Teamster reformers challenge trumped-up charges

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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 CHICAGO—After just over one year in power, the reform leadership of Teamsters Local 743, headed 11,000-member local from a criminally run enterprise into a union run by the members to defend their own interests. But in the minds of the old-guard gangsters who run Chicago Teamsters Joint Council 25, this example of a local operating for the rank and file was a crime punishable by removal from office.

On Jan. 11, the Joint Council removed Berg and fellow reformer Secretary-Treasurer Gina Alvarez from their elected positions and banned them from membership in the Teamsters, Berg for five years and Alvarez for three years, on trumped-up charges. Berg and Alvarez have appealed the ruling to the International. International General President James Hoffa Jr. issued a stay of effectiveness on Jan. 13, returning them to office until the International issues a ruling.

The charges against Berg and Alvarez were filed by local Vice President Larry Davis and three other members of the local’s executive board who ran on the reform New Leadership Slate with Berg and Alvarez. Once in office, however, they became upset when Berg carried through on the slate’s campaign promises. Berg cut officers’ salaries, including his own, by $70,000. He invested resources in education and representation training for members and staff, and hired professional negotiators. The Davis bloc in the executive board demanded higher salaries and defended incompetent union representatives and staff. They thought that the campaign’s promises were hollow, and once in office they could collect fat checks and reward friends with do-nothing jobs.

Since taking office, New Leadership has improved the stewards system, strengthened bargaining, and encouraged rank-and-file activism and education. The local waged a successful 10-week strike at SK Hand Tools that defended members’ health-care benefits 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 and grievance procedures in the face of an outright union-busting attempt by their employer. The local has mobilized rank-and-file members for immigrant rights and antiwar demonstrations and to stand in solidarity with other workers in struggle, including during the historic UE Republic Windows and Doors factory occupation.

The reform victory in Local 743 took over 10 years of hard-fought battles to accomplish. The former leadership stole elections and in 2004 canceled an election when they knew they would lose. The corrupt old guard used the local as a personal ATM and formed cozy relationships with employers at the expense of the members. Two former presidents of the local are now behind bars, one for election fraud and the other for cocaine smuggling.

The Davis bloc, which controls the executive board, has attempted to sabotage the efforts of the reformers by deadlocking votes on the board concerning union 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] (Left) Teamster President James Hoffa Jr., shown with Obama, has temporarily returned the Chicago union leaders to office pending an appeal, but the bureaucracy that Hoffa heads fears the growing reform movement.

business. When Richard Berg fired a union rep who wasn’t doing his job and then later agreed to an outof-court settlement to avoid litigation, the Davis bloc filed charges with the Joint Council, claiming Berg should have received executive board approval. No charges or accusations have been made that either Berg or Alvarez did anything for personal financial gain.

The Joint Council was more than happy to use what amounts to a procedural dispute as an excuse to deal a setback to the reform movement. But the council had no problem when Local 743 was run by drug dealers, who stole elections and assaulted members who opposed them. The Joint Council is headed by Local 727 President John Coli, who took home $344,849 last year from his multiple positions in the Teamsters. Coli is the son of the infamous Eco James Coli, former Local 727 officer and hit man and enforcer for the Chicago Mafia.

Local 743 reformers have not taken this attack lying down. The New Leadership slate immediately released a statement that has been distributed to the rank and file and are preparing their appeal to the International. And the active membership is standing behind the reformers. “For years officials treated Local 743 like a piggy bank,” said Melanie Cloghessy, a member of Local 743 at the University of Chicago. “We won’t go back to those dark days of corruption. The New Leadership team will keep fighting for a union that fights for us. The officials who are making this power grab are going to learn that we’ll fight back against their doubledealing just like we stood up to the criminal activities of the past.” n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610, [email protected], (510) 268-9429 Socialist Action newspaper editorial offices: [email protected] Website: www.socialistaction.org WHERE TO FIND SOCIALIST ACTION • Philadelphia [email protected] Oregon • Portland: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Ashland: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area P.O. Box 10328, • Oakland, Ca 94510 (415) 255-1080 [email protected] • WASHINGTON, DC [email protected] (202) 286-5493 Wisconsin • Ashland: [email protected] • Superior: [email protected] National Office 526 Roxton Road, Toronto, Ont. M6G 3R4, (416) 535-8779 www.socialistaction-canada. blogspot.com

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Evan Vucci / AP

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