On the Teamsters
Miller, Norm
Asked two years ago whether the Teamsters would rejoin the AFL-CIO, President Lane Kirkland said: "If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley." Kirkland had good reason to be skeptical, for...
...After the AFL-CIO convention, an organizer for Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a group fighting—against all odds and with very little assistance—for the democratization of the Teamsters, asked: "The AFL-CIO condemns governmentcontrolled unions...
...Even a few votes against the Teamsters could have demonstrated to fellow trade unionists and the public that not everyone in the labor movement considers corrupt, undemocratic unions acceptable...
...government...
...In 1985, a presidential commission on organized crime concluded that criminal influence over the Teamsters is "so pervasive . . . that no single remedy is likely to result in even a measure of true union democracy and independent leadership...
...However, the AFL-CIO could have opposed the federal trusteeship of the Teamsters— SPRING • 1988 • 135 Comments and Opinions and there are good reasons for doing so—without admitting them into the federation...
...It also calls for an end to Soviet and Cuban aid to the Sandinistas, though the two issues are no longer linked as before...
...It's a good question...
...How did union leaders respond to questions about labor's image as a result of bringing the Teamsters into the federation...
...As Machinist President William Winpisinger said, "I can make a hell of a bank deposit each year with what I save in defending against raiding by the Teamsters...
...In two federal trials, Ray Williams, Presser's predecessor, has stated that the Mafia played a role in putting both him and Presser in office...
...Kirkland had good reason to be skeptical, for the AFL-CIO had expelled the Teamsters in 1957, claiming that the union was "dominated, controlled or substantially influenced in the conduct of its affairs by corrupt influences...
...There are also political reasons why some labor leaders have welcomed the Teamsters back...
...One factor is the unprecedented lawsuit by federal prosecutors seeking to oust the Teamsters' leadership and place the international union under trusteeship...
...Jackie Presser, the current Teamster president, faces charges that he participated in an illegal payroll-padding scheme to use $700,000 of union funds to pay men who did no work for the Teamsters...
...The problem confronting the AFL-CIO is not simply one of "public relations...
...In fact, the Teamsters' 1.7 million members, who make it the largest union in the AFL-CIO, will greatly increase the size of the federation and bring in much-needed dues money...
...In welcoming the Teamsters into their ranks, the AFL-CIO has lost some of that moral standing...
...Or at least it could have imposed some conditions for admission...
...The labor movement will revive only when it is seen by the public as representing that which is best in the American political tradition—a force for democracy and a more humane society...
...A public relations problem can be overcome with a few television commercials and glossy pamphlets...
...The no-questions-asked embrace of the Teamsters means that the AFL-CIO Executive Council considers reports of Teamster corruption overblown or irrelevant when compared with the possible federal trusteeship...
...It is not that the Teamsters are corrupt from top to bottom...
...military assistance to the Contras...
...But what is most disturbing is that the vote was unanimous and no conditions were imposed on the Teamsters...
...Thirty years later little has changed...
...But to regain moral standing requires action to demonstrate that the AFL-CIO does not tolerate undemocratic, corruption-riddled unions...
...Such attitudes are disturbing...
...What do they say about racketcontrolled unions...
...Along with the Teamsters, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, the Laborers International Union, and the International Longshoremens Association were all identified by the President's Commission on Organized Crime as being under the influence of organized crime...
...Recent convention foreign-policy resolutions show a steady progression toward a less militaristic stance...
...In addition, with the Teamsters in the federation it is hoped that the costly and wasteful jurisdictional fights between the Teamsters and other AFL-CIO unions will decline...
...industrial base, and union-busting supported by the U.S...
...The result has been declining living standards for American workers, the collapse of the U.S...
...If the lawsuit against the Teamsters succeeds, other unions could be the next targets of federal investigations...
...Indeed, several AFL-CIO leaders set up an organization called Americans Against Government Control of Unions, which has recently launched an advertising campaign that likens the lawsuit to the suppression of free trade unions in Poland, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany, and depicts it as part of an administration conspiracy to crush organized labor...
...Those committed to democracy have a right to ask: Where was the moral voice of the labor movement...
...The Teamster political action fund, which dwarfs other unions', is expected to raise over $8 million in 1987-88...
...A resolution passed at the same convention at which the Teamsters were readmitted calls for "withdrawal of U.S...
...Even before the reaffiliation vote, AFL-CIO leaders rallied to the Teamsters' defense, not in regard to the criminal allegations, but rather around the issue of union independence from federal control...
...But with the Teamsters in the Federation, the political balance will surely shift once again in a more conservative direction, a return to a cold war foreign policy that some in the labor movement would welcome...
...But at the top there is no democracy (leading Teamster officials are elected at a national convention consisting of full-time officials overwhelmingly loyal to Teamster President Jackie Presser), and continuing ties to organized crime are well known: • Four of the last five Teamster presidents have been indicted for federal crimes and three were convicted and sent to prison...
...Answers ranged from ludicrous ("The Teamsters don't have an image problem," claimed William Wynn, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers) to opportunistic and shortsighted ("If it's a choice between image and power, I'll take power any time," said Robert Harbrant, president of the AFL-CIO's Food and Allied Services Trades Department...
...The case has a bizarre twist: it appears 134 • DISSENT Comments and Opinions Presser was also an FBI informant during the same period...
...How then can one explain the unanimous decision by the AFL-CIO Executive Council to welcome the Teamsters back into the labor federation...
...There are hundreds of clean locals and hundreds of thousands of dedicated trade unionists in the Teamsters...
...But the Teamsters, with all their money and members, are not an answer to labor's problems...
...For some in the AFL-CIO the concern about the government's suit is perhaps not purely altruistic...
...The issue of foreign policy aside, others believe that bringing the Teamsters into the AFL-CIO will strengthen a struggling labor movement...
...Labor has been under attack by a hostile administration and a cocky antiunion corporate leadership...
Vol. 35 • April 1988 • No. 2
