AUD conference: from previous page

“hard to stifle rank and file activism.”

idis, Susan Jennik, Arthur Schwartz, Dan Clifton, Barbara Harvey, Mike Goldberg. These are the attorneys and law professors who have taken on AUD cases and authored our amicus briefs in federal court.

[Andrew Rotstein, the attorney who represents three lAM machinists, reported on the successful federal suit to compel compliance with LMRDA section 105, the provision which requires unions to inform their members of the provisions of the act.]

Teamsters

An earlier session assessed the results of government monitorships over corrupted unions imposed after court proceedings under the RICO act. Paul Levy and Clyde Summers were joined by Ed Stier, who had been the court- 1101. appointed trustee over

Teamsters Local 560, and Henry Murray, one of three election monitors who conducted elections in the Laborers union. This session served as a mild preliminary to the main event, the conference highlight, a spirited exchange on proposals for reform in the Teamsters union.

Edwin Stier, who had been retained by President James Hoffa to elaborate an extensive internal union anticorruption program, outlined his plan, called Project RISE (respect, integrity, strength, ethics). As a substitute for the current government oversight, he sought a system that would have “Teamsters disciplining Teamsters.” He accepted the assignment, said Stier, because he was convinced that Hoffa sincerely supports a program to safeguard the union against organized crime. “I’ll bail out,” he said, if he ever decides that he is just being used. Stier was seconded by John Murphy, a Teamster vice president, who praised Hoffa’s union record. He noted that the AFL-CIO

had expressed support of

$500 000 grant Tom Shei bley, a Roadway Express

Driver and TDU member

J criticized Hoffa for working

U-

Speaking for the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, Ken Paff was, to put it mildly, “skeptical.” Key parts of the proposed code, he said, just follow federal law. RISE, he argued, “is not about democracy, it’s about PR for Hoffa...in the back room Hoffa’s trying to destroy TDU.” Stier replied, “I won’t be associated with a product that is a PR gimmick.”

In reply to those who charged that he had refused to appoint any TDU-suggested candidates to the union’s internal standards task force, Stier said he chose “people representative of the mainstream, without including anybody I thought would have a political motive to undermine the process.”

[A detailed account of these two sessions was published by the Bureau of National Affairs in its Labor Relations Reporter, 163 LRR 498]

Taken as a whole, these sessions illustrate what remains unique about the Association for Union Democracy, the theme expressed by Herman Benson at the opening plenary session: Union democracy has been legitimized throughout the labor movement as a principle. It is accepted as an idea, even by the officialdom, even if sometimes reluctantly. What remains is the need to translate the principle and the idea into actual practice. AUD serves that need.

[Lengthy as it is, this account offers only the flavor of the conference, not a full report. Future issues of UDR will return to the substance of some of the discussions.] +

At the Teamsters panel. Above: Steve Kindred (left) and Ted Katsaros (center) debate the merits of Ed SUer’s (right) ethics plan; below: Sandy Pope, business agent, IBT Local 805. Bottom right: Erin Small, phone technician, CWA Local

Our heartfelt thanks to all who helped make the conference a success: Nick Bedell, Ricardo Ber mudez, Nina Browne, Amy Carroll, Thelma Correll, Rob Dickey, Marty Fishgold, Pam Galpern, Karen Gisonny, Leon Rosenblatt, Mike Ruscigno, Elvis Presley, Gary Schoichet, Erin Small, Ruth Spitz, and Rachel Szekely. Also to Wagner Labor Archives for hosting the Friday night event.

June 2000

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Union Democracy Review