Chicago: Teamster Reformers Ousted in Power Grab

[Communist]

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Local 743 Members Unite to Say “We Won’t Go Back”

Teamster Reformers Ousted in Power Grab (http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/1/11/teamster-reformers-ousted-power-grab)

By Staff
January 11, 2010


http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article-lead-photo/richardberg.jpg (http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/richardberg.jpg)
Richard Berg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_idLQTVr5s/S0wOgsIwpXI/AAAAAAAAASY/srnvDgZeA3s/s1600-h/Richard1%5B1%5D.jpg) of Teamsters (http://chicagoist.com/attachments/chicagoist_kevinr/2009_8_teamsters_logo.jpg) Local 743.
(Fight Back! News (http://www.fightbacknews.org/))


Chicago, IL - Chicago (http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=chicago+teamsters&fb=1&gl=us&hq=teamsters&hnear=chicago&view=text&ei=S-JMS8KzCNPHlAeQ4viNDQ&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=5&ved=0CCwQtQMwBA) Teamster bosses ousted reformers Richard Berg (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5948146454470394722#) and Gina Alvarez (http://www.tdu.org/node/521) from union office today in a power struggle between grassroots reformers and old guard Teamster (http://www.teamster.org/) officials over one of the largest Teamster local unions in Chicago and the country.

Joint Council 25 (http://www.chicagoteamsters.org/) officials suspended Richard Berg from union membership and removed him as president of Teamsters Local 743 (http://www.743teamsters.org/) on charges that he violated Teamster procedures. Alvarez was also suspended from membership and removed as secretary-treasurer.

The 11,000 members of Local 743 voted Berg and his New Leadership Slate (http://www.fightbacknews.org/es/node/686)into office in 2007 (http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/79871/index.php) on a reform platform. His election was bitterly opposed - for years - by Chicago’s top Teamster officials, who used every means at their disposal to prevent a reform victory in Local 743.

Berg opponents were convicted (http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:9i_ZkDpQFpIJ:www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2009/pr0501_01.pdf+local+743+richard+lopez&hl=en&gl=us&sig=AHIEtbRZgbg2yWPqh9wFc9ZhUkdO8zq1jA) of stealing (http://www.fightbacknews.org/2007/07/743theft.htm) a union vote to block his election. One of the vote-riggers is also serving jail time for using Local 743 as a front for drug trafficking. When Berg was nominated in June 2006 for International Vice President on the reform slate, while Chicago's top Teamster official John Coli ran on the old guard slate, Berg was assaulted (http://www.fightbacknews.org/2006/02/teamsterconvention.htm) at the Teamster Convention by former Local 743 president Richard Lopez (http://provisoprobe.blogspot.com/2007/09/maywood-trustee-rich-lopez-indicted-for.html). Joint Council 25 and International Union officials upheld the Local 743 election results that were stolen and overturned - but today voted to suspend Berg and Alvarez’s union membership - a move that could disqualify them from running for re-election in Local 743.

Local 743 members plan to fight Berg and Alvarez’s removal in federal court, where they were able to win a supervised election.

“They couldn’t steal our election and they couldn’t defeat us at the polls, so they used trumped up charges to oust Richard and Gina and hijack Local 743,” said Joe Sexauer, Local 743 union representative (http://www.743teamsters.org/?zone=/unionactive/officers.cfm) who helped organize Berg’s successful election. “But the union is about more than any one leader - it’s about the members. We’ve defeated corrupt officials before, and we’ll do it again.”

Berg and his New Leadership Slate were elected to lead Local 743 in October 2007 in an election supervised (http://www.tdu.org/node/270) by the Department of Labor (http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/highlights_07.htm) - and Berg followed through on his reform platform. He cut his salary by $70,000 and shaved the union payroll by eliminating do-nothing jobs.

Not everyone was happy with Local 743’s new direction, including some of the newly-elected officers. They agreed to run with Berg on a reform (http://www.tdu.org/node/1628)platform that included reducing the salaries of overpaid union officials. But they demanded higher salaries once they were in office. When members complained that some union representatives weren’t doing their job, Berg investigated the complaints, took the cases to the union’s Executive Board (http://www.teamster.org/content/international-vice-presidents-and-trustees), and those union representatives were terminated.

Unhappy at the financial reforms and the demands for accountability of union staff some Local 743 officers teamed up with Berg’s opponents in the Teamster hierarchy. They filed internal union charges falsely claiming that Berg had failed to present the terminations and other union matters to the Executive Board. Not a single one of the charges alleges that Berg or any other Local 743 reformer took a penny for personal gain.

Local 743 represents 11,000 members at the University of Chicago and U of C Hospital (http://www.tdu.org/node/2867), Rush Presbyterian Hospital (http://www.jobsatrush.com/), Blue Cross (http://www.bcbsil.com/career/index.htm) and numerous shops, factories, offices and nursing homes.

“We elected him, and it's our choice, the membershi (http://chicagoist.com/attachments/chicagoist_kevinr/2009_8_teamsters_logo.jpg)p to keep him or take him out in an election, not like this,” said UC Medical Center worker (http://www.uchospitals.edu/jobs/index.html) Jean Moore.

Under Berg’s leadership, Local 743 cut officer salaries, including his own, and put the union’s dues money to work for the membership. Berg hired professional contract negotiators and led a successful strike to protect members’ healthcare. The local has taken stands to promote civil rights and racial equality: Local 743 sponsored Martin Luther King Day (http://www.743teamsters.org/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_article.cfm&homeID=149550) events and participated in marches for immigrants rights.

“For years officials treated Local 743 like a piggy-bank,” said Melanie Cloghessy, a member of Local 743 at the University of Chicago (http://www.uchicago.edu/working/). “We won’t go back to those dark days of corruption. The New Leadership team will keep fighting (http://www.chicagounionnews.com/2010/01/more-teamsters-turmoil-reform-minded.html) 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 double-dealing just like we stood up to the criminal activities of the past.”

A flyer sent to Teamster 743 members (http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/743-we-wont-go-back.pdf)

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[Communist]

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Removal of Teamsters 743 Leaders Stopped
Hoffa Grants Stay of Effectiveness to Berg and Alvarez (http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/1/14/removal-teamsters-743-leaders-stopped)

By Staff
January 14, 2010

Chicago, IL - Two days after Teamsters Joint Council 25 suspended Richard Berg and Gina Alvarez from office over trumped up charges, the International president, Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. (http://www.teamster.org/content/james-p-hoffa) has granted them a stay of effectiveness. This will be in place until the international hears their appeal. Berg and Alvarez will be restored to their positions in the union immediately.

The two reform leaders of Local 743 were charged with corruption.

Ironically, neither of them was accused of personally benefiting in any of the charges brought against them. In fact, Secretary Treasurer Alvarez and President Berg had worked to put the local union back into the hands of the members after decades of true corruption. The officers of the local for years before Berg and Alvarez had stolen elections and forced sell-out contracts onto members. These practices were accepted by the Joint Council.

In recent months, Berg and Alvarez helped lead the workers at SK (http://www.skhandtool.com/) Hand Tools to a victorious strike (http://www.revleft.com/vb/sk-hand-tools-t116242/index.html) to defend health care benefits. That strike gained national attention, including coverage in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The leader of the executive board in the local that charged them is Larry Davis, who played no role in the SK strike.

President Berg expressed to Fight Back! the gratitude he and Secretary Treasurer Alvarez felt for the outpouring of support they received from friends, allies and workers in the local since the news of their removal from office broke on Monday evening.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:iLkf-8hBXE0CTM%3Ahttp://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/images/Teamsters.gif (http://www.teamster.org/)
Teamsters logo (http://www.teamsters671.com/images/logo.gif)


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[Communist]

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A coup attempt in the Teamsters (http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/15/coup-attempt-in-the-teamsters)
(http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/15/coup-attempt-in-the-teamsters)
the background to the attempt by the Teamsters bureaucracy to oust the reform leadership of an important local in Chicago

January 15, 2010


http://socialistworker.org/files/imagecache/242/files/images/PICT1106.jpg (http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/media/2009/10/18/workers-republic-feature-film-about-republic-windows-doors-strike)
Richard Berg outside worker-occupied (http://www.workers.org/2008/us/republic_workers_1218/index.html) Republic
Windows and Doors (http://www.workers.org/2009/us/republic_1225/index.html) in December 2008

A COUP against the reform leadership of a big Teamster local in Chicago is underway--and it's aimed at restoring the corrupt old guard leadership to power and snuffing out union democracy.

Teamsters Local 743 President Richard Berg and the local's vice president, Gina Alvarez, were removed from office January 11 by Teamsters Joint Council 25, a body comprised of the leaders of Chicago-area Teamster locals.

Although Teamsters General President James Hoffa reinstated Berg and Alvarez pending a full investigation by the union, the charges remain. The Joint Council alleges that Berg and Alvarez improperly handled the severance package of a fired union representative and wrongfully denied membership in the local to some union representatives for 18 months.
So although Berg and Alvarez will remain in office for now, the controversy will, at the very least, be used by the old guard to besmirch the reformers' New Leadership slate.

With 11,000 members--many of them at the University of Chicago hospital--Local 743 is one of the more important Teamster locals in the U.S. The Teamsters old guard that runs the Joint Council hates the example that it provides for rank-and-file activists in other locals.

If the Joint Council's disciplinary action is allowed to stand, Berg would be banned from holding union office in Local 743 or working for the local, and would be suspended from membership in any Teamster body for five years. Alvarez would also be removed from office and barred from union membership for three years.

Ever since the New Leadership slate took office in January 2008, elements in the union have plotted to take Local 743 back to the bad old days, when the Joint Council supported a local leadership that stole union money, rigged elections and even dealt drugs in the union hall. The old 743 ruling clique was so corrupt that the Teamsters Internal Review Board (IRB) removed two presidents from office.

What's unexpected is that the old guard is now getting support from a faction in the New Leadership slate itself. Local 743 Vice President Larry Davis and three other members of the union's seven-member executive board have formed a bloc against Berg, Alvarez and another board member. That has given the Joint Council--a conservative body closely aligned with Hoffa--a pretext for trying to oust Berg and Alvarez.

"Larry Davis and his group are trying to throw Richard out of the union because he fired a couple of union reps for not doing their jobs," said Emilio Lunar, a Local 743 shop steward at SK Hand Tools and a leader of the 10-week strike at that company last fall. "Richard cut everybody's salaries and put people to work, and some of them didn't like that. I guess they thought it was all just a campaign promise."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE NEW Leadership victory took more than a decade to achieve, as the incumbents repeatedly resorted to election fraud to hang on to power. In 2001, the old guard brazenly stole votes, and in 2004, the leaders simply halted an election because New Leadership candidates were ahead in the tally. Finally, several top officials were indicted in 2007, and New Leadership swept an election that was supervised by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Since then, while Local 743 has moved forward by revamping shop steward structures, toughening up its bargaining efforts and promoting member activism, key figures from the old guard are behind bars.

Former Local 743 President Richard Lopez--who once worked at SK Hand Tools--was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in rigging the 2004 elections. Also sentenced to prison is the local's former comptroller and dues administrator, who was also convicted in a vote-stealing scheme. A former union organizer, David Rodriguez, was also sentenced to prison for his role in stealing votes.

During all this outrageous behavior over decades, Joint Council 25 leaders looked the other way. Now, though, they want to oust Berg and Alvarez for making a $20,000 severance agreement with a fired union rep in order to avoid a lawsuit.

As Teamsters for a Democratic Union put it (http://www.tdu.org/node/3597):
The leadership of Joint Council 25 had no problem when mobsters, drug dealers and criminals ran Local 743. They never found fault with two local presidents, who then were removed by the IRB for their dealings with the mob. They didn't have any problem with Bob Walston, headed to jail for running a drug operation out of the union hall and for election fraud. Then they were fine with Richard Lopez, also headed to jail.
The real reason that Joint Council 25 is intent on removing Berg and Alvarez is their commitment to building a fighting, democratic union--something that threatens a Teamsters union old guard that's comfortable with inflated salaries, cozy deals with employers and, all too often, ties to organized crime. With union reformers recently winning office in the important Teamsters Locals 804 and 814 in New York, the bureaucracy would like to see the reformers in Chicago's Local 743 taken down.

But the reformers in Local 743 have built support over many years, and aren't about to go away. "This is a new union here," said Dave Biedrzycki, a shop steward, strike leader and a 25-year veteran at SK Hand Tools, referring to the New Leadership slate during last year's strike. "I believe they've gotten stronger. That's why I became a union steward. I come from the people--I want to see the people get what is right."

Everyone who supports union democracy and reform should support the right of Richard Berg and Gina Alvarez to remain in office.









http://bobmccarty.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/teamsters.png (http://www.teamster.org/)









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[RED DAVE]

Links, please.

RED DAVE

[Communist]

Links, please.

:lol:
Yes I may overdo it with the links. But I figure, if I'm going to post news stories that I didn't write, research into these stories and links for readers to promote understanding and / or points of view, is the least I could do. :)