CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Teamsters: The Ghost of Jackie Presser

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. Photo: Ted Merriman. CC BY-SA 4.0

The big news coming out of the Teamsters’ recent convention in Las Vegas is that for the first time in 35 years, there will be no rank-and-file democratic elections for the top officers of the union. The Fearless slate, led by Richard Hooker, failed to get the 5% of the delegates necessary to make it onto the ballot. The Incumbent Sean O’Brien‑Fred Zuckerman “Teamsters United Slate” were elected to office by delegates to the convention.

Popularly known as the “OZ” slate, they secured 96% of the vote. They are the first leaders of Teamsters to be elected without a popular mandate since the 1989 voluntary consent decree between the union and the federal government that mandated changes in the union’s highly undemocratic constitution to provide for one-member-one-vote for convention delegates and International officers. The last Teamster leader elected by convention delegates was Jackie Presser, the notoriously corrupt, mobbed-up, and FBI informant, in 1986.

The Teamsters’ General President Sean O’Brien cast the OZ slate’s reelection as a victory for the union’s rank and file. “This victory belongs to rank-and-file Teamsters. When we were sworn into office four years ago, our leadership team committed to building a bigger, faster, stronger union, and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” O’Brien was quoted in an official union statement. Yet, convention delegates are disproportionately union officers, staff, and close allies—with bloated and multi-salaries‑where full-time rank and file workers are few.

“The Teamsters is now the most aggressive, effective, and respected labor union on Earth” are in sharp contrast to a union deep in crisis. It must be a great relief for O’Brien and Zuckerman to avoid campaigning, especially at UPS, which has been ravaged by tens of thousands of layoffs and building closures across the country. Adding insult to injury, the Teamsters’ approved buyout program for UPS drivers has........

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