The IBT has long enjoyed the efforts of a dedicated, impressive core of staffers. We need to do right by them. I'm not talking about a gold-plated benefit package, I'm talking about what simple decency requires. I continue to work with actuaries and accountants on this issue, but correcting years of mismanagement and neglect will require us to expend some resources. I am committed to making these corrections.
Teamsters take care of our own.
The problem is similar to one we confronted and solved when we returned to Teamster headquarters in 1998. I do not have sufficient words to describe how disheartening it was to see what had become of the IBT building and annex. It had been a place that generations of Teamsters could look to with pride, but it had become a pigsty. I was amazed and appalled. The place was falling down around our ankles.