Reformers win leadership of two Teamster local unions

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55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at the level of union wages and We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and take steps to 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that matches the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, universal, public health-care 1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by workers’ committees. 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimination; equal 2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, and reduce pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orientation, skin color, or national 3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program to employ 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transportation corporaall jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and renewable sources of power, 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY CONGRESS schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, forests, farmland, and open space. should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threat4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq & Afghanistan! Close all ened by the crisis. These committees can draw up more concrete demands than the U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military — use funds instead for public works!

Convert the war industries to making products for people’s needs and to combat global 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed and exploited. For a 5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to Editor: Michael Schreiber International Editor: Gerry Foley Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. BOX 460501, San Francisco, CA 94146-0501. RATES: For one year (12 issues, 1st-class mail): U.S., Canada, Mexico — $20. All other countries — $30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars.

Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, designed, and laid out entirely by volunteer labor. It is printed by members of Local 583, Allied Printing Trades Council, San Francisco, Calif. warming. Name City Phone In Jan. 1 two New York City Teamsters leaderships. The two locals, Local 804 and 814, have voted in officers pledging to stop the concessions, corruption, and roll-over approach to bargaining that was the norm under the incumbents and is far too common in other locals and the International leadership of the Teamsters Union. They have both called for a new fightback approach based around mobilizing the rank and file, democratizing the union, and doing away with the bloated salaries and perks enjoyed by the old guard incumbents.

Both reform slates were inspired by rank-and-file organizing efforts against concessions negotiated by the incumbent leadership.

In Local 804, a 7000-member local of mostly UPS employees, workers organized a successful “Vote No” campaign against the UPS contract and local rider agreement, which included significant pension cuts and work-rule changes. When the ranks voted down their local rider, holding up the implementation of the entire national contract, the old guard was forced to return to the bargaining table and remove the worst of the concessions in order to secure passage.

Leaders of the “Vote No” campaign formed the 804 Members United Slate, an election slate of rank-and-file workers. The slate received 68% of the vote against the incumbents. The newly elected slate has pledged to implement a 10-point program to strengthen democracy and rank-and-file participation in the local, and negotiate stronger contracts and improve the local’s pension fund. The new officers will reduce officer salaries by $35,000 and eliminate 401K contributions for officers in order to restore financial health to the local.

A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS implement the following demands — mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused decline in value.

Address E-mail The Local 804 victory is also very symbolic for the reform movement, as 804 was the home local of the first democratically elected International General President of the Teamsters, Ron Carey, who led the union in the 1990s and fought to transform the Teamsters from a corrupt mob-controlled union in to a democratic member-run institution. Carey also led the historic 1997 national UPS strike, the largest and most militant strike in recent years, which resulted in a major victory for UPS workers and inspired workers throughout the country.

In Local 814, which includes commercial movers and auction house workers, the New Directions Slate won with 72% of the vote. Rank-and-file workers organized campaigns to fight concessionary contracts and exposed how the current administration bankrupted the local’s pension and health funds. The New Directions Slate built the foundation of their campaign through a series of successful “Vote No” contract campaigns.

The issues affecting rank-and-file Teamsters in these benefits.

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State Zip tions and place them under the control of elected committees of workers. • Chicago P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657 [email protected] • Connecticut (860)478-5300 • Florida socialistaction_tampa@hotmail. com • Kansas City [email protected] (816) 221-3638 Minnesota • Duluth: P.O. Box 16853 Duluth, MN 55816 [email protected] www.the-red-raven.blogspot.com • Twin Cities: (612) 802-1482 [email protected] • New York City [email protected] North Carolina • Carrboro: (919) 967-2866; [email protected] locals are the same ones that affect all Teamsters. Employers, whether profitable or not, are using the recession to pressure unions to accept concessions. Teamster employers have found union leaders on the other side of the bargaining tables far too willing to accept whatever they propose.

In the 12 years since Jimmy Hoffa Jr. was elected General President of the Teamsters, workers have witnessed their contracts weakened and their pension funds depleted, in some cases on the brink of collapse. Hoffa came to power promising to restore Teamster power; instead he has restored incompetence, corruption, bloated officer salaries (Hoffa himself pulled in $383,132 last year), and inferior contracts.

The failures of the Hoffa administration are most glaring in the union’s traditional core industry: freight trucking. The industry continues to be dominated by non-union companies and owner-operators. The few remaining Teamster shops in the industry have been pressured to accept concessions.

The last National Master Freight Agreement, negotiated in early 2008 before the recession when freight companies were reporting large profits, contained many concessions in work rules, outsourcing, and minimal wage and benefit packages.

Since the economic downturn, the trucking giant YRC has added insult to injury by twice demanding, with the support of Hoffa, the reopening of the NMFA to get further concessions. The 50,000 Teamsters were pressured by the International to accept first a 10% wage reduction and then, a few months later, a further 5% wage cut and an 18-month suspension of pension contributions.

While the national settlement was approved, a few YRC local subsidiaries rejected the concessions. Additionally, the ranks from Chicago area Teamsters Locals 705 and 710, who negotiate contracts separate from the NMFA, rejected the concessions. The officers of Local 705 have supported the YRC workers refusal of concessions, while Local 710 President Pat Flynn, an International VP and Hoffa lackey, has tried to convince workers in both locals to vote for concessions.

The workers have now rejected concessions multiple (continued on page 9, in “Quebec Solidaire Opts for Independence & Sovereignty”)

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Musadeq Sadeq / AP Kevin Frayer / AP

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