Denver, CO — On Tuesday, February 10, over 50 Denver community members showed their public support for the Denver Art Museum Workers United (DAMWU) as they prepare for another round of negotiations with the company later this month. Contract negotiations have continued for the past year and a half since the initial vote for union recognition.

Supporting DAMWU were Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), Denver Public Libraries Workers United (DPLWU), and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

DAMWU won their union election in March of 2024 and since then has made great strides in achieving better working conditions for museum employees.

The fight, however, is not over and negotiations surrounding livable wages, health and safety standards, and immigration protection are still ongoing.

Sarah Darlene, an artist and union supporter, spoke at the event about the importance of union presence saying, “When workers are paid well, admissions go up, and the quality of the museum increases.”

Many Denver Art Museum employees hold two or more jobs despite working 40 hours a week providing a valuable public service in spreading awareness and knowledge through access to art.

Health and safety issues are also of critical importance to the union. The museum has refused to allow their gallery attendants to sit without a doctor’s note during their eight-hour shifts. One union member mentioned her father’s lifelong career as a construction worker, saying “One thing management never required of him was standing for the sake of standing.” Along with this basic request are demands for an extension of maternity leave and additional annual sick time.

Denver citizens showed their support through chants like, “Exploitation ain’t the way, workers gotta get their pay,” and “When livable wage is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” Denver workers and community members feel the cost of living weighing down on them, and they will fight to earn a livable wage.

DAMWU will return to the table on Thursday, February 26 to continue negotiating their first contract. Whether the company will agree to come to a resolution remains to be seen.

#DenverCO #CO #Labor #DAMWU #TDU #Teamsters #DPLWU #FRSO

Sylvester and Teamsters United Slate VP candidate Fred Zuckerman, have been the main opponents of Hoffa’s concessionary contract with its largest employer, United Parcel Service (UPS). While UPS made $3.92 billion in profits last year, the Hoffa Team negotiated a national master contract with major givebacks. Despite strong opposition from rank and file workers across the country, “Hoffa rammed it down our throats in repeated votes,” said Local 344 UPS Feeder Driver Andrew May. Some local supplemental agreements still have not been ratified by the Teamster members, but Hoffa signed that sellout agreement anyway. “After the contract was forced onto the last three remaining locals, I knew it was time for change,” May said. “That is why I am supporting Tim Sylvester and the Teamsters United Slate. Hoffa and the current leaders are not fighting for what Teamsters want.”

In New York, Tim Sylvester negotiated the Local 804 supplemental agreement. He led his members in a struggle that resulted in the best UPS contract in the country. This included a $400 pension increase, more full-time jobs and grievance procedure reform. In Louisville, Fred Zuckerman mobilized Local 89 members to vote against contract givebacks at UPS, UPS Freight and elsewhere in the freight industry.

Tim Sylvester and Fred Zuckerman represent the unity of two different opposition slates that both ran against Hoffa in 2011. Sylvester is seen as part the reform movement that includes the influential group Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). TDU fought for, and in 1991 won, the right of Teamster members to directly elect their International President and International Executive Board. TDU endorsed and help elect Ron Carey in the first such election. Sylvester has been a regular speaker at recent TDU conventions.

Sylvester and Carey were both elected president of the same Teamsters Local 804 in Queens, New York. As a UPS driver, Sylvester supported Carey, who led the historic 1997 nationwide strike against UPS. Carey was reelected when he ran against Hoffa in 1996. After the strike the federal government removed Carey from office, paving the way for Hoffa to be elected in 1999.

Zuckerman, in contrast, was a former Hoffa supporter. He served as the Carhaul Division Director under Hoffa, but broke with Hoffa in the last election to run for VP along with other former Hoffa supporters.

Gina Alvarez thinks that the Sylvester/Zuckerman Teamster United Slate is the best chance that working Teamsters have had to take control of their union in almost 20 years, since Ron Carey was General President. “We have strong candidates, but more importantly, we have the organization and enthusiasm to defeat the Hoffa machine.”

Alvarez should know. She has been involved with the Teamsters for more than 35 years. “I started working at the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund in 1980. That is how I became a member of Teamsters Local 743.” She rose to become Secretary Treasurer of the 13,000 member local union. Presumably because she was a strong voice for rank-and-file power in the Teamsters, she was forced out of office by Hoffa and his executive board in 2010. Since then she has served on the International Steering Committee of TDU.

“It is not just UPS. Under Hoffa’s watch, hardworking Teamsters in manufacturing, freight and other industries have seen their wages and benefits shrink or disappear without a fight,” said Alvarez. “Hoffa sees himself as a deal maker. His deals keep taking us backwards. Tim Sylvester understands that we need to mobilize the rank-and-file workers to fight for better wages, health insurance, pensions and working conditions. That is the legacy of Ron Carey that he enthusiastically embraces.”

The signatures that Sylvester and Zuckerman turned in are just the start of their difficult journey to unseat an incumbent Teamster General President. They need to elect at least 5% of the delegates to the Teamster Convention next summer. If successful, they will then need to get a majority of the votes cast in the autumn 2016 election. The Hoffa slate promises to be well financed. Teamsters United will need to respond with people power. All Teamsters are eligible to vote.

“Hoffa thinks this is his union that he inherited from his father. He runs off to capitol hill and makes deals that are in the interests of his friends,” said Teamster Local 705 activist Benjamin Cline, “but this is our union. We are the Teamsters! Sylvester and Zuckerman are not our saviors, we are our saviors. After we elect the Teamster United Slate we are going to hold them accountable.”

It promises to be an interesting year in the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters!

#ChicagoIL #Teamsters #TDU #RonCarey #TeamstersForADemocraticUnion #TimSylvester #JamesHoffa

Do I remember when I met Pete Camarata? Yeah, I remember. It was in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s before the national convention of our reform caucus, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). All the Teamster reformers were there.

We were excited because we had just won the right for rank-and-file Teamster members to elect the top national officers of our union. Many TDU leaders were busy trying to build a consensus around Ron Carey’s candidacy for General President of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters (IBT). But Pete Camarata had some tough questions that needed answering before he would support Carey or anyone else.

Pete Camarata was always the guy in the Teamsters with the tough questions. If this guy Carey is really a reformer why isn’t he in TDU? How do we know that he won’t turn into the same as the rest of our so called leaders? He is a UPS [United Parcel Service] guy, what’s he going to do to stop the erosion of the Master Freight Agreement? Is he going to put TDU members on his slate? What about those who have been excluded from leadership like Blacks, Latinos or women? Eventually the questions got answered and in 1991 Ron Carey was elected with Pete’s support, the only reform International President in Teamster history.

Pete always had the tough questions, whether it was in the TDU caucus, his local union or just hanging out. Everyone at the convention knew Pete. How could you not know him? Pete was a founding member and one the co-chairs of TDU. He saw the need for a strong national caucus that could challenge the mob controlled IBT that was selling out its members. And the night before the TDU convention his hotel room was always buzzing with debate.

As a young Teamster I looked up to Pete. In 1976, as the lone reform delegate at the Las Vegas Teamster convention he spoke out against preposterously high salaries for officers. Pete was the lone voice from the convention floor objecting to the election of International President Frank Fitzimmons by unanimous consent. He then went on to remind the delegates of the mob hit on Jimmy Hoffa less than one year earlier. Trying to run him out of Las Vegas, the mob beat him up and left him for dead.

Pete had the courage of ten thousand Teamsters. Unafraid, after the 1976 convention he testified about mob control in the Teamsters before the U.S. Senate. He then ran for president of the IBT at their next convention in 1981.

Like most Teamsters, Pete was a worker. He worked on the dock and then later he drove a truck. He also worked as staff at Teamsters Local 722 and my old Local 743. But unlike most, he could talk to any worker like he grew up next door to them. He was a real leader.

Once I asked Pete if he could talk to some of my coworkers about TDU. The housekeepers and food service workers from the University of Chicago Hospitals, overwhelmingly African American, at first wondered about the big Italian American truck driver from Detroit. But, in no time Pete had them discussing plans for petitions, rallies and other activities to fight their oppression on the job.

Pete was always there when you needed him. He didn’t care what neighborhood or what time of day. If there were workers fighting the boss, Pete wanted to be there.

Peter Camarata was a great friend, but also he inspired me to fight for justice. Pete understood that unions are the organizations of the working class. His life continues to be an example for those who believe in class struggle unionism.

Pete was this year’s recipient of the Big Bill Haywood Award at Fight Back!’s annual People’s Thanksgiving in Chicago.

Richard Berg is the past President of Teamsters Local 743 and currently works as a staff representative for AFSCME Council 31.

#ChicagoIL #Remembrances #Teamsters #TDU #TeamstersForADemocraticUnion #PeterCamarata

Why do they do it? Why do they sacrifice their bodies year after year in a job that most don’t like? The answer is simple. The benefit package the Teamsters have won in past years is pretty good. For a working class parent it is hard to beat the Teamster benefit package at UPS. When you are broken down at the end of your career, there was always a decent pension plan to retire.

But UPS didn’t become one of the world’s richest corporations and the Teamsters’ single largest employer by giving away benefits. In fact, UPS has aggressively been trying to erode Teamster power for many years.

First they changed the loaders from full time to part time. Then they cut the wages and benefits of the part-time workers, who used to get paid the same as full-time workers. Starting pay for part-time workers has only increased once in the 25 years since 1982 and has been frozen since Jimmy Hoffa was elected president of the Teamsters.

Now that UPS has marginalized and pushed this group of workers down, they have set their sights on full-time workers. Particularly, UPS has announced that they want to pull out of the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. UPS is willing to pay the multi-employer fund $4 billion in penalties because they know they could make it up in the long run by reducing the benefits to its full-time employees.

UPS launched a major propaganda campaign among its employees with mixed results. “UPS won’t even let us go to the bathroom without a struggle. Now they tell us that they know what’s good for us. They say, ‘don’t worry we will take care of your pension.’ I don’t think so!” said Joe Balkis, a 19-year UPS Teamster in Harvey, Illinois.

UPS went after their workers’ pensions in 1997 when Ron Carey was president of the Teamsters. Carey said for the profitable UPS to reduce Teamster benefits was a strike issue. He mobilized the members, winning the biggest strike in Teamster history. Teamsters under Carey’s leadership not only preserved Teamster benefits, they won more full-time jobs. The slogan, “Part-time America just won’t work,” galvanized not only Teamsters, but millions of workers and people of conscience across the country.

After the strike, the federal government, led by Newt Gingrich and House Republicans, went after Carey. They removed him from office, giving their ally, Jimmy Hoffa, an easy path to the presidency of the Teamsters.

Since then Hoffa negotiated a disastrous contract with UPS in 2002. Hoffa failed to negotiate sufficient employer contributions to maintain the good Teamster benefits. Then he lied to the members about what he had done. He called it, “The best contract ever.” Then the boom hit. Teamster pension benefits across the country were cut as the funds that distribute them ran into financial trouble. Hoffa’s lie had cost members real dollars.

At the 2006 Teamster convention, Hoffa promised to restore Teamster benefits by starting early negotiations with UPS. After Hoffa was reelected Teamster president, UPS asked to be taken out the Teamsters Central States Pension fund covering over 42,000 workers. Unlike his predecessor Ron Carey, Hoffa said that this is a serious proposal. He has not mobilized the Teamsters around any counter-proposal. In fact he has not even outlined the Teamster proposal to his own members.

Though Ron Carey is gone, the reform movement he once led is alive and well. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) has helped to found “Make UPS Deliver.” TDU is organizing, educating and mobilizing UPS Teamsters across the country to preserve their benefits. TDU is doing the work the Teamster officials should be doing, but rarely do.

TDU will be holding its annual convention in Chicago Nov. 2-4.

For more information: www.tdu.org

#UnitedStates #News #Teamsters #TDU #UPS #TeamstersCentralStatesPensionFund

Leedham relied an a network of activists led by Teamsters for a Democratic Union. “These activists are the future of this union,” said Richard Berg, Central Region Vice Presidential Candidate on the Tom Leedham Slate, “without them there is no union. They have the vision to fight for something better and not just accept the crumbs that the boss throws us.”

Hoffa successfully strong-armed virtually all the union officers to support him. The Leedham campaign contrasted this by reaching out to new activists. “They woke me up,” said Local 743 member Larry Davis, “I’ve been a Teamster for more than 30 years and now I realize that only we, the rank-and-file members can make this union great again. Worker involvement – two words, but two powerful words – that is the only way forward for our union.”

Davis is an example of what needs to happen throughout the labor movement. After the national teamster election he ran and won a spot on the union contract negotiating committee at his workplace. He got together with his coworkers at the Central States Pension Fund and demanded union steward elections. The elections swept out some old- guard dealmakers and brought new life to the union at his workplace.

“Now we go back to doing what we do best,” said TDU International Steering Committee member Joe Sexauer, “We organize our coworkers to fight for better contracts. We demand dignity and respect on the job. We fight corruption in our union. When union officials don’t stand up for the members like they should we get in their face.”

The Teamsters union faces many challenges. They are in contract negotiations with their largest employer, United Parcel Service (UPS). UPS has just added a huge nonunion freight division that threatens Teamster job security and weakens Teamster power in its core industry. Teamsters need to organize the nonunion competition in freight, at DHL and FEDEX, as well as in health care, education and every Teamster industry.

#UnitedStates #News #Teamsters #TDU #TomLeedham

At the October convention of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) Leedham said that because the Teamsters haul this country’s freight, “We are situated at the chokepoints of the U.S. economy.” Leedham urged that we use this power to turn around the Teamsters. As he stated, “We can change the labor movement. We can make history.”

Hoffa’s famous name gave him an initial advantage, but his record of failure tempered this. Hoffa failed to negotiate sufficient employer contributions for UPS, the major trucking companies and other employers to maintain current Teamster benefits. But then he lied to members, telling them that he had done the job. In the case of UPS he had the nerve to call it the, “best contract ever.”

Hoffa is also responsible for the largest dues increase in Teamster history. He claimed that he was going to use the money to increase Teamster power, but the facts indicate otherwise. A TDU study shows that Hoffa and key allies each pay themselves over a quarter million dollars a year. When Hoffa first took office, 16 Teamster officials paid themselves with multiple salaries. Now, 150 Teamster officials receive multiple salaries.

The race is shaping up to be a battle between old-guard officials and rank-and-file reformers. Hoffa’s threat of International intervention into local unions, along with the carrot of buying off local officials with Teamster dues money, has successfully cowed the vast majority of local union officials. But many rank-and-file workers, led by TDU, are seeing through this.

“We are sick of the corruption; our officials take our money and do nothing. We need to take control of our union before it’s too late, before we become just a company union. That is why I got involved in the Tom Leedham campaign and TDU,” said Chicago Teamster Joe Sexauer.

No matter who wins this election, the battle between rank-and-file reformers and old-guard officials will continue on the local level as corrupt officials try to protect their lifestyle and workers try to build a fighting union. The struggle goes on.

#ChicagoIL #News #Teamsters #TDU #TomLeedham

Instead, Hoffa failed to negotiate even enough from employers to maintain the pensions of workers covered by the Teamster’s pension plan. The lies about a dues increase and the sudden cutbacks in Teamster pensions have led to an explosion of anti-Hoffa sentiment across the union.

While Hoffa’s huge PR machine still dazzles the corporate media, Teamsters across the country are looking for alternatives to their famous president who prefers the company of mobsters, bosses and republican politicians to the workers who are fighting to maintain their standard of living. Teamsters in Georgia recently voted out Hoffa allies in favor of reformers who promised to organize workers to fight in their own interests. Rather than stand with the new leaders, Hoffa’s allies on Joint Council 75 ordered a second election to give his cronies another chance. The workers saw through this sham and again voted for the reformers who were running on the Members First Slate.

Hoffa ally Robert Walston, in Chicago’s Local 743, didn’t even bother to include the joint council in the decision to stop an election he was losing. He just called for a ‘do over.’ Hoffa upheld the right of his crony in Local 743 to block the election of the reform 743 New Leadership Slate. Not surprisingly, the second election was fraught with irregularities.

Since this ‘election,’ Walston’s connections to the Chicago underworld have surfaced. Walston has run a video poker business and associated with known mobsters. In a dying confession, former Local 743 President Chester Glanton told a Teamster anti-corruption committee about how Walston had made deals to give free health insurance to the relatives and friends of mob businesses. Walston has also had secret meetings with former Local 743 boss Robert Simpson at the mob-run Russian Turkish Bathhouse.

Hoffa has had troubles closer to home. Hoffa was forced to fire his top assistant, Carlow Scalf. Scalf had embezzled $69,000 in housing funds to which he was not entitled. Hoffa first suspended him, but was later forced to fire him when Teamsters for a Democratic Union protested the mere slap on the wrist.

Mounting corruption while workers’ standard of living continues to fall has led local Teamster leaders to form the New Leadership Committee. The committee is exploring what it will take to defeat Jimmy Hoffa in next year’s election.

The Teamsters for a Democratic Union website (tdu.org) quotes Jack Reardon, vice president of Local 170 in Massachusetts, “Right now, we’re at the stage of reaching out and building the alliances and campaign infrastructure we’ll need, not just to win this election but to successfully lead this union on a new course. Our job is to build a grassroots army for change.”

Local Teamster officials are sick of Hoffa’s patronage army that does nothing to assist them when the boss asks for even more concessions. Worse yet, when the International Union does show up, it is usually to punish reformers for putting the members’ interests before those of the Hoffa machine.

This was the case in Pasco, Washington, where Tyson Foods was able to use Teamster documents to end its relationship with Local 556 and its militant Latina leader Maria Martinez. “Maria Martinez was an inspiration to all immigrant Teamsters,” said Chicago Teamster Tony Caldera, “she organized the workers, she used militant contract campaigns to fight for dignity and respect for all workers. That is why the company went after her and that is why Hoffa went after her.”

Hoffa has also failed miserably at organizing new members. This is especially important to the Teamsters working in the delivery of freight, which is where the union got its historic truck driving strength. Reformers, under the leadership of Ron Carey, organized almost half of the freight industry’s largest non-union trucking company, Overnight. When Hoffa took office, rather than finish the job, he ordered them out on a disastrous, ill-conceived strike. The strike failed miserably, destroying the livelihoods of many courageous Overnight workers and ending the Teamster’s last serious attempt to organize the freight industry.

Now Hoffa wants to join with the leaders of SEIU, UNITE HERE, the Carpenters Union and others – but not to rebuild the labor movement. Under the Hoffa Plan, he would be able to keep a larger portion of the union dues. “I was at the last Teamster convention,” said Local 743 delegate Esmerelda Cuevas, “Hoffa just wants the money for himself and his patronage army.”

“Teamsters are ready for a change,” said TDU International Steering Committee member Richard Berg, “The Hoffa name has not done anything but divert us from fighting for better wages and benefits. We are ready to focus on the future. We can leave Hoffa and his failed legacy in the past.”

#UnitedStates #News #Teamsters #Hoffa #TDU #theMob