By Kevin Galvin
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, June 27, 1998; 12:44 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As doubts grow about the upcoming Teamsters
election, acting union president Tom Sever has raised tensions with political
rivals by dismantling the union department responsible for reaching out
to members.
Sever, who rose to the top of the
1.4-million-member union when incumbent Ron Carey took a leave of absence, has dismantled
the Field Services department which was responsible for member outreach. He is also
weighing the possibility of layoffs.
Critics say his actions are politically motivated
and threaten programmatic advances made by union reformers over the past six years.
Teamsters spokesman Matt Witt declined comment on what he called internal
matters. Sever was traveling and a did not return a message left at his office.
A dozen rank-and-file organizers working under
Field Services head David Eckstein have been let go and 12 members of his
field staff were reassigned. Eckstein was stripped of his power. Two of his aides and a
colleague in the research department had their computers impounded by
Sever.
"The bottom line is it's all retaliation
against me for running for union office," said Eckstein.
The action comes less than a week after Eckstein,
who ran the grass-roots mobilization effort behind last year's United Parcel Service
strike and the member-to-member organizing that Carey emphasized, announced he was joining
Tom Leedham's ticket as a candidate for union trustee.
Leedham is one of the candidates for president
and has the backing of the grass-roots group Teamsters for a Democratic Union and of many
union department heads who served under Carey.
Sever, however, plans to run again for secretary-treasurer, the
post he held under Carey, on a ticket topped by John Metz, a local leader from St. Louis.
Eckstein has filed two protests with the election officer.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press obtained a list of Teamsters staff
and the amounts they donated to the 1996 Carey-Sever ticket that union sources said was
compiled at Sever's direction.
Addressed to Sever, a cover sheet to the Jan. 29,
1998 memo says, "attached is a list of all (Teamsters) employees
donations over $80 to the Campaign.... Also attached is a list of those who gave
nothing."
The list of about 250 donors to the Carey-Sever
slate was prepared at union headquarters and on union time, according to union officials,
and appears to violate campaign rules that guard against mingling union work and politics.
Revelations about the increased infighting at Teamsters
headquarters comes after the court-appointed election monitor said he would end federal
supervision of the contest if a funding dispute wasn't soon resolved.
The rank-and-file election of union officers is key to the
government's cleanup of the union, taking place under a 1989 consent decree the Teamsters
signed to avoid racketeering charges.
Carey's narrow re-election over James P. Hoffa in 1996 was
overturned after investigators uncovered an illegal fund- scheme that pilfered more than
$800,000 from the union treasury.
Carey won the union's first-ever
election for general president in 1991 and built a reputation as a reformer, whose high
point was the two-week UPS strike last year when 185,000 manned picket lines.
Carey was barred from the rerun, and the coalition of grass-roots reformers and local leaders backing him split.
© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press