Teamsters: reversal of fortunes
Lean Production: A Capitalist Utopia?
• £4/$5/35FF. Cheque payable to P. Rousset, IIRE, Postbus 53290, 1007 Amsterdam, Netherlands. +-
* USA The future of reform in the largest US private sector union, is in peril, writes Alan Jacobson. A variety of court decisions arising out of the 1996 election of union officers has shattered the reform administration ot Ron Carey. His opponent, James P. Hotta, is now likely to take control of the 1.4 million member union. Allegations of misconduct in the December 1996 vote began to appear around the time Carey's second term began, in March 1997. The margin of victory over Hoffa was thin, around 16,000 out of 480,000 votes cast. Five vice-presidents on Hoffa's slate won, with the reminder of the General Executive Board was made up of Carey supporters. As is typical in a large and controversial election, many protests were filed by both sides regarding violations of election rules, including strict rules concerning financing of the
Under the election rules, use of union resources and contributions from employers were barred. A post-election protest by the Hoffa camp against some late Carey fundraising uncovered a multilayered scheme on the part of four individuals to illegally finance Carey's re-
Three of the individuals, including Carey's campaign manager, were outside political consultants, the fourth was director of the union's political action department. All had ties to the Democratic Party apparatus in Washington, DC. Ultimately, the three outside consultants were charged with initiating a scheme to donate $800,000 of union political action money to liberal advocacy groups, with the understanding that these groups would then provide wealthy donors to contribute huge sums of money to the Carey
In addition, the consultants took advantage of the loose money to skim tens of thousands of dollars into their own pockets. According to government investigators, this arrangement was facilitated by the political action director.
Carey vehemently denied any knowledge of the scheme, stating that if he had, he would have immediately taken action to stop such activity. Nevertheless, the court-appointed election monitor, established by the 1989 agreement between the union and the Justice Department to end organised crime's control of the union, ruled that the serious infractions of the rules and the closeness of the end vote required the election be nullified and
A big question was whether or not Carey would be permitted to run. In addition, a federal grand jury indicted the three outside political consultants (who, in a plea-bargain plead guilty to charges of mail fraud and conspiracy) and threatened additional indictments. Over the summer of 1997, new information unfolded virtually every week. Just days after the successful conclusion of the UPS strike, the Election Officer annonced a thorough investigation into Carey's knowledge or lack of, as well as the gory details of, the money laundering process, would comGood news for the old guard...
In November 1997, the results of the election officials' investigation were announced Carey would be barred from the rerun election. Carey appealed the ruling, which was upheld. His last resource is to the federal courts, a process that could take years. Carey stepped down as general president, leaving the union's secretarytreasurer, Tom Sever in charge.
Hoffa was not immune from charges of election misconduct. A thorough investigation of his finances was ordered at the same time as Carey's barring. The results of that investigation, released in May, 1998, found that the Hoffa slate had benefited from an underpayment scheme by one of Hoffa's closest advisors, long-time right-wing public relations henchman Richard Leebove. Leebove undercharged for many hours of work on the Hoffa campaign, making up the money from work tor pro-Hotta union locals.
Hoffa was ordered to pay $160,000 in fines for his campaign's violations. Several other lesser violations were listed, as well. However, the investigation did not find enough evidence to prove the Carey campaign assertion that over a million dollars of Hoffa funds came from questionable sources.
With Carey sidelined and the reform movement on the defensive, both Hoffa and the employers felt that they had the upper hand. Hotta began pressuring local officials loyal to Carey to switch sides and support Hoffa's campaign. At the same time, Hoffa took advantage of his celebrity status to proclaim himself in the press as the "only winnable candidate." ...and for the employers
During this period, negotiations with the nation's major motor freight companies occurred. Many people expected a reprise of the innovative member-tomember contract campaign like was used with UPS members. Instead, due to the chaotic situation in the union, tremendous pressure on the part of freight customers against both the companies and the union, and a very different workforce, the campaign around freight much more resembled negotiations as they were done in the past, with little membership participation.
Politically, local officers loyal to Hoffa exerted a lot of influence on the union negotiating committee. The final agreement, while not concessionary, was disappointing to many who hoped that the UPS agreement had signalled a period of union
The Carey reform camp was left seriously damaged by these reversals. The many delays in election plans and the lack of clarity as to Carey's presence as a candidate gave Hoffa an open field in which to campaign and raise money. Many activists long entertained hope that Carey would be cleared at some point and would regain a leadership role. Potential candidates to replace Carey were hesitant to step forward until Carey's status was crystal clear, which prevented building organisation and gathering resources. Rebuilding the reform movement
Initially, forces led by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the twenty-two-yearold reform movement, supported Tom Leedham, the director of the union's 400,000-member warehousing division. However, more conservative forces in the Carey camp, along with Carey, preferred Ken Hall, director of the Small Parcel division and key leader of the UPS negotiations. TDU ended up endorsing Hall in the interest of maintaining the highest
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
18 International Viewpoint #303
Soon after announcing his candidacy,
Hall withdrew from the race, due to health problems. Also, the difficulty in launching a campaign and winning support from local union officials, played a role in his
### TEAMSTERS
FOR decision. Leedham again stepped forward as a candidate with TDU support. Unfortunately, the more conservative element in the reform camp would not support Leedham. They saw him as too tied to TDU,
Efforts to force the union to pay for the supervision have been rejected by higher courts. With the impasse still not resolved, most people foresee that the election will proceed without the strict government supervision that has safeguarded membership participation in the past two elections. A hard race for Leedham
Out among the members in the thousands of job sites around the country, the response in campaigning has been heartening for Leedham. Reform campaigners have found a significant undercurrent of anti-Hoffa sentiment. Many members are not seduced by Hoffa's vague program and his relentless reference to his father's supposed positive contributions to the union. The reform slate is strong on campaign spirit, and many campaign leaders are experienced organisers. The campaign message is oriented towards the rank and file, with key points around building membership participation and holding union officials accountable to the members.
With the many factors involved in this complex situation, members are justifiably confused and disaffected. Leedham supporters have a short period to reach out to the members. At stake is the continuation of the most significant experiment in union democracy in U.S. labour history. A Hoffa administration would mean a turn to the right, politically and socially, back to the old Teamster policies of isolation and reaction within North American labour. These events would effect the changes at the AFL-CIO, possibly derailing the Sweeney administration and opening the door to a turn to the right there too. *
Into a new and better century!
and likely to push for a platform more radical than they would accept.
Despite a great deal of effort to build
The International Institute for Research and Education in Amsterdam is a research and unity, a second candidate emerged from training centre that is meeting the challenges of the neo-liberal world order by renewing and the Carey camp: John Metz, director of the re-founding an alternative perspective. Fields under study at the IIRE include economic union's 160,000-member public sector globalisation, 20th-century history, ecology, feminism, ethnicity, racism and radical employees' division. His slate includes the current General Secretary-Treasurer, Tom
The results of our work are made available to a larger public mainly through our publication
Sever. The Metz/Sever slate has not expressed a clear perspective and doesn't represent much more than a wavering centre group between reform and the
United Parcel Service, the largest
Teamster employer, has taken advantage of the union's weakened state. The corporation announced that they would not honour the new contracts provisions to create new full-time jobs, claiming that the strike cost long-time customers and resulted in loss of volume. A campaign on the grassroots level to force UPS to honour the contract was launched, along with threatened legal recourse on the part of the union. Locallevel strikes may occur to force the company to respect the agreement.
Grassroots activity around the Leedham campaign has taken off well. While the gap between Hoffa and Leedham is immense, TDU leaders hope that the forceful, clear reform message of the
Leedham campaign will attract a lot of excitement at the rank and file level.
Leedham's slate is a mix of incumbent officials from the Carey slate, including a number of the union's divisional directors, and a new group of rank and file candidates. In many ways this campaign will more resemble Carey's 1991 effort.
Back then, very few people thought that
Carey could prevail over well-funded, deeply entrenched officials.
The election may face futher delays. A number of right-wing Republican Representatives in Congress have targeted the
Teamsters situation as a way to attack the labour movement. The Republican leadership has refused to provide the funding to finance the election supervision as mandated by the 1989 "Consent Decree"
series, the Notebooks for Study and Research. No.1 The Place of Marxism in History. Ernest Mandel (40 pp. £2, $3.50, 20 FF) No. 2 The Chinese Revolution - I: The Second Chinese Revolution and the Shaping of the Maoist Outlook. Rousset (32 pp. £2, $3.50, 20 FF) No. 3 The Chinese Revolution - II: The Maoist Project Tested in the Struggle for Power. Pierre Rousset (48 pp. £2.50, $4, No. 4 Revolutionary Strategy Today. Danie Bensaid (36 pp. £2, $3.50, 20 FF) No. 5 Class Struggle and Technological Change in Japan since 1945. Muto Ichiyo (48 pp. £2.50, $4, 25 FF) No. 6 Populism in Latin America. Adolfo Gilly, Helena Hirata, Carlos M. Vilas, and the PRT (Argentina), introduced by Michael Löwy (40 pp. £2, $3.50, 20 FF) No. 7/8 Market, Plan and Democracy: the Experience of the So-Called Socialist Countries. Catherine Samary (64pp. £3, $5, 30FF) No. 9 The Formative Years of the Fourth International (1933-1938). Daniel Bensaid (48 pp. £2.50, $4, 25 FF) No. 10 Marxism and Liberation Theology. Michael Löwy (40pp £2, $3.50, 20 FF) No.11/12 The Bourgeois Revolutions Robert Lochhead (72pp. £4, $6, 40FF) No. 13 The Spanish Civil War in Euzkadi and Catalonia 1936-39. Miguel Romero (48pp. £2.50, $4, 25 FF) No. 14 The Gulf War and the New World Order. André Gunder Frank and Salah Jaber (72pp. £2, $3, 15 FF) No. 15 From the PCI to the PDS. Livio Maitan (48pp. £2.50, $4, 25 FF) No. 16 Do the Workers Have a Country?,
Jose Iriarte Bikila (48pp. £1.50, $2.40, 12 No. 17/18 October 1917: Coup d'Etat or Social Revolution. Ernest Mandel (64pp £2, $3, 15 FF) No. 19/20 The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia. An Overview. Catherine Samary (60pp. £2.50, $4, 20 FF) No. 21 Factory Committees and Workers' Control in Petrograd in 1917. David Mandel (48pp. £4, $5, 35 FF) No. 22 Women's Lives in the New Global Economy, Penny Duggan & Heather Dashner (editors) (68 pp. £4, $5, 35FF) No. 23 Lean Production: A Capitalist Utopia?, Tony Smith (68 pp. £4, $5, 35FF) No. 24/25 World Bank/IMF/WTO: The Free-Market Fiasco, Susan George, Miche Chossudovsky et al. (116 pp. £6, $8.75, 45FF) In the second half of this year we will be publishing three more Notebooks: • Claude Gabriel on South Africa • Michael Löwy on the national Question. • On the Holocaust. Subscription: for four issues (in Europe), E10 or 100FF; for four issues (outside Europe), US $20, £12 or 120 FF; for eight issues (in Europe), £20 or 200 FF for eight issues (outside Europe), US $40, £24 or 240 Individual back issues are also available (ADD 20% FOR POSTAGE OUTSIDE EUROPE). All payments must be made to P. Rousset. Preferred: French francs payable in a bank located in France. Postal giros to CCP Paris 11 541 97 T. Next best: sterling payable in Britain or dollars payable in the US. Contact us if you would like to pay in Dutch quilders or Belaian francs Please avoid Eurocheaues IIRE, Postbus 53290, 1007 RG Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: 31-20-67 17 263 Fax: 67 32 106.
----- photo credits and running heads -----
DEMOCRATIC NDINN