Trucking Plays Key Role in Three-Way Teamsters Race

This story appears in the Sept. 12 print edition of Transport Topics.

Trucking is playing an important role in the battle to lead the Teamsters union, as incumbent James Hoffa touts success in saving YRC Worldwide Inc. and challengers Sandy Pope and Fred Gegare lambaste him for failing to organize more freight haulers.

The election at the union, which claims 1.4 million members — about 20% in trucking — is coming down to the wire, with ballots scheduled to be mailed out later this month and a vote count due in late October.

Claiming credit for the union’s agreement to wage and pension cuts that prevented a potential YRC bankruptcy filing, Hoffa is seeking his third five-year term at the union. He was last elected in 2006 by a 2-1 margin.

In addition to criticizing efforts to organize nonunion carriers such as Con-way Freight, both challengers say Hoffa’s tactics have created inequality among YRC, ABF Freight and UPS Freight. Those three less-than-truckload carriers’ Teamsters contracts have different wage levels and benefits such as pensions.

“He’s going in the opposite direction of his father’s legacy,” said Pope, referring to the elder Hoffa’s negotiation of the National Master Freight Agreement to standardize Teamsters contracts nearly 50 years ago. “They’re stealing freight from each other.”

Hoffa did not give Transport Topics an interview to discuss campaign-related issues.

Pope, the first woman to run for union president, is currently president of Local 805 in New York and is backed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

Gegare is a Wisconsin-based international vice president whose supporters include Fred Zuckerman, the union official who led the recent car-hauler talks.

Gegare honed in on the drop in Teamsters LTL workers from more than 115,000 in 1999, to less than 50,000 today, and said Hoffa was ignoring the rank-and-file’s eagerness to reverse that slide.

“He never filed one petition to organize nonunion freight competitors,” Gegare said. “The members want to help. He’s running from the membership and trying to live on his name.”

From Hoffa’s perspective, the successful organizing of 12,000 workers at UPS Freight three years ago was a resounding success. Hoffa claims other 68,000 new members in other industries since 2006.

Hoffa also claimed success in assuring wage increases for UPS Teamsters.

His campaign literature also turns YRC’s 15% wage cut into a positive, saying the union “turned a disastrous situation at YRCW into a new restructuring that saved Teamsters union jobs and hope for the future.”

Pope said Hoffa’s 2007 agreement to allow UPS Inc. to pay $6.1 billion to exit the Central States Pension Fund, which covers ABF and YRC workers, was “one of the most negative and stupid things done by the Hoffa administration.”

Gegare also blasted that move, saying the fund’s financial condition is classified as “critical” by the federal government because payments into the fund lag far behind disbursements.

Hoffa’s campaign literature depicts Pope and Gegare in an embrace, saying the two “have joined together to divide the Teamsters” and stating “their honeymoon is over. Teamsters will not be divided.”

Hoffa appeared last week with President Obama and also was a guest on several television shows, including a Sept. 4 broadcast on CNN.

In the CNN interview, Hoffa said, “We need a WPA [Works Progress Administration] type of program” to boost hiring.

He called for tax incentives to shake loose billions of dollars that corporations are accumulating because of reluctance to spend on job growth.

“[Jobs are] an American problem,” he said. “We’ve all got to get into the game. Instead of building the next factory in Mexico, build it here.”

He singled out Apple Inc., questioning its patriotism because of extensive offshore workforces. He also singled out UPS Inc., the largest Teamsters employer, as proof that companies with U.S. operations can thrive financially.

Gegare and Pope took swipes at Hoffa’s high profile.

“The Hoffa name is now mud among the members,” Gegare said. “He doesn’t have celebrity status with them.”

“Hoffa dwells on politics and his celebrity status,” Pope said. “He thought that would make the union strong, and it hasn’t.”

“We need to have all the workers pull together and defend middle-class jobs,” she added. “Hoffa failed miserably at doing these things.”

Gegare sounded similar themes on the issues.

“Hoffa forgot who brought him to the dance,” Gegare said. “It’s not about the members anymore. It’s all about him.”

Gegare also blasted Hoffa’s performance on grievance panels, in which the union has lost 90% of cases.

“I wouldn’t tolerate caving to management,” he said. “The problem is that they are wining and dining and golfing with management.”

Both Pope and Gegare aligned themselves with Hoffa’s drive against allowing nationwide access for Mexican trucks. Both candidates said such a move, announced earlier this year by the Obama administration, would take away jobs from U.S.-based union truckers by allowing fleets to hire lower-paid Mexican drivers.