Teamsters for a Democratic Union

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) has been a leading example of a strong rank-and-file reform movement since it began in 1976. It wages “decent contract” campaigns when contracts with employers are up for renegotiation. These have sometimes led to successful strikes, unsuccessful strikes (often because Teamster officials undercut them), wildcat strikes, and contract gains such as “innocent until proven guilty” language in some national contracts. TDU chapters often engage in direct action campaigns on the job on behalf of punished coworkers or for changes in working conditions or other terms of employment.

TDU also focuses on union reform. They won direct election of national Teamster officials, which is important in a mob-infested union. They have won many local union elections, elected hundreds of delegates to national Teamster conventions, and were a crucial ally when Ron Carey and his slate (including some TDU members) successfully ran for president and other national Teamster offices. The Carey period saw improvements in contract language, union democracy, the organizing of new members, and onthe-job, rank-and-file collective organization and power. The successful 1997 UPS strike provoked a general capitalist class desire to bring Carey down, and he was ousted from office. His removal from office was facilitated by his having engaged in questionable financial arrangements with outside fund-raisers connected to the Democratic Party during his reelection campaign.

Since 1976, TDU has established a national presence in the Teamsters Union, in all facets of the trucking industry, and in many other industries in which Teamster members work. How and why has this happened in a period when capital has generally succeeded in conducting one-sided class struggle?

Part of the answer lies in the continuing vitality of the freight industry, a mainstay of the Teamsters. Unlike manufacturing, delivering goods (whether industrial or construction materials, or packages for sale) continues to thrive and to provide widespread employment in the United States. Although the union was weakened by freight industry deregulation in 1980, freight workers still have the power to shut down much economic activity; this power provides a basis for Teamster power and for TDU to grow by organizing local manifestations of freight workers' power.

TDU emerged from the rank-and-file movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. The 1970 national wildcat Teamster freight strike let Teamster activists around the country establish communication, and two new organizations were founded: Teamsters United Rank and File (TURF), a direct-action-oriented group that included a number of Teamster socialists, and Professional Drivers Council (PROD), a (Ralph) Naderite organization focused on drivers' legal rights. The socialists (members, primarily, of a group called the International Socialists, a forerunner of several current-day organizations) provided national vision and organizational support that helped scattered activists in the freight industry wage a Teamsters for a Decent Contract campaign in 1975 and form UPSurge among United Parcel Service workers. These merged to form TDU in 1976; PROD joined them in 1979.

TDU is one of the few strong points of workers' power and organization in the United States today. It has a deeply committed, experienced, deeply rooted, and talented membership. When and if the balance of class forces shifts (which could be initiated by actions TDU takes part in), TDU might be a nucleus from which much wider organizing and struggle could derive.

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