Washington seeks revenge for successful UPS strike
By Barry Sheppard
A former federal judge, acting on behalf of the capitalist government, has barred the Teamsters' current president, Ron Carey, from running for re-election.
Carey was catapulted onto the national stage last summer when he led the strike of 180,000 Teamsters against United Parcel Service (UPS). Not only was the strike successful, but the issues it raised and the way it was conducted pointed the way forward for working people, and won wide public support.
A key issue in the strike was fighting to stop UPS's increasing use of low paid part-time workers and its plans to "contract out" union jobs to non-union shops.
This struck a chord among US workers, who have seen the devastating effects of corporate "downsizing", the use of part-time workers and contracting out on their wages and working conditions.
Another important issue the union won on was the two-tier wage structure the company wanted, in which new employees would never reach the pay of established workers.
Under Carey, the union leadership reached out to the rank and file UPS workers in a carefully organised year-long campaign to mobilise them for the battle with UPS.
Through discussions and votes, the workers decided what the main demands of the union should be. That's how the question of turning more part-time jobs into full-time ones came to the fore.
UPS management miscalculated the effect of this mobilisation and was stunned by the solid rank and file support of the strike.
While UPS lost the battle, another foe of the Teamsters, the government, stepped into the picture. A government "monitor" over the union's affairs ruled just after the strike that Carey's re-election last December was void because of irregularities in the fundraising for his campaign.
Carey narrowly won that election by 52 to 48%, over his opponent, James Hoffa, Jr. Junior, a labour lawyer, is the son of Jimmy Hoffa, the union's president from 1957 to 1971. Jimmy Hoffa had a reputation as a tough guy with close ties to the mafia. Some workers believed that their relatively good contracts won during that period were because of the union's ties to the mob.
The truth is that the bosses in general were making concessions to workers in contract battles up until the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the context of the worldwide capitalist expansion after the second world war. But the union's ties with the mob and its corruption at the top and throughout the secondary officialdom also meant more "sweetheart" contracts with the bosses at the workers' expense.
Jimmy Hoffa went to jail for jury tampering and fraud. In 1975, he disappeared in what was widely viewed as a gangland execution.
Each succeeding president developed further the corruption of the union, becoming millionaires in the process, which also meant making concessions to the bosses. It was this old guard, for example, which agreed to the hiring of part-time workers and the two-tier wage system at UPS.
For decades, the government played upon the corruption in the Teamsters to justify government interference in the union's affairs, and to adopt more anti-labour laws.
In 1989 the union agreed to a government plan to "clean up". The government organised a rank-and-file election for president in 1991. To its surprise, a reform candidate, Ron Carey, won.
Carey had been a UPS driver in Queens, New York City, and rose from the ranks to lead a union local that represented UPS workers in the New York City region. He was known as a reformer who fought corruption and as a fighting leader who looked to the rank and file as the real strength of the union.
For two decades, a rank-and-file movement called Teamsters for a Democratic Union had been fighting the old guard. The struggle they waged was often bloody, as they had to go up against the mafia goons who were part of the officialdom. TDU developed into a network of 10,000 activists.
When Carey decided to run in the 1991 election, TDU threw their support behind him, an important element in his victory.
Upon taking office in 1991, Carey slashed officials' wages, including his own, and eliminated perks such as the practice of holding Teamster conventions in Florida and Hawaii for the hand-picked delegates. He sold off two corporate jets the top officials used to use. And he began rooting out corruption at the district level, removing corrupt officials in 70 areas.
This job is far from over, however, and the old guard remains entrenched in many areas. Fearing Carey's reforms, especially their impact on the lifestyle they have grown accustomed to, the Old guard backed Hoffa Junior in last December's election.
The pretext used to void that election and order a new one, currently scheduled for next March, was that Carey's campaign managers diverted union funds through various channels into his election campaign. Carey's big mistake was to hire professional campaign managers, instead of relying on rank and file activists such as the TDU.
These "professionals" did what they always do in fundraising for capitalist politicians. But what is normal in capitalist politics violates not only labour law, but union democracy when applied to a union.
When these campaign managers came under investigation, one of them claimed that Carey knew of their schemes, something that Carey vehemently denies and which is out of character for him.
In a statement issued after the federal monitor disqualified him from running in the upcoming election, Carey pointed out: "I am told that the decision is based on the statements of a man who has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to embezzle union funds and is awaiting sentencing. There is nothing but his word and he has every reason to lie to save his own skin."
So without a trial or a chance for Carey to cross-examine witnesses, an obscure federal official reaches in to tar the union which has just won the most important victory for labour in decades, and in effect backs the corrupt old guard.
The hypocrisy of this is underscored by the fact no investigation was made into Hoffa Junior's fundraising, even though Junior outspent Carey by two to one. Junior's backers in the mafia know how get their hands on funds, as do the remaining officials of the old guard.
TDU national organiser Ken Paff said, "We are asking for as full an investigation of Hoffa as they did of Carey. We believe that a full investigation might uncover that employer money or mob money had been funnelled into the Hoffa election campaign."
There have been a number of different monitors in this case. The current one, apparently under pressure not to appear too pro-Hoffa, has asked a court to delay the election so that an investigation of Hoffa's fundraising can take place.
Whether a real investigation will occur remains to be seen.