July 12, 2007: By John Dominikovich Local 726, Chicago: It’s time for change in Chicago Local 726, to make this union strong and proud. I see that change happening this fall in the union election.

I’ve worked for the Cook County Highway Department for 25 years and I’ve been a Local 726 member for 20 years. I’ve seen our driver jobs reduced by 50 percent. Jobs have been farmed out with little fight from our local officials.

Local 726 has given up our paid overtime, twelve sick days per year, four personal days a year and six holidays. We get straight time pay while the supervisors and office personnel get double time on holidays. We have over 20 bosses for the 72 drivers on our board. There is talk of losing more drivers.

We have a contract ratification meeting set for July and we’ve been told there are changes, but we have not been given the new language. We’ve been told just to vote Yes on it. Our health benefit costs are going up and the plan design is supposed to change, but again, we’ve been given no specifics in writing.

All this goes on as we see our local officers and agents getting raises and turning a deaf ear to our wants and needs.

It’s time for a change. And our members are going to make it happen.

July 3, 2007: The International Union and New York Local 237 claim to be investigating HMO "consultant" payments received by International VP Carroll Haynes. This action came in response to a report in the June Convoy Dispatch, following research by TDU.

Haynes, who has routinely made over $300,000 from his multiple salaries and pensions, has been pulling down an extra $54,500 as a "consultant" to Health Insurance Plans (HIP) of New York. HIP provides benefits to Teamster Local 237 members.

Teamster for a Democratic Union (TDU) once previously caught Haynes taking more money than legally allowed from the union treasury; after charges were filed, Hoffa allowed him to merely repay $8,000, claiming it was a "clerical error."

Now Local 237 and the International Union have hired an attorney to investigate Haynes' "consulting."

The New York newspaper The Chief followed up on the Convoy report on Haynes. Read the article below.

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The executive board of Teamsters Local 237 voted last week to launch an investigation into whether then-President Carl Haynes improperly received $54,500 last year as a board member of the union's health plan.

Many municipal unions contract with the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP) for health care and prescription coverage, and officers of Local 237, the United Federation of Teachers and District Council 37 have long served on its board of directors.

Local 237 officials have hired a lawyer, Bruce Maffeo, who has handled such investigations in the past, to lead the inquiry. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will foot half of the bill.

Former Local 237 Secretary-Treasurer and current President Gregory Floyd said he was not aware of the stipend until a phone call on June 15 brought it to his attention. "We have hired Mr. Maffeo to conduct a fair and impartial inquiry into the matter," said Mr. Floyd. "At this point we don't know if anything has been done improperly."

Mr. Haynes did not return messages left at the IBT's Washington, D.C. office and on his cell phone. He is still a vice president of the International and is on the executive boards of the city's AFL-CIO Central Labor Council and the Municipal Labor Committee.

The former Local 237 president, who retired in April, reported the income to the Federal government on March 30. By law, union officials must report any income that comes from an entity that does business with their union. The law is intended to flag any conflicts of interest or undue influence that could compromise a union's ability to properly serve its members.

Mr. Haynes reported that he received quarterly retainer payments and meeting fees, two for $14,000 and two for $12,500. He received a fifth meeting fee of $1,500. The stipend is in addition to the more-than quarter-million dollars Mr. Haynes earned last year as a Teamster official.

Mr. Maffeo will attempt to discover whether Mr. Haynes's receipt of the HIP board stipend violated any internal Teamster bylaws or the union's constitution. Mr. Haynes served on the board of directors of HIP and on the HIP Foundation board of directors. The stipend came from the foundation board.

HIP did not respond to repeated requests for its policy of payments to board members.

Mr. Floyd, who also serves on the HIP New York board, said he did not receive a stipend and would not accept one.

Oliver Gray, the associate director of DC 37 who serves on HIP's board, said he does not receive a stipend.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also said that she did not receive a stipend for the time that she served. The current UFT representative, Ronald Jones, is retired and could not be reached to determine whether he was receiving a stipend. Ms. Weingarten noted that the UFT does not have a policy that would prohibit a stipend.

Mr. Floyd said that, on advice from counsel, he had not spoken with Mr. Haynes since he made the discovery. "We are going to wait and see if it's permissible to accept stipends," he said. "At this point we're not sure, because HIP provides health benefits to the city and does our prescriptions."

June 8, 2007: University of Chicago Teamsters are organizing a grassroots contract campaign to win better wages and benefits.

The Local 743 contract with the University expired on Feb. 28, 2007, but the local has extended the contract covering over 1,000 Teamsters.

Our local officials are sitting on the sidelines—they haven’t done anything to win us a stronger contract.

Taking Matters into Our Own Hands

Bypassing the union bureaucracy, Teamsters at the UofC have taken matters into our own hands.

We’ve organized meetings throughout the campus to educate ourselves on the contract.

Over fifty members attended one of the meetings—that’s several times the size of a typical local meeting.

“My one voice doesn’t matter too much, but all of us members have a strong, collective voice together,” said Sydney Simmons, a steward for service and maintenance workers at the University of Chicago.

“Many of the business agents are in the university’s pocket and it’s no good for the membership,” said active union member Glenda Pence. “The current BA doesn’t even return my call.”

Members are meeting with each other to talk about what tactics would be most effective with their co-workers, and what the university would respond to.

“Voting No on the contract is one way to show your dissatisfaction with what we get,” said Adrian Esquivel. “It will send a message to the union and the university that the members want more.”

Local Elections

Sometimes discussion at these meetings also turns towards the corruption in our local, and our upcoming election.

In 2004, after the New Leadership Slate won the local election, the current officers allegedly stole several hundred ballots in a do-over election that Hoffa called. While the Department of Labor lawsuit is still in court, many are looking to the fall to finally clean up this local.

When we get fair, supervised elections this fall, the members will finally have an opportunity to vote in better people, instead of the corrupt officers currently in power.

If we can already involve more people in their contract than the officials can, imagine what we can do leading the local union.

Joe Sexauer is a Local 743 member at the University of Chicago

June 8, 2007: Provident Hospital is laying off members of Local 743 in Chicago, but Secretary-Treasurer Richard Lopez is missing in action.

“I paid union dues and get nothing for it,” said Diane Davis, one of the Teamsters laid off by Provident.

Lopez, the business agent for Provident, has refused to return calls of laid-off workers.

“Where are my union dues going?” wondered Yvette Gardner, a laid-off unit clerk.

The 743 New Leadership Slate helped organize Teamsters and local residents to protest the cuts. They joined nurses, doctors, patients and others to fight the cuts. Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up on the picket line. But Local 743 union officials were nowhere to be found.

June 8, 2007: In 2006, International Vice President Carroll Haynes was paid $54,500 as a “consultant” by the Health Insurance Plans (HIP) of Greater New York. HIP provides health benefits to the members of Local 237, where Haynes was the principal officer in 2006.

Should a Teamster officer and benefit fund trustee be taking $54,500 from an HMO that that makes millions through its contract with our union’s largest local?

In the old days, vendors made payoffs to officials under the table. Today, they pay “consultant fees.” Does that make it right?

HIP’s “fees” to Haynes were properly reported on an LM-30 form—a report that union officials must file to document conflicts of interest.

The Teamster Rank & File Education and Legal Defense Foundation (TRF) discovered Haynes' consultant fees while doing research on the 2006 salaries and perks of Teamster officials.

April 2, 2007: On March 21, it was no normal monthly meeting at Chicago Local 726. The hall was packed with hundreds of members, with many people in the hallway. They wanted to change their local union bylaws to have the right to elect working Teamsters to their bargaining committees.

Fighting for the Future, the grassroots movement in Local 726, put forward three bylaws changes and encouraged members to attend.

The union leadership brought people too, but they couldn’t match the outpouring of rank and file desire for change. So they refused to allow an honest vote.

Mario DiFoggio summed it up. “It was clear that the ‘ayes’ had it on the voice vote but (President) John Falzone ruled the ‘nays’ won. The packed room erupted. Everyone couldn’t believe what was happening. They wouldn’t even allow a hand vote. It was their way or no way.”

John Fasso, who works for the City of Chicago Aviation Department, said, “I’ve been a member for over 30 years and it was the most incredible meeting I can remember. They simply wouldn’t allow an honest vote. We need change in our union. We have to vote these guys out.”

Mary Koglin, from the City Aviation Department agrees. “A lot of members who went in on the fence got a real wake up call seeing how this meeting was run.”

Fighting for the Future has issued a leaflet thanking the members of Local 726 for coming out to take part in their union. They are putting together a team to run for office this fall, and bring a new day to Local 726 members.

Local 726 represents over 5,000 Teamsters who are all in public service, working for the city of Chicago, the county, the turnpike, the state and other public agencies.

Fighting for the future has a website: www.fightingforthefuture.com

March 14, 2007: Hoffa running mate Carroll Haynes will step down as president of Local 237 on March 31. But although Haynes is losing one multiple salary, he won’t need any collections from working Teamsters just yet.

Haynes is staying on as IBT Vice President and Public Employee Division Director, positions that bagged him $111,432 in total compensation last year. Because he is 73, Haynes is also collecting multiple pensions while he works and sweetening the pot by collecting Social Security to boot.

This is on top of a more than million dollar lump sum payment that Haynes likely cashed out from the Teamster “Family Plan”—a special IBT officers’ only pension.

On top of his multiple union salaries and pensions, Haynes has collected a no-show salary as a manager for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) at approximately $65,000 a year. If Haynes’ resignation from Local 237 means he will give up his NYCHA salary too (and that is not clear), his annual income could fall to under $300,000 a year.

Still, that’s not too bad for part-time work. Haynes informed The Chief newspaper that he’ll be working in Washington “one or two days a month” and also “working from home.”

“I’m not stopping cold-turkey,” Haynes said.

We should hope not.

Haynes told The Chief , “It's nice to go out on top, not by being forced out.” There’s a reason this is on Haynes’s mind. A reform slate led by Eunice Rodriguez almost toppled Haynes in the 2004 local election, which he won by just 470 votes out of 10,000 cast.

The local executive board will officially vote to appoint Gregory Floyd as the new Local 237 president at the end of the month.

February 27, 2007: Now is the time to win a strong new contract for the 1,200 Local 320 Teamsters at the University of Minnesota, members say. “We’re bargaining from a position of strength this year,” said Erik Jensen, a janitor at the University. “Some of the new people in the legislature got there because voters are so mad at funding cuts for education. We’ve got to use this opportunity to get the best contract we can for the workers who make the school operate.”

The Local 320 contract expires on July 1. In March members of the bargaining unit, custodial, cafeteria, and grounds crews at the university, will elect a negotiating committee.

Grassroots Campaign
Rank-and-file Teamsters are organizing a grassroots contract campaign to help win a strong contract.

Jensen and other reform-minded Teamsters are running for the bargaining committee. The membership has elected Jensen to the bargaining committee for the last five contracts.

“Our union leaders usually don’t have an organized plan,” said David Kremer, a candidate for the bargaining committee. “In the past, it’s been up to TDU members to come up with a plan to win what we need.”

In addition to wage gains, Teamster activists are pushing to tighten up wage progression, an ironclad no-privatization agreement to protect jobs, and improvements to retirees’ health savings account.

“We have a pension plan, and we’re proud of that. But many members can’t afford to retire because of pricey health care premiums,” Kremer explained. “Retiring members should be able to put unused sick days into health care savings accounts. Employees at Minnesota technical colleges have already won this benefit.”
Family leave is also an issue. Right now, some departments allow new parents to take their parental leave in flexible chunks. But others won’t. Rank and file leaders have won the support of sympathetic faculty members who want to push the administration for a more flexible and fair rule.

Keep Members in the Loop
The local reformers are committed to keeping the membership informed about bargaining. “We have a commitment to openness,” Jensen said. “In the past, the local tried to keep a lid on what was going on in bargaining. We won’t be secretive. We want to get information out to the members, because we’re counting on their support.”

“This is our chance to lead,” Kremer said. “We can get a strong contract if we get the membership to support our demands at the table.”

January 26, 2007: The “Fighting for the Future” slate is getting organized to make positive changes for all 4,300 Local 726 members in metro Chicago.

Local 726 members work for the City of Chicago, Chicago Transit Authority the State of Illinois, Illinois Toll way, Police Departments, Fire Departments and other public sector work places around the state. The contract at City of Chicago expires July 1, 2007.

Fighting for the Future
“We’ve been reaching out to members over the past year, gathering information on the state of Local 726. We’ve heard the complaints and the concerns. We’ve set up a web site (www.fightingforthefuture.com) filled with news about our local.

Now it’s time to make some changes,” said Vince Tenuto, candidate for Secretary-Treasurer, a City of Chicago driver and TDU member.
Joe Vercillo, a driver at O’Hare International Airport stated, “Now is our members’ time to fight for their future. It’s all about our contracts. Those affect each and every member of Local 726. That is why we picked the name Fighting for the Future.” Vercillo is a 25-year Teamster, a proud TDU member and candidate for President.

“We want Local 726 members to understand that an informed and involved membership is our best bet for making the union strong,” said Vercillo. “Working Teamsters know the day-to-day issues that need to be in the contracts and they need a say at the bargaining table. We have a great movement going and we can win in the upcoming election this December.”

Bylaws Reform
Local 726 members from the Fighting for the Future slate introduced bylaws changes at the January general membership meeting, calling for the proper scheduling of contract proposal meetings and membership elections for the negotiating teams. They also put forward bylaws amendments on changing the monthly meeting day and time so more members can attend, and language for reporting member eligibility. All Local 726 members will have the opportunity to vote on these changes at the March general membership meeting. The Fighting for the Future slate asks for members’ support at the upcoming general membership meeting.

Duke Clark, a 14-year, third-generation Teamster, TDU member and candidate for Vice President, summed it up: “Our goal is informing the membership and making Local 726 a union we can all be proud of. The time is now for every Teamster member to step up. Real change takes real commitment. We ask you to join us and help make our local stronger and more democratic.”

If you would like to help your fellow Teamster brothers and sisters pick up the fight you can log on to www.fightingforthefuture.com.