From: nyxfer%panix.com@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: NEWS: Judge's Ruling Aimed at Smashing Teamsters
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Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:35:11 GMT



Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

Judge's ruling aims at smashing Teamsters

By Lyn Neeley

On Aug. 20 U.S. Federal Judge David Edelstein issued a 100-page
opinion giving the U.S. government unprecedented power to control
the Teamsters, the biggest union in the AFL-CIO. The opinion
amounted to an assault against all organized labor.

Edelstein's opinion officially expanded the power of the
Independent Review Board to make decisions that "shall be final
and binding." He ordered the appointment of William Webster, as
the "impartial" member of the board. Webster was  director of the
FBI for nearly 10 years and then CIA director.

Top officials of the AFL-CIO have denounced the government's
continued control of the Teamsters. And progressives in the union
movement have challenged Webster's appointment as illegal.

In a 1989 mutual consent decree, the U.S. government agreed to
scale down its involvement in controlling the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters once union members elected a new
leadership. According to the decree, the board is to be made up
of a representative from both the union and one from the
government. The third member was supposed to be someone
impartial, approved by both sides.

This "impartial" post is the one held by Webster, over the
objections of the union. Besides being a former director of two
secret police agencies with long anti-union histories, Webster
was just named to the board of directors of the infamous
anti-labor Pinkerton security agency. The name Pinkerton is
synonymous with strike breaking and anti-union goon squads.

Webster also sits on the board of Anheuser Busch, one of the
major companies with a contract with the Teamsters union.

As part of his opinion, Edelstein ordered the union to pay all
expenses of the IRB, which is stacked against the union. These
expenses include unlimited compensation to Webster, who gets $385
per hour. Union members have already been forced to pay $27
million for the court appointed overseers and $10 million in
costs related to the consent decree.

Teamster president Ronald Carey responded to Edelstein's opinion,
asking if the "government's real motives are to cripple" the new
union leadership. In a press release issued by the Teamsters,
Carey said "The new Teamsters are dedicated to better contracts,
better representation on the job, more effective legislative and
political action, and a successful organizing program that
protects our members' living standards while improving those of
unorganized workers ... precisely the kinds of activities that
this anti-union government does not want to be effective."

Top officials of the AFL-CIO executive council held a news
conference announcing the council "stands ready to assist the
Teamsters in their efforts to regain their full autonomy." They
said the government's recent efforts to expand its control over
the Teamsters is "the latest--and most dangerous--manifestation
of the government's continuing abuse of its powers under the
consent decree.

In the Teamsters' news release, Carey said the union would appeal
this "unwarranted imposition of increased government control over
the union."

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@igc.apc.org".)

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