Opinion: Hoffa Brought the Teamsters Back

By John Murphy

ice President

nternational Brotherhood of Teamsters

Ken Paff fails to mention in his June 19 attack piece on the Teamsters union [“Hoffa Restored the Perks, Not the Power,” p. 11] that his organization, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, is primarily financed by millions of dollars in grants from corporate “foundations.” Many of these corporations espouse interests that are diametrically opposed to the goals of working families.

Paff’s stock in trade for the last 25 years has been to use this tainted “grant” money to divide and weaken the Teamsters union. So it comes as no surprise to Teamsters members that, in doing the bidding of his corporate sponsors, non-Teamster Paff would use the pages of a publication of the transportation industry to attack the leader of the Teamsters union.

Paff’s attack piece is deceitful and misleading. His sole purpose is to harm Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, not to further the goals of the union and its members.

I am the current director of organizing of the Teamsters union under James P. Hoffa. Unlike Paff, I am a long-time Teamster and have stood for successful election by the Teamsters rank and file at both the local and national level seven times. So I offer you a fact-based and member-sensitive view of the Teamsters union under James P. Hoffa’s leadership.

For example, Paff states that the car-haul contract includes wage increases of just 1.9%. In fact, Paff’s assertion reveals his lack of knowledge regarding car-haul compensation issues. The wage increases in the second, third and fourth years of the contract average more than 2.5%. Further, it is inaccurate and intentionally deceptive to include the first year in any average calculation of percent increase without acknowledging the $1,500 bonus — the largest ever negotiated in the history of all Teamsters master agreements. He further ignores that the $0.65/hour negotiated in the first year of the agreement for health, welfare and pension was the largest annual employer contribution ever achieved in a Teamsters master agreement as well. And one must not forget that more than 80% of car-haul members supported the agreement.

Paff fails to note that the Hoffa administration won national contracts at Northwest Airlines and Anheuser-Busch after Paff’s patron, Ron Carey [former Teamsters president], left these members without contracts for more than three years.

Moreover, despite 25 years of attempting to rip apart the Teamsters union, Paff shows his lack of understand about union organizing. The Teamsters union is a bottom-up organization resulting in a majority of organizing victories at the local level. Though Carey took credit for local union victories, he never accepted responsibility for their defeats. What Paff didn’t say is that the Hoffa administration provides significant technical and logistical support for a tremendous number of local union organizing campaigns. Moreover, Paff’s numbers omit local union victories in the public and transportation sectors. This is a subtle, yet purposeful, oversight.

Paff also neglected to inform his readers that after just five months in office, it was James P. Hoffa who turned around a failing organizing effort of more than 600 apple workers in Washington state and achieved victory.

It is Hoffa who has taken on the bosses at Overnite Transportation, an organizing effort recognized by the entire labor movement as a courageous act.

Paff claims that “some of the worst fears about Hoffa have not materialized.” But that is because those “fears” were cynically concocted by Paff to make sure that Hoffa was not elected and the Teamsters union remained divided.

Indeed, it was the “fears” that Paff and the media hammered relentlessly that led some to illegally contribute money to the Carey election campaign, an act that ultimately led to Carey’s removal and ban from the union. For Paff to now nonchalantly say that the “fears” have not materialized is simply indicative of an irresponsible track record by his Teamsters For a Democratic — “If you agree with us” — Union .

Your readers may recall that it was another misnamed group, “Teamsters for a Corruption-Free Union,” that was the conduit for hundreds of thousands of laundered dollars. Super-rich non-Teamsters used the group to pour money into the 1996 election campaign of non-Teamster Paff’s disgraced icon, Ron Carey. The outcome of this money-laundering scheme was that an election was stolen from Teamsters members. Paff’s attack piece attempts to achieve the same goal — to deprive Teamsters members of a unified, aggressive and strong Teamsters union.

Hoffa has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the “fears” of TDU were pure propaganda. A campaign effort designed to keep them in the driver’s seat in Teamsters headquarters — so they could finish the job of destroying the financial stability of the Teamsters union.

The Teamsters union is more unified, more aggressive, more democratic and more financially sound today than any of us expected in such a short period of time.

James P. Hoffa has brought our union back together and given us the hope that we can build better lives for our members and their families. It is a shame that while the overwhelming sentiment in our union today is one of optimism and pride, nay-sayers like Ken Paff and TDU will do anything in their power to besmirch and undermine the unity process that General President Hoffa has initiated.