TDU as Apologist

[X-TDUer]

It causes me great pain to witness the end of TDU’s role as an independent watchdog over the affairs of the IBT and a vehicle for members to voice their concerns about activities within the union. Sadly, any credibility TDU once had as an independent caucus of Teamsters devoted to reform and transparent union governance has evaporated. Instead, it has become apparent that TDU has been bought and paid for by the O’Brien administration.

TDU’s defense of O’Brien’s decision to fire members of the organizing department because of their race is nothing short of shameless. The explanation that the firings were necessary to create a more diverse organizing department is so Trumpian in its illogic and falsity as to make you doubt your own ability to add and subtract. According to the complaint and numerous sources, O’Brien fired 36 members of the organizing staff when he took office, 20 of whom were people of color. He then hired 15 organizing staff members, of which 4 are people of color. If my math is correct, while 20 people of color were fired, only 4 new people of color were hired.

Any confusion over what happened or whether the personnel actions were justified could be resolved if the IBT responded to the news reports about the settlement. Instead, the IBT has said nothing to contradict the widespread reports or explain why it takes a $2.9 million payout to 13 former employees to diversify the organizing department while reducing the number and percentage of organizers of color. Maybe everyone on the O’Brien GEB who approved the settlement had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, like the UPS negotiating committee members. The questions members should be asking include why are we getting this explanation from TDU rather than the IBT, how much more can we expect the IBT to spend “diversifying” the rest of the organization, and how many more employees of color will need to be fired to accomplish that?

Members should also be asking how TDU got access to the racial identities of the new hires or to the racial composition of the “organizing department staff,” if any of the numbers are real. And where did TDU come up with the alleged number of workers the O’Brien organizers have organized each month. Everyone knows that virtually all organizing is done by local unions. Whatever the numbers are, how much can be attributed to the IBT organizers? The IBT has yet to file its annual report with the Department of Labor that will show whether the total number of members increased or declined during 2023. We know for a fact that the IBT lost almost 22,000 members when it booted out the GCC and about the same number due to the YRC disaster. Once again, this mystery could be resolved if the IBT shared with its members the membership information given to the GEB at least quarterly. But that data appears to be shared only with TDU. Are we supposed to trust any of this?

Maybe someone at TDU should review its mission statement, which includes being the voice of the membership, rather than the lackey or apologist for any incumbent IBT administration.

[The Direct Line]

According to TDU: "This was no surprise. Hoffa did the same on his first day in office in 1999, and Ron Carey did the same before him in 1992.

The majority of the plaintiffs who filed the discrimination case first filed an election protest claiming that they had been fired for supporting O’Brien’s opponent Steve Vairma.

After the Election Supervisor rejected their protest, the plaintiffs filed a discrimination complaint claiming that their firings were racially motivated, and that the IBT disproportionately replaced them with white organizers.

The International Union points out that the organizing department is now more racially diverse than it ever was under Hoffa."

This is from Walker v IBT: "The terminations set back the Organizing Department's goal of effectively recruiting and organizing non-whites, in favor of bolstering the majority white membership and leadership of the union." 72.73% of the Organizing staff of color were terminated while the "Teamsters then proceeded to hire new staff members who were 73.33% white/"

TDU is gonna do everything to defend SOB and moreover, their meal ticket.