Chicago, IL – As Fight Back! goes to press, the gangsters in Teamsters Local 743 have succeeded in stealing another election. When votes were counted on Dec. 4, the old guard emerged with 1,651 votes. 1,257 votes went to the opposition 743 New Leadership Slate.

“We know how they did it,” declared Richard Berg, the reform candidate for president with the New Leadership Slate (NLS). “The union hacks threatened workers would lose their jobs if they didn’t vote for the current officers,” charged Berg, “And the election monitor collaborated with them. For example, she refused to allow us to see the ballots returned for bad addresses. In the election in October, they stole these ballots and tried to vote them.”

The rank-and-file workers in the NLS stopped the theft of the officers’ election two months ago by catching the old guard stealing those ballots. Then the criminals made up an excuse to stop the vote count and called for a new election.

“We doubled our efforts and increased our turnout by 50%. The Unity Slate increased their turnout by 110%. We know they don’t have this kind of support among the union members,” explained Tony Caldera, candidate for secretary treasurer with the NLS. Marcela Garcia, NLS vice-presidential candidate, remarked on what she found in her visits to factories throughout the union, “Every Latino, every immigrant, every worker we have talked to told us they were supporting us.”

Despite the setback, Garcia and other Silver Capital workers will continue to fight for the rights of immigrant workers. “The struggle continues, in this corrupt union and across this country, and we will be there, building a fighting workers’ movement.”

“We are on our way to turning this union back over to the members,” announced Berg. “Our victory in the Oct. 16 election is proof that we are the winners and Bob Walston and his gang are thieves, and losers.

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