Legality of union prevention practices

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Weight: 123 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0745-4880
• DOI: 10.1002/mare.4080210309

✦ Synopsis

Teamsters Must Pay for New Election

A Manhattan federal court judge ruled that the Teamsters union, not the federal government, will pay for a second union president election, that must be held because of corruption in the previous election. In that election, held in December 1996, Ron Carey narrowly defeated James P. Hoffa. Carey was subsequently disqualified from office due to his use of $700,000 in unlawful campaign funds.

Under a 1989 consent decree between the Justice Department and the union, the government agreed to supervise and pay for the 1996 election. The union maintains that since the 1998 election is a continuation or redo of the 1996 election, it, too, should be taxpayer funded.

The judge said that he had the power to amend the consent decree and order the union to pay, In 1997, he noted, Congress passed a law specifically barring government funding for a new Teamsters' election. Furthermore, the judge said, it was wrongdoing by aides to the Teamsters' president that had made a second election necessary. "The time has come when the I.B.T. must bear its own costs for cleansing its Augean stable," Judge Edelstein wrote. "The 1.B.T is merely being called upon to pay the price for undoing the harm they caused."

Federal officials estimate that it will cost $7.4 million to hold the new election for the top offices of the 1.4 million-member union. H