At the end of the day we all have to answer to somebody.

[Bob Randall]

Reply to Nickjamesups: " Do you (I) think that O'Brien should be invited to speak at the TDU Convention?" Well, the short answer is yes. Although as to how I feel about it requires a not so brief response. TDU considers itself as part of a coalition that is in support of O'Brien. TDU believes that it is serving a worthy function in its capacity and coalition. To be frank I agree to a point. TDU has clearly redefined itself and given itself different purposes from its origin. As I can tell it still promotes and teaches membership involvement and power from bottom to the top. I mean...that model can't be argued against too credibly. Now, let me go further before I attempt to tie my thoughts together. There are GEB members that "support" O'Brien that I had gained respect for. Although, their blind loyalty has shaken me. They have succumbed to the trap that almost all others have in the past. They have it made and can't bring themselves to openly challenge O'Brien. When I see Teamster Local Officers supporting SOB on social media that I had respect for I see the same. Same with JC members. I came to like and respect many of them. As always, at some point, it comes down to principles. And, as always, they mostly succumbed and did not deserve the privilege of continuing to hold the position. (Let me say that many were scum from the outset. Hee, hee!) For many years TDU did an amazing and honorable job of challenging and teaching rank and filers to oppose the types that I've mentioned. In many ways. It appears that TDU is still teaching and promoting rank and file power. I believe that the organization is serving a good purpose in that capacity. Most likely a much better job than the IBT Education Department or any other department ever has in our history. In my opinion that is invaluable. I don't expect that the role that TDU plays now was built into its plan from the onset. Some of its principles have changed. It evolved to be a victim of its own success.

Now, maybe a better question for me would be as to how I feel about its part in a coalition at this point. A new reform movement is needed. There are GEB members and Local Officers making 300k - 400k per year only because By Laws provide for them to do so. They are not earning it. They are legally stealing it. Nobody on the GEB is screaming about that. (And trust me, I've been around long enough to know that the more a Teamster Officer "earns" the less work he or she does.) Supporting O'Brien at this point in time is to have made a bed and slept in it with the devil. I feel the same about any and all Officers and Agents that are in that bed. Any party that does not speak out against SOB at this point in time does not deserve the privilege of serving the membership. So, go to the TDU convention if you are invited or if you are a member or truly aligned with its principles. Speak, organize, act or whatever. That just makes sense. However, if as a result of alignment with SOB, whether it's a GEB member, Local Officer or Agent, JC or TDU, your position is lost or diminished? Ya fuckin' had it comin'.

[Gimliboston9]

[Bob Randall]

Bro? Read my post. That's what I said. Drink some herbal tea. Yeeesh! Bro? I just reread my post. Yup. That's what I said. Phew! Maybe a few glasses of Pinot Noir rather than attack me. Hee, hee!

[AlJackson1962!]

Brother Randall:

Thank you for stating your position. I remain a TDU member today. Its an organization that undeniably helped make the Teamsters a more democratic Union. However, the old well know quotation (I heard the great Leo Gorcey say it when I was a kid on the tv show East Side Comedy - but he was quoting an earlier statement made by another): "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." (think Ken Paff and David Levin now sitting at the table). We have the framework today in the IBT Constitution because of the early struggles from 1976 - 1992 by TDU. The same fight for democracy can be fought today to reclaim TDU as the democratic rank and file organization it was. Hard to say if that could be successful.

When I first became a member of TDU as a Local 443 member and Petroleum Products, Inc. driver, there were few TDU members in New England. When I moved to the Boston area the following year in 1978 and made the list at Metropolitan Petroleum, I transferred into Local 25, led for decades already by Billy McCarthy. There was a core group of active TDU'ers there. The most active members of that chapter then were Dave Wolfinsohn and Arthur Doty, Jr. An early focus was electing Frank Salemme as President of Local 42 in Lynn, Mass. Frank was a freight driver for Beacon. He ran on a slate with Dick Sewall. They both won, Sewall as Secretary-Treasurer and Principal Officer.

It didn't take long for Frank Salemme to abandon TDU principles under the pressure from Sewall. I remember Dave Wolfinsohn telling me, the best thing for TDU would be for Frank Salemme to lose in the election, because, the writing was already on the wall that Frank would not risk being ostracized by Sewall and the rest of JC10 local officers, due to his remaining a TDU activist. Dave Wolfinsohn was right. Arthur Doty suffered the brunt of the blacklisting by Sewall and JC10 thereafter. Arthur was a former US Marine and Vietnam veteran, and a militant Local 829 steward at the old First National warehouse in Somerville. What Arthur had to go through earning a livelihood as a Teamster member was horrific. A man that fought and survived two tours of combat in the jungles of Vietnam, was not allowed by JC10 "leadership" to hold a job as a Teamster.

There may be TDU members that recall the debate in TDU on using an electoral strategy in conjunction with building rank and file power, versus relying only on the latter. Pete Camarata stated at the 1989 TDU Convention in Pittsburgh, after Ron Carey's address there looking for TDU's endorsement of his campaign: I paraphrase here: If I give money to build rank and file power in the Teamsters, I'm giving it to the Detroit Metro TDU chapter, not to Ron Carey's campaign.

Ron Carey was a hard working, honest, trade unionist and the best General President the Teamsters ever had. But, TDU did change because of Carey's election. Bob Randall, when you write that TDU is a victim of its own success, that is true. TDU today proudly states its the longest continuing rank and file Union caucus in the country. But, it cannot claim to still be democratic. TDU members are banned from participation now, only because they express their own beliefs on the state of our Union. Clearly, that's undemocratic.

These are my thoughts this morning. Glad that I can share them here.

- Dave Robbins, Local 251 retired.

Post note: Ironically, in a lawsuit filed in 1989 against Local 42 because of Dick Sewall's blacklisting Arthur Doty (which Arthur won - Local 42 refused to transfer Arthur's membership from Local 829 to Local 42 even though Arthur was on the seniority list on a Local 42 job)), a key witness for Arthur's case was Dick Hunt; the former Local 42 Secretary-Treasurer that Sewall ran against. When Dick Hunt testified in response to cross examination by Gabe Dumont (now a lawyer for JC10), (again I paraphrase here): "Complaints and vocal dissent by the rank and file goes with the territory of being an elected Union officer or agent."

When Dave Wolfinsohn died in 2023, I sent a draft obituary to TDU for publication in Teamster Voice. I never got any response. Both Dave W. and Arthur have died. They were two of my closest friends, may they not be forgotten, along with the many early TDU activists that helped get the Teamsters where they are: Direct election of IBT officers, majority vote rule on contract ratification, separate votes on supplements to national agreements, a strike fund that keeps food on the table, a means to fight corruption and unethical practices.

That TDU has little, if anything to write concerning the massive assault on democracy and organized labor, and racist erasure of history, legalized discrimination, etc., etc. all apparently ok with our General President Sean O'Brien; Trump's pal - they talk regularly according to O'Brien; who has the adjectives to describe that disaster?

[UnionistIBT]

Good post, we should all be lucky enough to have as good a friend as you've been to Dave Wolfinsohn and Arthur Doty. Thank you brother Robbins.

[Bob Randall]

Good post Dave.

[Thisischange?]

Here-here Brother Dave and a great reminder of what was fought for and sacrificed by brave and unwavering men. Thanks for that history. TDU needs to reach back and remember where they came from. Appeasing a bully for bucks ain't that.

[JZuraw]

The title of this thread gives it away. "At the end of the day we all have to answer to somebody." Hypothetically, our Union and TDU answer to their members. But if you can preach, teach and enforce top-down obedience, you can end up with learned silence and craven boosterism.

[Bob Randall]

Well, certainly. However, not absolutely. There always is hope. Although, dedication and work are necessary.