Teamsters boss Jim Hoffa was the election's big loser

Manchester Union Leader ^ | December 7, 2004 | Peter Flaherty

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ORGANIZED labor was an undisputed election-day loser, but John Kerry's defeat was a particular blow to Teamsters chief Jim Hoffa. For Hoffa, who worked hard for Kerry after endorsing Richard Gephardt in the primaries, the election was about much more than access or influence. It was about getting the 1.3 million-member Teamsters out from under federal government oversight, in place since 1989.

The stakes for Hoffa were so high because of a burgeoning controversy that exploded with the April 28 resignation of Edwin Stier, the former federal prosecutor hired by the Teamsters to clean up the union. Stier charged that Hoffa had "backed away" and "inexplicably retreated" from anticorruption efforts.

Although the controversy concerns six Teamsters locals in Chicago, it goes to the heart of Hoffa's credibility and reputation. The Teamsters are refusing to release Stier's 303-page report on the six locals. According to the Chicago Tribune, which obtained a copy, the report details "allegations of mob influence, kickback schemes and the secret shifting of union jobs to low-wage, non-union companies." Stier asserted that he encountered "active resistance" from Hoffa's office in investigating these allegations.

Stier did not work for the government. In 1999, the Teamsters established an internal reform program and hired Stier. It was a way of staving off more serious scrutiny, and of showing "good faith" in hopes of eventually escaping government oversight. While it lasted, it was good work for Stier.

The Teamsters spent $15 million on the program, much of which flowed through Stier's law firm. Since he was never really "independent," Stier's resignation is all the more devastating to Hoffa. Ultimate authority for Teamsters oversight resides with something called the Independent Review Board (IRB), established as a result of a 1989 consent decree to settle a Justice Department racketeering lawsuit. Now that the Stier operation has imploded, the time is hardly ripe for Hoffa to argue for the disbanding of the IRB.

Ironically, the Teamsters had made tentative progress toward walking on their own with the current Bush administration and Republicans in Congress. Early on, an eager White House political staff courted Hoffa. There was talk of "working together" on issues like oil drilling in Alaska. But freeing the Teamsters was the real, never-acknowledged agenda. The relationship, however, soured as Hoffa claimed that the policy gap on issues like free trade was just too large to bridge.

During the campaign, Hoffa asserted that the moneyed Kerry is "one of us" because Kerry briefly held a union card in 1962. About Kerry's opposition to opening the Alaska wilderness to oil exploration, Hoffa lamely offered that Kerry had assured him that he would "drill like never before" elsewhere. Hoffa apparently also got over Kerry's support for NAFTA and other trade agreements.

Republicans should feel lucky that the courtship of Hoffa never led to anything more serious. Richard Nixon famously enjoyed the support of Hoffa's still-missing father, and Ronald Reagan won the support of Teamsters president Jackie Presser. It is doubtful, however, whether Republicans have benefited politically from the support of corrupt union bosses. A better approach would be a renewed Justice Department crackdown on mob influence in labor unions. It worked for Robert Kennedy, who became a hero to many in the rank-and-file.

In his resignation letter, Stier stated that he had "substantial reliable information that organized crime again threatens the union." He cited two specific examples of how Hoffa personally impeded his investigations, and in one of the cases, he accused the union of being "insensitive to witnesses' justifiable fears of retaliation." The bad old Teamsters are back. Or maybe they never really went away.

Peter Flaherty is president of the National Legal and Policy Center, a nonpartisan foundation promoting ethics in public life. The group publishes a bi-weekly newsletter titled "Union Corruption Update."

[flim-flam]

Bush did issue an executive order enforcing Beck back in 2001. A union sued to block E.O. 13201, but ultimately the Supremes upheld it. In short, the Beck poster should be hung up in the workplace where workers typically look for information about their workplace rights or communication about their jobs. The Beck poster applies to workers who have been classified under the Railway Labor Act or the National Labor Relations Act and whose employer are federal contractors.

The above link can take one to the DOL's E.O. 13201 guidelines. The Beck poster was displayed where I work for about six months. I think I must have been the only person in the building who noticed it. I believe it was taken down via employer ignorance when the Human Resources office was recently moved. Once the holidays are over, I plan to bring this issue up with my employer.

[MamaLucci]

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