New hope for the Teamsters

SANDY POPE is running for general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters with the support of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the union's opposition movement. She says she's running to mobilize the Teamster membership to fight back against the corporations.

On the surface, Pope's campaign looks virtually hopeless. The reality could be very different.

The Teamsters' structure creates multiple problems for an insurgent candidate. Pope had to submit petitions signed by 33,400 Teamsters in December to have her candidacy accredited and get access to the union membership list and Teamster magazine. The campaign submitted more than 50,000 signatures.

Now she has to get 5 percent of the votes at the Teamster convention in June. This would be easy, except most of the delegates will be local officers, many of whom are indebted to the incumbent president James P. Hoffa. Others just feel threatened by any reform candidate.

Pope told a nationwide conference call on May 15 that she has the votes to win a place on the ballot. She said, "The Hoffa campaign is going to be twisting arms and spreading rumors. I'm telling you now: We have the delegates to get nominated."

Many find it difficult to imagine a female president of the Teamsters, with their super macho image. But the Teamsters actually organize everyone from librarians to communication workers to civil servants.

Pope estimates that as many as 20 percent of Teamster are women, and she believes the members are ready to vote for a woman for president. She told Labor Notes, the national labor reform newsletter:

A lot of people are ready for someone and something really different. I think our members are no different than the American electorate that sees it's time for other people to move forward and move things up. The men have not done a great job lately in our union; maybe it's time to give a woman a chance. There's still sexism--some people will think it's too big a job for a woman, but I think most people have gotten over it.

POPE IS running against the three-term incumbent James P. Hoffa, son of the legendary Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa Junior has never worked a Teamster job nor even been an elected local officer. As Pope told the Nation, "I started as a selector in a food warehouse, I hauled steel. I hauled sand. I hauled freight. I drove across country. I drove city. I've loaded trucks."

She jokes about challenging Hoffa to a truck-driving competition.

Pope was an international representative in the reform administration of Ron Carey, the Teamster president who was elected with TDU's support. She is currently the president of Local 805 in New York.

Hoffa's record could be his biggest problem in the campaign. Ken Paff, the TDU national organizer, says the union has lost over 100,000 members since Hoffa took over in 1999. Paff told In These Times, "The members are fed up with Hoffa. He has been riding on his father's name, and the ride is over."

The freight industry, once the heart of the union, is now mostly non-union. At UPS, the union's largest employer, Hoffa gave up contract language that forced the company to create full-time jobs from part-time jobs. Starting pay for part-timers is now still just $8.50 an hour.

Pope expects to benefit from important defections in the Hoffa camp. Teamster Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel is not running again and has been publicly critical of Hoffa. Fred Gegare, a member of the union's general executive board, is also running for president, creating a three-way race. That should work in Pope's favor.

Pope says there will be big changes in the union is she wins. She told the Nation, "If I take over, you're going to be looking at strikes and civil disobedience and job actions and sit-ins. This is going to have to be a civil rights movement. When you have leadership that is stuck in the Beltway mentality and spends too much time with management, this kind of stuff just doesn't occur to them."

She said that under her administration, the union would take a more active role in helping smaller locals fight employers who demand major concessions and organizing nonunion businesses.

Pope told a Labor Notes Troublemakers School that she would "reach out and involve the members." She promised that under her administration, the union would "educate everyone from local officers to business agents to members on how to fight back."

Pope confided that her CB radio handle was "troublemaker" when she was an over-the-road driver in Cleveland, before telling the Labor Notes troublemakers that unions have to find new and innovative ways to fight back against the companies.

She gave the example of a New Jersey warehouse local that was confronted by a Dutch corporation trying to eviscerate one of its contracts. The union brought hundreds of members to New York City for a rally at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations in Rockefeller Center. Union members met with the Dutch ambassador, who promised to put pressure on the company. The action helped the union beat back the company's attack.

Pope added that "the labor movement is on our ass" and "the Teamsters have to build a coalition to take the labor movement in a new direction. We're missing so much when we don't reach out to other worker organizations. We need to involve immigrant workers organizations, farm workers and students."

Sandy Pope may be a long shot. But right now, she's the best hope not just for the Teamsters, but for the whole U.S. labor movement.