Chicago, IL – On February 21, in a letter sent to the staff and principal officers of the Teamsters, James P. Hoffa announced that he would not seek re-election as general president and would retire from the union at the end of his term in March 2022.

Few are surprised at the news from the 78-year-old union leader. Hoffa's time at the helm of the Teamsters has been defined by collusion with the bosses, whether in the form of concessionary contracts or in the form of open criminality. His exit from the Teamsters will mark the end of an era, and the turning of a page for one of the largest unions in the country.

Hoffa: Never a friend of working people

For as long as he worked for the Teamsters, Hoffa has stood with the most corrupt and cowardly elements of the union. He led the opposition to Ron Carey, the militant reformer who ran the Teamsters from 1991 to 1997. Carey's willingness to strike employers, combined with a serious anti-corruption drive, earned him the hatred of union officials who would rather cooperate with management than fight for their members. They fought him every step of the way, and when the federal government moved against Carey, these elements rallied around Hoffa as their candidate, winning him the general election in 1998 and every election since then.

Hoffa will be missed by the bosses. United Parcel Services (UPS), where over 200,000 Teamsters work, never worried about a strike when Hoffa ran the union. Contracts across the trucking and logistics industry were weakened, not strengthened, with each subsequent negotiation. Hoffa became so skilled at representing corporate interests in negotiations that, when the UPS contract was voted down by the members in 2018, he managed to even surprise the company negotiators by signing the agreement anyways. There are few instances in the history of the labor movement that compare to this stunning betrayal of workers. It has not been forgotten by the Teamsters forced to work under a contract they never ratified.

Hoffa protected criminals, and threw hard-working Teamsters to the wolves. He made every effort to shelter men like Rome Aloise and John Coli, and barely uttered a sound when Frank Ordoñez, a 27-year-old UPS driver, was murdered by police while on the job. Instead of spending time in his final years organizing Amazon – the greatest threat to the Teamsters in our lifetime – Hoffa is plotting to raise the delegate threshold at upcoming national conventions to prevent reformers to taking power away from his corrupt allies. He is a disgrace.

O'Brien-Zuckerman are the way forward

The good news is that Hoffa's full embrace of corruption and class collaboration has made him, and those closest to him, deeply unpopular. He barely survived re-election in 2016, and in the years since then a broad coalition has formed to compete in the 2021 elections.

Led by Sean O'Brien from Joint Council 10, the coalition brings together militants, reformers and former Hoffa allies. The full participation of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), which endorsed early on, ensures that the defense of internal democracy will continue to be a top priority for the anti-Hoffa forces. O'Brien and his running mate Fred Zuckerman are calling for the Teamsters to go on the offensive, to re-organize their strength in the core industries and to rebuild the union into a credible strike threat against the major employers.

Hoffa's camp, meanwhile, collapses by the day. Rome Aloise, recently returned to the Teamsters after a two-year suspension, now appears to be on his way out once again after new corruption charges. Steve Vairma, president of Local 455, has declared his intention to run to succeed Hoffa, although it is unclear how many of his loyalists he will be able to gather around him. It is obvious to anyone watching that the anti-Hoffa forces have the advantage, and odds are looking good for new leadership of the union in 2021.

A lot of work will have to go in to rebuilding the International Brotherhood of Teamsters into a fighting union. Hoffa's damage is deep, and it will not disappear with him. Fortunately, there are hundreds of thousands of Teamsters ready for change. The future is looking bright.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #JimmyHoffaJr #2021TeamstersElection

Jacksonville, FL – On Nov. 18, Teamsters in the U.S. and Canada awoke to find that Jim Hoffa had won re-election as president of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters after 17 years in office. Instead of the overwhelming electoral victory that Hoffa usually experiences, the Teamsters old guard lost in the Southern Region, the Central Region, the U.S. as a whole, and only barely squeaked by in the International vote.

Teamsters United, the reform slate running against Hoffa, won six vice president spots to split the executive board for the first time since Hoffa has taken office. Led by Louisville Local 89 President Fred Zuckerman, Teamsters United faced an uphill battle from the jump. The vast majority of local leaders around the country urged their members to vote Hoffa. This was demonstrated in the National Teamsters Convention last June where Hoffa's delegates numbered over 90%. These delegates are almost always local union officers. When the vote went to the members, however, he only won 51.5%.

On the other hand, Teamsters United had a committed group of enthusiastic activists and a union full of “pissed off Teamsters.” Members who had enough of Hoffa's concessions during his time as general president found a way to put their frustrations into action. Uniting the two opposition slates from the previous election, the reform slate entered the election with commitments to stop the wave of concessions, put a firm stop to corruption, and organize new workers in the core industries.

While local union officers used their steward structures and Hoffa's top lieutenants did 20-minute photo ops, Teamster United's army of campaigners set up a strong organizations in traditional Hoffa strongholds like Chicago, New York, Florida, Ohio, Los Angeles, and countless other areas. These campaigners used vacations, personal days, break periods and weekends to inform members that they had an opportunity to elect Teamster leaders who wanted to fight the employers just as much as they did.

As the ballot count came in, it was anybody's race, with Hoffa taking an early lead by winning the Eastern Region and Teamsters United taking back the lead until the last few hours. Although Hoffa remains in power for now, this was a massive victory for militants in the Teamsters in particular as well as all who believe the labor movement needs to return to real class struggle instead of constant concessions to employers.

John Palmer, one the vice presidents elected from the Southern Region said, “Teamsters in the South sent a clear message that they want change. As a vice president, I'll make sure their demand for a stronger union is heard.”

Both Teamster employers and old guard officials are becoming terrified of an increasingly strong rank-and-file militant movement that has now split up the rubber-stamp executive board. On top of that, both Fred Zuckerman and Teamsters for a Democratic Union have made public commitments to stay united going forward into future elections and contract campaigns, especially the upcoming 2018 UPS contract. Local activists have followed suit and formed local organizations where none existed before.

Several top Hoffa vice presidents and officials are looking forward to corruption charges from the federal government. Two of the most high-profile cases involve Western Region Vice President Rome Aloise, who is accused of taking gifts from employers in exchange for contract concessions and Secretary Treasurer Ken Hall, who is accused of withholding information from the government's investigation. The future of many old-guard Teamster officials is looking more and more uncertain.

One thing's for sure, it's that the Hoffa machine is dead and Teamsters United killed it.

#JacksonvilleFL #Teamsters #JimmyHoffaJr #FredZuckerman #TeamstersUnited

“I think that the improvement to the TeamCare on Sept. 4 is a big difference to the TeamCare they offered in the Tentative Agreement that was offered in May. I fully believe than these changes were brought on because of the Vote No movement,” commented Mark Timlin, founder of the 4000-plus member “Vote No On UPS” Facebook page.

A re-vote on seven rejected supplements and riders will be mailed out on Sept. 18, according to the IBT.

Although the national agreement passed by a slim 2 to 3% margin, the agreement cannot take effect until all regional and local agreements have been settled, so those eligible to re-vote, including Teamsters in the Central Region, Ohio, Michigan, Local 243, Metro Philly and Western Pennsylvania have the ability to vote no again.

Keep voting no

While health care gains were made, another no vote in the Central States Region, among others, will be necessary to fight the rest of the health care concessions, improve pay and full-time jobs for insiders and improve language on harassment.

Those who voted no in the initial round were angry with the cuts to health care, lack of additional full-time jobs, harassment, and longer wage progression scales for new workers, who would make less for longer periods of time than ever before.

The Vote No movement seems likely to continue strong, because although health care improvements were made, the health care plan is still worse than the previous contract. For instance, it includes a deductible in the last year, something UPS Teamsters never had to worry about before.

Teamsters currently in the TeamCare plan will not be given the same benefits, extending a two-tier system beyond wages and into union-run health care. Workers currently in the plan will begin paying deductibles immediately. Two-tier systems create different compensations for employees doing the same work, often based on seniority or part-time vs. full-time status. They are used by companies to break down solidarity among workers and violate the union principle of equal pay for equal work.

Other concerns include language on harassment. For instance, Article 17(i) in the Central Supplement is a loophole management uses to fire employees and it needs to be removed.

Ken Hall backtracks

UPS Teamsters were particularly upset with this concessionary contract at a time when UPS posted record-breaking profits of over $4 billion and broke another profit record in the first quarter of 2013, posting well over an additional $1 billion.

In response to rank-and-file Teamster outrage at the concessions, Teamster General Secretary Treasurer Ken Hall has backtracked on his initial claim that health care negotiations, as well as other stipulations covered in the national agreement, were a done deal. On Sept. 4, a new mailing was sent to the membership detailing significant improvements to the Teamster-run plan. Many of those who voted against the contract in the first round of votes see this as a victory, forcing the union to recognize and do something about the tens of thousands concerned about contract concessions.

For thousands of UPS Teamsters across the country, the struggle continues to stem UPS management's attacks on the wages, benefits and working conditions of drivers and warehouse workers and to hold Ken Hall and IBT President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. accountable to the members. The Vote No movement has already beat back some concessions and will continue the fight into the next round by urging another ‘no’ vote.

#MilwaukeeWI #Teamsters #UPS #classStruggleUnionism #JimmyHoffaJr #UPSContract #KenHall

Dear Friends,

Many of you know the story of Teamsters Local 743. After more than twenty years of fighting corruption, mob influence, back room deals and stolen election, we were able – with the help of the 10,000 members — to throw the crooks out of our local. We started to educate and mobilize members. We led a strike to preserve healthcare coverage for workers. We were involved in the immigrant rights movement and more.

This didn’t sit well with the employers or some old-guard Teamster officials. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and Chicago Vice President John Coli have conspired with Local 743 Vice President Larry Davis to have Secretary Treasurer Eugenia Alvarez and I removed from office.

We are fighting back and planning to win – but we need your help to do it.

This week we filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding that we be reinstated. More importantly we demanded that we be allowed to run in the election this Fall. Let the members, not Hoffa, decide who should run Teamsters Local 743.

Of course this is going to cost a pile of money for court costs, depositions, transcripts and fees. This is why we need your help. We have established a website where you can make a donation online. If you could help with a donation of $200 it would go a long way to helping us, but whatever you can give is deeply appreciated.

Please go to www.bergalvarezdefense.org and donate today. Your money will be put to good use.

Or you can make a check out to Chicago Labor Support Committee and send it to:

Eugenia Alvarez

2147 73rd Avenue

Elmwood Park, IL 60707

Donors’ names are confidential.

Thank you for your solidarity. Please forward this appeal to others that you think may be willing to help.

Solidarity and Struggle,

Richard Berg

PS. If you want to know more about our struggle, click on “press” at the website.

#ChicagoIL #Teamsters #TeamstersLocal743 #RichardBerg #JimmyHoffaJr