Teamsters Union

The ferocity of the attack by a small band of dissidents against leaders of the United Auto Workers at the union's Anaheim convention last week backfired, rallying a large majority of delegates against the rebels' two principal goals. The result of the raucous UAW dissidents' tactics gives a major boost to campaigns for innovative labor practices and labor-management cooperation in and out of the auto industry. Also, the loss by the rebels will slow, if not stop, any campaign to change the way officers are elected in the UAW and almost all other unions.

By all accounts, BMW's parts distribution warehouse in Ontario was one of the jewels of the company's system. Supplying dealer service departments throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, it received gold medals from BMW for its efficiency and employed several of the top-ranked workers in the country. In the roughly 40 years its workers had been represented by the Teamsters union, there had never been a labor stoppage. Times being what they are, when a Teamsters committee came to the plant in early June to open negotiations over a new contract to start Sept.

Authorities arrested a local Teamsters official and two union members Wednesday and charged them with 97 counts of first-degree murder for the 1986 Dupont Plaza Hotel fire. The Commonwealth Department of Justice said Manuel de Jesus Santiago Rios, vice president of Teamsters Local 901 in 1986, and union members Luis Muniz Marquez and Luis Vega Rios were arrested by agents of the Special Investigations Bureau.

California's agricultural laborers work hard and lead difficult lives. Wages are low, making it nearly impossible to save enough money to secure better lives for their children. Work is seasonal, leaving long gaps in pay. Affordable housing is scarce. Laborers whose work is badly needed by growers and consumers often come to the U.S. in violation of immigration laws, making them subject to employer exploitation. For years, workers have helped tilt the balance of power in fields and factory farms incrementally by organizing themselves into labor unions.

The Teamsters Union, which has 1.41 million U.S. members and backed the Republicans in the last three elections, announced Wednesday that it is endorsing Democrat Bill Clinton. "Bill Clinton is our best hope for getting this country moving again," Teamster President Ron Carey said in a statement. "Many Teamsters supported George Bush and Ronald Reagan, who promised 'jobs, jobs, jobs.' The Republicans failed to deliver."

The Teamsters union ratified a contract agreement that ended its two-week strike against United Parcel Service of America Inc. in August. More than 81% of about 92,000 ballots cast by Teamsters members who work at UPS supported the five-year proposal, the union said. The strike against Atlanta-based UPS was widely seen as a Teamster victory.

The Teamsters endorsed Democrat Bill McBride for governor, bypassing GOP incumbent Jeb Bush despite efforts by his brother, President Bush, to court the national union. The president has worked for closer ties with some conservative-leaning unions, including the Teamsters, and union President James P. Hoffa was given a seat of honor at this year's State of the Union address. Hoffa has pledged to endorse more Republicans in this election cycle and has worked with Bush on a number of key issues.

The 1.6-million-member Teamsters Union is going through a series of wrenching changes that are comparable in some ways to the social and political upheaval taking place in the Soviet Union. For the first time in nearly 40 years, rank and file dissent is widespread and leaders of the nation's largest union at all levels are beginning to talk openly of the disagreements.

Ron Carey was sworn in Saturday as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, culminating one of the biggest reform efforts in the history of the American labor movement. Standing on the steps of the union's marble headquarters building on Capitol Hill, Carey told more than 1,000 cheering supporters: "I pledge to you today that I will use the full power of this office to rid this union of mob influence and win this battle once and for all."

William E. Bufalino Sr., 72, a longtime attorney for the Teamsters Union and its vanished ex-president, Jimmy Hoffa. Bufalino represented Hoffa, the Teamsters or both in seven trials and won five of them. The attorney ended his lengthy relationship with Hoffa in 1971, four years before the labor leader disappeared. Bufalino served 21 years as president of Teamsters Local 985. He testified before two Senate committees that investigated links between labor and organized crime in the 1950s.

Just 13 months after Los Angeles and Long Beach set their maritime rivalry aside to fight diesel pollution at the nation's busiest seaport complex, the partnership has collapsed. In a disagreement that hinges on labor practices, the two cities are now so fundamentally at odds that some experts fear customers will seek out other harbors to escape a storm of complications, confusion and acrimony. At issue is whether the drivers who haul freight to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach should be required to work for trucking companies -- and therefore be more likely to be recruited by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.

A top West Coast Teamsters official who headed a chapter representing almost 130,000 members has resigned his post amid allegations that he sexually harassed a former union secretary and offered to be her "sugar daddy." James A. Santangelo, a 50-year Teamster veteran who also served as an international vice president, resigned Friday from his membership in Local 848 in Covina and was automatically removed from three elected positions, said Bret Caldwell, a spokesman in Washington, D.C., for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Casting directors and associates have tentatively agreed on a contract with Hollywood producers. The Teamsters union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said they agreed after three days of talks on a three-year contract. It would cover about 400 casting directors and casting associates represented by Teamsters locals in New York and Los Angeles. Members must vote on the agreement.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a clean air plan requiring shipping companies to buy and maintain a modernized fleet of big rigs and employ thousands of independent truckers who currently operate under contract. A spokesman for the American Trucking Assn. derided the plan as a "scheme to unionize port drivers" and vowed that his group would sue the port.

Rick Valencia stared through his windshield at the Hollywood writers pacing in front of the Paramount Studios gate, a blur of red T-shirts and picket signs blocking his passage. He'd been driving trucks for more than three decades, but earned less in a year than some of these writers made in a week. Scribes in the upper echelon of the Writers Guild of America were bona-fide members of the Hollywood elite.

United Parcel Service Inc. on Sunday reached a tentative, five-year agreement with the union that represents about 240,000 full- and part-time UPS employees in the United States. UPS said the deal included wage increases and significant contributions to healthcare and pension plans for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The agreement beats a deadline today that the union had set for a tentative contract.

Why has the vast, honest majority of the 1.6 million members of the Teamsters Union never booted out any of the presidents who have given the entire union and the members themselves an undeserved reputation of being a huge army of mobsters? Three of the four past presidents have been convicted of crimes and imprisoned; the fourth died before investigations of him were completed. One of the four, Jimmy Hoffa, mysteriously disappeared in 1975, presumably a victim of the underworld.

The first politically open Teamsters convention began Monday as an unprecedented pastiche of democracy in all its catharsis, chaos and change. In a symbolic demonstration of their lingering resentment of government oversight, the 1,900 delegates voted against incorporating the democratic reforms of a 1989 consent decree into their constitution.

President Bush has "sucker punched" American workers and threatened national security by opening the nation's southern border to Mexican truckers, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa said at a conference in Houston. He said the Bush administration's pilot program, which took effect Thursday, showed a lack of concern for domestic security.

Representatives of Teamsters Local 399, along with basic crafts unions representing such workers as electricians, plumbers, laborers and plasterers, reached a three-year tentative contract with studios and TV networks. Details weren't immediately disclosed pending notification of members. Companies are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. About 6,000 Southern California workers are affected.