Wednesday, November 19, 1997
PERSPECTIVE ON THE TEAMSTERS UNION
Reform Is Bigger Than One Man
Carey's legacy is that there are other
able leaders ready to fight for workers. Hoffa is not one of them.
"The reform movement in the Teamsters
does not depend on one man," the unions
president, Ron Carey, said Monday. "This union
has been changed forever and the members will never
go back to the corruption and weakness of the past."
Of course labors enemies will
revel in the supposed irony of the circumstances
in which Carey made this statement, in the wake of
former federal Judge Kenneth Conboys decision to
disqualify Carey from running for reelection on the
grounds that he used sanctioned the use of more than
$800,000 in Teamster funds in his race against
James Hoffa Jr. last year. But what Carey said was
true, and whatever his own future may hold, Carey has
been a vital part of the reform.
A sense of proportion is necessary.
Conboy terms Carey's conduct "classic self-dealing."
In a desperate race against Hoffa--who had announced
he would spend "what it takes," which
came to be about $4 million--Carey exposed himself and
his victory to the federal inquiries that culminated
in Conboys verdict.
Yet no one has accused Carey of looting
the union treasury to squirrel away a personal
fortune, far less of having his opponents beaten and
murdered. Such was the regular currency of the Teamster
leadership before he and the reformers arrived
in the early 1990s. In the 1980s, there were no
less than 20 Teamster-related killings.
We may agree that the election
should be rerun, but the decision of a retired federal
judge to rule that 1.4 million Teamsters have lost their right
to vote for the candidate of their choice is outrageous and wrong.
Even Conboy noted the tension between the democratic rights of union members
and the governments control, as trustee,
of the Teamsters.
The prime imperative of election
rules is that the will of the electorate prevails, and Conboy
lost track of this central point. Who can doubt that, in the wake
of the successful strike against United Parcel Service, Carey would have swept to victory
over Hoffa? Just who is being protected by the rules
invoked by Conboy? Teamster members? Or are they
protecting the trucking companies from Teamster
power?
This is no idle question. Next
spring, the Teamsters will be negotiating with
these same companies the master freight contract,
affecting more than 100,000 Teamster truck drivers.
There can be little doubt that the trucking companies
and their allies in Congress are celebrating over Conboys decision.
Indeed labors foes everywhere
surely see this as a happy hour. Over the past few months, Teamsters secured their great victory over UPS,
and John Sweeneys AFL-CIO was a powerful force
in the defeat last week of President Clintons
bid to get fast-track negotiating power on trade
agreements.
The great fear of business, ably voiced
for the corporate leaders by Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan, is that an invigorated
labor movement will start to break the de facto wage freeze
that underlies the present economic "boom."
The master freight agreement will offer just such an
opportunity.
Its hard to believe that Hoffa
would be an effective and militant leader of the Teamsters in
a battle against the truck owners or against such legislation
as fast-track, given his more management-friendly outlook. Nor
is it realistic to suppose that Careys presidency can long survive
Conboys decision. The best that Teamster reformers can hope for
now is that Hoffa will also be disqualified.
This brings us back to Careys
own words. Indeed, the reform movement in the Teamsters
does not depend on one man. Behind Carey has
been the Teamsters for a Democratic Union,
begun by rank and filers in Cleveland in 1976. TDU got
ordinary workers involved and turned them into extraordinary
leaders.
The drivers and loaders in the group
became the shop-floor leaders and linked up nationally
in an effective network. As organizer Ken
Paff said recently,"We reached out to support Carey and to
turn out the old guard, while retaining a grass-roots movement
as a model, as a leadership school and as a watchdog to prevent
backsliding."
This coming weekend in Cleveland,
Teamsters for a Democratic Union is holding its
convention. It will have the opportunity to demonstrate
its vitality. There are excellent Teamster leaders out there with
the qualifications to lead the national organization. In Oregon,
theres Tom Leedham; in West Virginia, Ken Hall, a negotiator in the UPS strike.
"Reform" is not a matter
of fulfilling the demands of the Justice Department. Its about
building a militant union, acting for its working people. Thats
Ron Careys vital legacy, of which he should be forever proud.
- - -
Alexander Cockburn Writes for the
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