Strike leader to challenge Hoffa Jr in Teamster election
By Barry Sheppard
Ken Hall was a key leader, along with former Teamster president Ron Carey, of the victorious strike the Teamsters Union waged against the United Parcel Service (UPS) last year. That strike won support amongst workers generally because it successfully challenged the UPS on issues that many workers face, such as the use of part-time workers at lower pay rates and "contracting out".
The Teamsters' election, set for September, will be a sharp confrontation between Hall, who looks to the power of the rank and file, and old guard candidate James Hoffa Jr.
Hoffa Jr's claim to fame is that he is the son of James Hoffa, former Teamsters' president with close ties to the mafia. Hoffa Jr, a lawyer, has never been a working teamster.
A government monitor has ruled that Hoffa Jr can stand for president of the Teamsters, despite finding that he committed perjury and that his election aides had committed "serious violations" during last year's election for the top Teamster post. He said, "While there were serious violations, they were not sufficient to disqualify Mr Hoffa. Any disqualification is inherently undemocratic."
In contrast, a different government monitor barred Carey from running because consultants he had hired to run his campaign last year had diverted union funds into his campaign. It was that monitor who annulled Carey's narrow 1996 election victory as a reform candidate over Hoffa and ordered new elections.
Why isn't the disqualification of Carey "inherently undemocratic"?
Rank and file campaign
Declaring that there will be no outside consultants running his campaign, Hall announced his candidacy for president at a union rally in West Virginia. Hall said he intends to run the same kind of rank and file-oriented campaign that the Teamsters used to win their strike at UPS.
Hall emerged as the Teamster reform coalition's choice to succeed Carey after months of indecision. He has Carey's support and has been endorsed by most of the members of that coalition, which re-elected Carey last year. These range from local officials such as Boston Local 25 president George Cashman — who talked about running for the top post himself on a platform of unity between the reformers and the old guard — to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.
TDU's vociferous opposition to the unity scheme put Cashman out of the running. TDU organiser Ken Paff said his organisation would put "every effort we can into electing Ken Hall and keeping the old guard from taking back this union.
"Ken Hall stands for finishing the job we've started — returning this union to the membership and keeping it democratic, free of corruption, and ready and able to take on the employers", Paff said.
Hall's insistence that outside consultants would not play a key role in the campaign was welcome news to union activists. Hall said his campaign would be much more like Carey's 1991 effort: "This is going to be a grass roots campaign. I'm going to be at the plant gates and in the freight barns talking and listening .... This is not going to be Ken Hall's campaign. This is going to be a campaign for all Teamsters."
The election will pit two opposite perspectives against each other. Hoffa is running on the idea that the union needs a "strong leader" — the image his father has among some Teamsters — and a big treasury. Hall will be running on his record as a leader in the UPS strike, which mobilised the power of the rank and file in victorious battle against an intransigent employer, and successfully reached out to the rest of the working class for support.
Reform forces gain
Hall's campaign has been an uphill battle. Hoffa is better known and has a campaign apparatus in place. But the reform forces now can begin to organise and wage a fight which, whatever the outcome, can place them in a strong position to influence the union.
In spite of the Carey debacle, the reform movement has made important gains. In November, 10,000 workers at Northwest Airlines voted three to one against the pro-Hoffa incumbents and for the TDU slate. In Dallas, Texas and Columbus (Ohio), reformers became president and Hoffa's guys finished third. In December, Hoffa's spokesperson in the 18,000 member Chicago Local 705 was rejected and the reformer candidate re-elected.
The will to continue the battle against the old guard was evident at the TDU's convention last November, which was its largest ever, just four days after Carey's disqualification. Although maintaining strong feeling about Carey, members rejected the notion, raised by a few, that the TDU's priority should be to rally around Carey's appeal against the charges against him. Instead, they vowed to continue organising for the Master Freight contract, winning local elections and finding a new reform candidate for president.