Fearless-slate

[FEARLESS-SLATE]

Brothers & Sisters we are at a cross roads in our organization. For decades the Teamsters have been plagued by a system of fear, bullying, autocracy, retaliation, intimidation, retribution & dictatorship. Under this system of governance, the members have severely suffered. The employers have also taken full advantage of this. The employers also use these same tactics to brutalize our members. Our members should not be afraid of the employers or their union officials. Unfortunately this is the case. The Teamsters can never be all we can & should be until we get rid of these elements. It all starts at the top. Unfortunately our current general president believes he is a "ruler" & the general president wants us to be "blind faithful subjects" just like employers want. The employers won't stop retaliating or harassing us until we first get it out of our own organization.

Our platform is about eliminating this current system & giving our members real power.
Power in negotiations. Power on the Shop floor. Power in their locals. Power in their joint council's & power in the fight against their respective employers.

How do we do that:
Our biggest contract has crumbled & fallen apart. Harassment, retaliation & intimidation is at an all-time high at UPS.
We were lied to about automation. UPS is closing buildings left & right in order to use automation. The biggest threat to our jobs is automation. We were told by the general president at a rally in California that he stopped it. We need
Open bargaining for ALL contracts. Open bargaining creates an atmosphere for collective power. It also enforces trust & transparency. It bridges the gap between the union officials & the rank-and-file members.
It creates & stronger bond between the union officials & the members. It also sends a very clear message to the employer; our power rests & resides in the members.

Direct rank-and-file elections at every union official office level:
When a member pays dues, those dues go to 3 places & at some locals, 4 depending on if you are in a Teamster area conference.
Dues go to the local you are in & we have direct rank-and-file local union officer elections.
Dues also go to the international & we have direct rank-and-file international officer elections. Our dues go to the joint council & area conferences as well, why don't we have direct rank-and-file officer elections for them?
We need to change that. Our rank-and-file members should be able to vote for those union officials. By giving our members an opportunity to vote in these elections, it gives them more power. It also gives them the ability to hold those officials more accountable.
Wherever your dues go, your vote for union leadership should follow.

Please stay tuned for more updates & slate member announcements.
MORE POWER, NO FEAR
#BEFEARLESS

[jerseymike78]

Glad to see you here!!
keep us informed !

[Watcher745]

Please announce just who is on the Fearless Slate.

[Ron Dans]

[Moyama]

Really? You think direct election of Joint Council Officers is a big issue for teamster members. Ever heard the phrase "inside Baseball"?

[Mr. Teamster]

This moron has about as much chance of winning his time Leedham did those three times that he ran. You’re not gonna beat this machine. And putting a blithering moron like Richard Hooker up to run is the biggest laughing stock ever. Nobody in the West Coast respects or even knows who Richard Hooker is. 150 people that listened to his podcast isn’t enough for him to carry the west.


All your best bets would be to get over whatever you think is gonna happen cause it’s not.

[Gimliboston9]

Moron? Did Hooker post a video threatening members? Did Hooker post on Facebook a photo of a man with a gun up against the head of a woman? Did Hooker repeatly act like a thug at our conventions intimidating members?

[Nickjamesups]

I’m glad Hooker is running, at the very least O’Brien will have to address issues raised in this election. O’Brien will have to answer the questions raised about his term in office. I want to see defend this UPS contract and the way the company played him. Looking forward to all those Yellow drivers putting in their two cents.

[Gimliboston9]

Mr. Teamster, THIS IS A MORON!

[jerseymike78]

Wow! No words!

[Watcher745]

No words? I have a word THUG! Unfortunately many members mistake thuggery for toughness! Every woman in the teamsters should see this photo.

[Graveyard]

This moron has about as much chance of winning his time Leedham did those three times that he ran. You’re not gonna beat this machine. And putting a blithering moron like Richard Hooker up to run is the biggest laughing stock ever. Nobody in the West Coast respects or even knows who Richard Hooker is. 150 people that listened to his podcast isn’t enough for him to carry the west.


All your best bets would be to get over whatever you think is gonna happen cause it’s not.

Another drive-by verbal attack against anyone or anything that apparently challenges his position in the $200K Club, delivered by Mr. Tea….. (I just can’t say it).

[AlJackson1962!]

I believe the Fearless Slate's position on direct member election for Joint Council executive boards is an interesting idea. However, under the longtime and current scenario under the IBT Constitution, each local union gets a minimum of seven voting delegates (elected local union E. Board members) regardless of the size of the local (number of members). Those voting delegates then vote by secret ballot to elect the Joint Council E. Board. When the Teamsters were created in the early 20th century, they brought together all Teamster jurisdictional local unions under one international organization, but to this day, local unions maintain some sense of autonomy. In JC10 New England, there is history wherein more progressive JC Executive Board members have been voted out by the alignment of power brokers of large locals. Local 25 in Boston has been the dominant power broker since the mid 1970's in New England, when Local 25 Principal Officer Billy McCarthy put together a JC10 slate that displaced more militant local Teamster leaders on the JC10 E. Board, that back then included: Nick Morrisey, a Hoffa, Sr. ally and International Organizer, Dick Hunt, Lynn, MA Local 42, Umberto "Battle" Cruz, New Bedford, MA Local 59,, and Jim McGrath, Sr. Boston Local 504. After taking over the JC10 E. Board (by open voting of JC10 delegates back then) McCarthy started merging many smaller locals in metro Boston into his home Local 25. I once put together a list of these locals that were merged into Local 25, relying on an IBT Roster of locals from the early 1970's. The number was over 30 then as I recall and has grown since I put together that record., around 2001.

In addition, when geographical jurisdictional disputes came up (changes of operations by example), McCarthy used his power as JC10 President and influence to send as many members into Local 25 as he could. Decades ago, most LTL freight carriers serving metro Boston were located clearly within Local 25's geographical local union charter. But over time, most of them moved to the outlying metro area, within the I495 belt around Boston and a good portion of that geography was the jurisdiction of other Teamster locals. UPS located one of its bigger hubs in Chemlsford, MA, (they all went into Local 25).

So, as it stands now, r&f members are left out in the cold on what is voted on and how each delegate votes.

What I believe is more important and might have more of a chance to be changed if the demand is there with the rank & file is:

A record of how each delegate votes on any motion or resolution put forward by any Joint Council voting delegate. We know how all of our elected representatives vote in the US Congress, state elected officials, city and town elected officials. If those voting records are known to the rank & file, that will enable the r&f to know how they are represented by the local union executive board members at the joint council.

Other T-Unionlink readers may see things differently with this, including what I understand to be an accurate history of how Local 25 became the dominant power among New England Teamster locals (Note: Connecticut did have a separate JC #64 that merged with JC10 (in the late 90's maybe?). But overall, I believe The Fearless Slate platform is a very interesting idea on that matter.

[ReadytoStrike]

How do we collect signatures to support your slate?