[transform the Teamsters into a fitting instrument for…]

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transform the Teamsters into a fitting instrument for the defense of the membership' interests in the coming difficult To strengthen the union in the face of the new challenges, Carey will have to involve every potential activist. Reliance on sectors of the old union bureaucracy, whose existence depends on a passive rank and file, contradicts the need to mobilize the ranks.

However, most TDU leaders stressed a unity of purpose and long-term alliance with the Carey administration, while working independently in some areas.

Important new initiatives are underway. For example, $34 million has been committed to organizing—but the organizing department seems slow to use rank-and-file and volunteer organizers. Some grievance panels are being reorganized. Most of the old international reps have been replaced.

A pilot program to respond to the employers' "team concept" strategy (labor-management cooperation programs), which undermines unionism, is being launched. A human rights committee is being created to "increase opportunities for participation by all members, organize the unorganized, and make the Teamsters union an even more effective voice for justice and dignity on the job, [and] in our community."

The international is promulgating new by-laws that local activists hope to use to win election of shop stewards, hold impartially supervised mail-ballot elections, and cap officers' salaries.

Showdown with UPS

But the real test of the New Teamster's mettle will likely be the United Parcel Service (UPS) contract, which expires in July 1993. UPS is the largest single employer of Teamsters. Three years ago, UPS management outmaneuvered the IBT on the contract vote, and won major concessions.

International Vice President Perrucci, heading the UPS campaign, promises an aggressive effort in upcoming contract talks. Carey will personally co-chair the contract negotiations.

Management has already begun their counteroffensive, and can be expected to play hardball.

This contract fight may define the relationship of forces between the union and employers for some time.

On assuming office, the Carey administration inherited some 85 poorly prepared, losing strikes. It has been trying to cut the losses with greater activism, corporate campaigns, and consumer boycotts.

In the well-known case of the Pittsburgh Press strike, the Teamsters organized mass picketing, defied court injunctions and mobilized solidarity to stop the newspaper from using scab The carhaul contract negotiations earlier in the year-which cover truck drivers who carry cars from the factories-was seen as one of Carey's first tests of strength after being elected. Some gains were won in the new contract because the union convinced the carhaul bosses that an effective strike was being organized.

Much discussion at the TDU convention focused on how to prepare for and win strikes today. Unionists are keenly aware that isolated strikes, run as they have been, are losers.

TDU should help the BT dards and social services.

And despite TDU's remaining formally politically independent, Clinton/Gore buttons and literature abounded at the convention. Militants were unable to point to any credible alternative. "

The convention closed with TDU's favorite orator, Bill Slater (who wore a Clinton button), warning: "Working people have been written off by both parties and there's no alternative. ... Unions should support Tony Mazzocchi's effort to start a labor party."

TDU's formal stance of political independence has become increasingly inadequate in the new situation as the wide support for Clinton at its convention shows.

Class-conscious unionists should find ways to educate on the need to break from the bosses' parties, and support independent labor candidates.

This could be done through debate in the pages of TDU's Convoy Dispatch newspaper, by having a Labor Party Advocates workshop at the next convention, and through the union as a whole as opportunities present themselves. Lessons should be drawn from the Canadian Teamsters' experience in building a labor party, the New Democratic Party (NDP).

The convention showed that the Teamster reform movement is continuing to build on its electoral victory with modest gains. However, no union can be a model in isolation. Only a deeper mobilization of the rank and file will make possible the transformation of the union into a class-struggle instrument.

TDU is growing, but not fast enough. It voted to direct more of its organizing resources beyond the trucking jurisdiction, where TDU membership is concentrated, especially targeting minority and women Teamsters.

With such "forgotten Teamsters" becoming a greater percentage of the workforce, the New Teamsters' strength is tied to the fights against racism and sexism.

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