
Thyer considered a run for Teamster President, but met with Tom Leedham and decided to team up with Tom and his slate. He’s been a Teamster for 31 years and principal officer of Local 604 for 12 years. “I look forward to taking this campaign to the Teamster members. They know this union is headed in the wrong direction."
Unmasking Hoffa's Lies on Organizing & Employer Funding
Hoffa campaign operative Richard Leebove has made millions off of Teamster elections with his lies and distortions.
And he’s at it again in this month’s Teamster magazine. Under Hoffa, the Teamsters Union has lost over 100,000 members.
To cover for his failures, Hoffa’s campaign operatives lie about Hoffa’s organizing failures and distort Tom Leedham’s record.
In the February Teamster magazine campaign “battle pages” Hoffa brags, “We have added nearly 200,000 new members.”
He also charges that Tom Leedham’s Local 206 lost 17 percent of its membership over the last five years because of decertifications. Both claims are outright lies.
The Truth Squad is here to present Teamster members with the facts so you can cut through the spin and make up your own mind.
Membership Loss Under Hoffa
- The Teamsters Union has lost over 100,000 members since Hoffa took office.
- In the mid 1990’s, before Hoffa, the Teamsters Union reversed a 16-year decline in membership in the mid-1990s by launching aggressive organizing campaigns.
- When Hoffa pushed through the biggest dues increase in Teamster history, he nearly doubled the International Union’s income. But Hoffa has failed to use these new resources to organize and grow our union.
- The membership additions under Hoffa have come through mergers not organizing. Three mergers added 140,000 members to our union, inflating Hoffa’s numbers and covering for the lost Teamster members since Hoffa took office in 1999.
The Facts: Local 206 Membership
- Like most Teamster locals that are not predominately UPS or public sector locals, Local 206 has lost members due to changes in the U.S. economy. More than 90 percent of Local 206’s membership loss is due to companies closing down or moving to another local jurisdiction.
- Much of the Local 206’s membership “loss” came when Food Service of America, moved into a neighboring local union’s geographic jurisdiction. These members are not “lost.” They are proud Teamsters in Local 324.
- The Hoffa administration has failed to help Teamster locals to organize and grow—despite the largest dues increase in Teamster history. Hoffa’s own home Local 614 has suffered a double-digit membership decline.
Unlike Hoffa, Leedham will take responsibility for rebuilding Teamster organizing—not pass the buck to Teamster officers and blame them for our union’s membership losses.
Employer Donations—A Big Lie
In the same Teamster magazine campaign ads, Leebove and Hoffa claim that the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions campaign is “linked to employer funding.”
This is another outright lie.
Accepting direct or indirect employer contributions is a blatant violation of Federal Law and the IBT Election Rules.
If Hoffa had any evidence to back up his bogus claims, he would immediately file a charge with the Teamster Election Supervisor and the Department of Labor.
But Hoffa restricts his charges to the Teamster magazine. Why? Because his claims are campaign propaganda and nothing more.
Leebove should know all about employer contributions. The Election Administrator expelled him from the 1998 campaign for making an illegal $167,000 contribution to Hoffa. Leebove was suspended from the 2001 campaign for hinting to employers that they should donate to Hoffa’s campaign.
Source: Decisions of the Election Administrator.
Teamster Movers Defeat Local 814 Merger Attempt
The merger had the endorsement of New York Joint Council 16. But it did not have support of the Local 814 membership. The no vote shows once again the value of the right to vote on mergers. TDU members proposed this constitutional reform for years at Teamster Conventions before it was finally approved in 2001.
“What Local 814 needs is new, strong leadership that will fight for strong contracts and organize the nonunion competition—not a merger into a weak local with a history of corruption,” said Walter Taylor, one of the leaders of the Vote No effort. “Now that we’ve defeated this merger, hopefully we can get down to the real business of rebuilding union strength in the moving industry and for all of our local’s members.”
Teamster Local 814 members in New York City had a tough year in 2005. First they were hit with concessions and pension cuts after the IBT gave them no strike support in a fight with the Movers Association. Then they were blindsided with a proposed merger into Teamsters Local 810—a local with a long history of corruption scandals, bloated officers’ salaries, and embezzlement.
The anti-merger effort was led by the same members who formed a rank-and-file network to fight for a strong contract during last summer’s negotiations. Some Local 814 officials also opposed the merger, including George Daniello who had ambitions of his own to head the local.
Daniello got his wish. In the wake of the merger defeat, Local 814 President Pete Furtado has retired and Daniello has taken his place.
To defeat the merger, members distributed informational leaflets about Local 810’s record of corruption and dues waste and it’s weak record on organizing—an issue that is critical to the future of Teamster commercial movers whose wages and benefits are being undermined because of growing nonunion competition.
The committee also revealed that president Lou Smith has nearly doubled his salary to $244,845.
Local 810 has lost 2,000 members since 1997. The only organizing Smith is known for is a sweetheart contract he signed with the Cipriani family to undercut a strike by the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union. That move landed Smith a suspension from union office in 1999.
“The men were fed up. They saw this merger as a dues grab that was for the benefit of certain union officials and not the members,” said Billy Esser, Sr., a Local 814 Teamster at Hanover Moving and Storage. “We don’t want more business as usual. We want real change and we’re standing up for it.”
The Local 814 merger was defeated because rank-and-file members put in action an organized plan to inform and unite the local’s membership. That same combination of rank-and-file organization and unity is what it will take to rebuild Local 814 as a union that delivers strong contracts and good benefits.
Members Prove Chicago Local Rigged Election
January 30, 2006: What Happens When Elections Are Not Supervised! Members Prove Chicago Local Rigged Election January 30, 2006. “We knew the election was stolen from us. But I don’t think we expected to get the black and white proof, and see how they did it,” explained Richard Berg, leader of the New Leadership Slate in Chicago Local 743.
Berg referred to documents obtained by his attorney, Tom Geoghegan, from the U.S. Department of Labor showing that hundreds of ballots were diverted to the addresses of employers, stewards and even a Russian bath house that the union president frequents. Those ballots were then voted and counted in the December 2004 local union election.
The phony ballots, which were mailed in bulk to stewards, employers and cronies, kept Robert Walston in office instead of the New Leadership Slate, which would have won the election. The election was already a “do-over” that Walston called after Berg won two months earlier by seven votes (despite the ballot box stuffing!).
The local leadership was named as corrupt in the April 2004 report by former Teamster anti-corruption czar Ed Stier, before he resigned his position in protest. The officers also use Hoffa’s political advisor Richard Leebove as a consultant. The Department of Labor has gone to federal court against the Local 743 leadership to overturn the vote.
New Leadership Slate is also planning their own legal action in addition to the Department of Labor action. And they continue to build their support among the rank and file. The New Leadership Slate plans to run a slate of delegate candidates to represent Local 743 with honest leaders at the IBT Convention. With an independent Election Supervisor in place, they believe they can get a fair election there.
What’s At Stake at the Teamster Convention?
January 30, 2006: Hoffa is trying to block all opposition candidates from getting on the ballots. Will your local elect delegates who will nominate the Tom Leedham Slate and give members a choice?
Pension Reform
Hundreds of thousands of Teamsters have had their benefits cut under Hoffa. Will your delegates support reforms to hold pension trustees accountable to the members?
Strong Contracts, Not Dues Waste
Will your delegates vote to eliminate multiple salaries for Teamster officials and dedicate the savings to organizing the nonunion competition and fighting for strong contracts?
No Dues Hikes
Will your delegates vote to require a membership vote on future increase to the dues formula?
Will Your Local's Delegates to the Teamster Convention Be A Voice for Working Teamsters? Or a Rubber Stamp For Hoffa?
January 30, 2006: On June 26-30 some 1,700 delegates will meet in Las Vegas to chart the future of the Teamsters Union. They have the power to change our union for the better, or to maintain the status quo.
The convention, which is held every five years, can rewrite our Teamster Constitution to make our union more democratic and accountable. Or, they can rewrite it to make it controlled from the top. They can nominate the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Slate, or they can rubber stamp the
Hoffa administration’s plan to give members only one choice (Hoffa) in the November Teamster election. They can work hard for Teamsters. Or they can party in Vegas with members’ dues. Which Will it Be? Many locals are holding elections for delegate in February. Members can send rubber stamps, or they can send independent delegates who will stand up for the members.
History is our guide. In 2001, most delegates never even opened their Constitution Report once, all week. They simply voted as they were told by the Hoffa “whips”. But a courageous minority were the ones who made history. They successfully nominated a reform slate, so members would have a choice in the one-member-one-vote election. They stood up to the hecklers, and called for an end to the waste of dues money; a membership bill of rights; and for a membership vote on Hoffa’s dues hike.
In 1991, 1996 and 2001 it was the independent, reform delegates who made history. They won us the right to vote: the right to vote on delegates, the right to vote on contract supplements, majority rule on our contract votes and the right to vote on mergers. They nominated reform candidates to give Teamster members a choice.
What will happen at the 2006 Convention? In part, that’s up to us. Choose wisely when you cast your vote for Convention Delegate in your local.
Tom Leedham Slate’s Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Tour
January 30, 2006: Tom Leedham and other candidates are hitting the road to hear from Teamster members and share ideas for rebuilding our union’s power.
Do you want to talk with candidates about plans for winning strong contracts? Strengthening contract enforcement? Fighting cuts in Teamster pensions and benefits? Organizing the nonunion competition?
Then look for a Tom Leedham Campaign event in your area. A partial listing of tour dates with the featured candidates appears below.
Boston: Sunday, Feb. 19
Tom Leedham, General President
Sandy Pope, Vice President At-Large
Christopher Roos, Eastern Region Vice President
Chicago: Saturday & Sunday, March 4-5
Tom Leedham, General President
Hartford, Conn.: Saturday, Feb. 18
Tom Leedham, General President
Sandy Pope, Vice President At-Large
Chris Roos, Eastern Region Vice President
Eunice Rodriguez, Leedham Slate
Memphis: Sunday, Jan. 29
Scott Webber, Vice President At-Large
T.C. Bundrant, Southern Region Vice President
Milwaukee: Saturday, Feb. 4
Sandy Pope, Vice President At-Large
Minneapolis/St. Paul: Sunday, Feb. 19
Dan Scott, Vice President At-Large
Nashville: Saturday, Jan. 28
Scott Webber, Vice President At-Large
T.C. Bundrant, Southern Region Vice President
New York City: Friday, Feb. 17
Tom Leedham, General President
Sandy Pope, Vice President At-Large
Eunice Rodriguez, Leedham Slate
Philadelphia: Sunday, Feb. 12
Sandy Pope, Vice President At-Large
Seattle: Sunday, Jan. 29
Tom Leedham, General President
Dan Scott, Vice President At-Large
Tom Leedham, General President
Sandy Pope, Vice President At-Large
Chris Roos, Eastern Region Vice President
For more information, or to set up a meeting with a candidate in your area, contact the campaign at (718) 287-6156 or leedhamslate [at] gmail.com (LeedhamSlate [at] gmail.com.)
Central States Funds Change Benefits
The dissident group Teamsters for a Democratic Union, in a Dec. 1 Web posting, blasted the agreement as a disservice to union members and called for firing the Teamster trustees.
"In exchange for an IRS extension of the period allowing for amortizing the fund's unfunded liabilities, the trustees agreed to lock in the [2003] pension cuts and usher in more health care cuts," TDU charged. "The employers and IRS got what they wanted and Teamster members got the shaft."
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters praised the agreement and criticized TDU.
"These are more scare tactics from a small, dissident faction that is trying to exploit the pension crisis in this country for political gain," IBT said.
"The IRS amortization agreement is a major victory for Central States," the union continued. "It is the only such agreement the IRS has granted, and it will allow Central States to regain its financial footing after the unprecedented stock market losses that have affected every pension fund in the country."
TDU said "stunned" union officials were informed of the changes Nov. 8 by Fred Gegare, chairman of the five union trustees who administer the fund with five employer trustees. The Central States fund covers workers at unionized trucking companies, including UPS, the largest employer of Teamsters.
According to TDU, trustees agreed to keep in place pension cuts made in 2003, divert health and welfare money for 2007 to the pension fund and not restore a "25- 30-and-out" provision that has been eliminated for younger fund participants. In addition, future labor contracts must include an increase in pension contributions of 7 percent in each contract year.
"The IRS agreement requires employers to increase their contributions. It does not cut benefits. This dissident faction needs to get the facts straight," IBT responded.
"The dissident faction's solution to the national pension crisis is to do nothing, putting members' entire pensions in jeopardy by forcing a government takeover that would result in huge benefit cuts by as much as two-thirds," the union said.
In July, Thomas C. Nyhan, executive director of the fund, in a letter to employers, said the Internal Revenue Service at the request of the fund had approved a 10-year extension of the period for amortizing unfunded liabilities, subject to certain conditions.
"The conditions attached to the amortization extension period will require additional contributions to the pension fund in order to maintain existing benefits, but the issue of additional contributions can now be addressed in the context of the collective bargaining process rather than as a result of IRS imposed penalties," Nyhan wrote.
Nyhan could not be reached for comment on the agreement.
Members Back Tom Leedham Candidacy
“The response was incredible,” said John Youngermann, a Local 688 UPS Teamster who collected signatures in the St. Louis area. “Members were lining up to have the chance to vote against Hoffa and for International leaders who will fight for us. Even former Hoffa die-hards wanted to sign.”
Members collected 20,000 more signatures than were required by the Election Rules to accredit the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Slate. As a result, Teamster members will get to hear from the Leedham Slate in the campaign battle pages in the February issue of Teamster Magazine.
The fact that it took less than four weeks to collect the signatures shows two things. First, Teamster members are hungry for change. And second, the Leedham Campaign is building the grassroots network of Teamster volunteers that will be needed to win the 2006 Teamster election.
Now volunteers are turning their attention to the next steps in the campaign, including Convention Delegate races, fundraising and spreading the word about the Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions Slate.
Time to Step Up
“Hoffa’s team is splitting apart, just as the Tom Leedham Campaign’s grassroots network is coming together,” said Chris Roos, candidate for Eastern Vice President. “This election is ours to win. It’s time to step up. Every Teamster that wants positive change needs to know this is your chance to get involved and make it happen.”Convention Delegate Elections: The elections for Teamster Convention Delegate are the next critical challenge. Delegates will officially nominate candidates at the IBT Convention in late June. The Leedham Campaign needs supporters to run in these races to put the Strong Contracts Good Pension Slate on the ballot and to support positive changes at the Teamster Convention.
Most locals will be holding their nomination meetings in January (some in February) so the time to act is now. Call TDU or the Leedham Campaign for information and assistance.
Spread the Word: Informing members about the election will be up to Teamsters like us. You can help by passing out flyers and information. Make sure you get on the Leedham Campaign mailing list and email list to receive regular updates and campaign materials.
Build Campaign Events: Slate members will be hitting the road to talk about their plans for the future of the Teamsters Union, in a series of upcoming campaign events. Get involved by attending or hosting a campaign meeting in your area. Contact the campaign for details.
Build the Campaign Warchest: The Leedham Campaign will also be launching a drive to raise $100,000 by the end of January as the start of a larger warchest. Funds are needed to finance travel for candidates and to reach the 1.4 million Teamsters. Donate online at www.leedham2006.org or send a check to Leedham Campaign, 1863 Pioneer Parkway East #217, Springfield OR 97477.
Click here: Tom Leedham Campaign for Teamster Presidency Moves Ahead!
Click here: Hoffa 'Dis-Unity' Slate Splits
Click here: After the Hoffa Split: Forging Alliances Based on Plans, Not Personalities
Click here: Teamster Candidates Will Debate