A coup attempt in the Teamsters
explains the background to the attempt by the Teamsters bureaucracy to oust the reform leadership of an important local in Chicago.
A COUP against the reform leadership of a big Teamsters 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 Teamsters 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 Teamsters 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, 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:
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.