THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412310264
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Even before officially taking over as president of Teamsters local 822, David Vinson cut his own salary $3,000.
The reduction was an act of payroll management, but its symbolism goes deeper than the cut.
Vinson, a UPS driver with 17 years on the job, led a slate of reform-minded candidates who swept out the Norfolk-based union's old guard during last fall's election. They officially take control of the union today.
``They're part of the dinosaur era, and they're going the way of the dinosaur,'' Vinson said of the local's former leaders. ``I'm from the new school. I want to take a different approach to unionism than they're used to.''
Teamsters local 822 represents 1,750 Hampton Roads workers. The membership comes from the traditional Teamster trucking lines, such as Yellow Freight System, Roadway Express and ABF Freight System, whose relative strength in the union has waned over the years. The local derives its numbers from UPS, Tarmac America, the Pepsi plant in Newport News and Gwaltney of Smithfield's plant in Portsmouth.
At Gwaltney, the union could be in trouble.
The local represents about 600 workers at the Smithfield plant, where membership has fallen dangerously close to 50 percent. If membership dips below that, the company can petition to have the union decertified.
Vinson blames the decline - and a blase attitude among some members at other union-represented businesses - on the local's outgoing leaders. Vinson and other union members saw former union President Ervin G. Williams as unconcerned with the fate of the rank-and-file members.
Williams wouldn't comment on the state of local 822 for this story. Asked if he had any insights on problems facing the union, Williams said, ``I've got quite a few of them, but I'm not going to comment.''
The leaders of the reform slate, Vinson and Secretary-Treasurer Bill Haley, want to build a local that unifies its racially mixed membership, knows what's on its members' minds and understands the value of public relations.
The local's membership is about 60 percent black, a voting bloc that traditionally kept in power black leaders like Williams. The ticket of Vinson and Haley, who are white, won with a unity campaign that used on its leaflets a picture of a black hand shaking a white hand.
Otis Powell, an Allied Systems truck driver and 29-year Teamster, used to be a business agent for local 822. Powell, who is black, said hethought the union needed a philosophical realignment, so he changed his voting pattern during the fall election.
``I never thought I would see the day when I would vote the way I voted,'' Powell said. ``I thought I'd always let things just go the way they're going. But it just wasn't going anywhere.''
Vinson, 36, has a master's degree in public policy, and prides himself on being a UPS shop steward who rose to the top of the local. He talks with conviction about democracy within the union and keeping the membership up to date on its leaders' plans.
Vinson says he'll take a more open approach to union business. He wants to get the word out about local 822 and isn't opposed to speaking publicly or to the media about union issues.
Cooperation with the media can be a valuable tool during a divisive strike, he says. Some Teamsters local presidents have a longstanding distrust of the media, and are rarely available during the union's controversial times.
The transformation at Teamsters local 822 mirrors a nationwide struggle within the union. Teamsters International President Ron Carey, elected in 1991, ran as a self-styled reformer.
Carey, who came up through the ranks at UPS, was elected by members like Vinson, who believed the ``pinky ring, big cigar, big black car with tinted windows'' image of Teamster leadership had damaged the union.
Carey promised a more workable, modern model in hopes of stemming a continuing membership decline. Teamster membership peaked in 1974 at 2.2 million, but has since declined by 800,000, according to figures provided by the union.
Vinson and other reformers, including Bob Fields, who was elected president of local 322 in Richmond last year, favor the ideals of a watchdog group founded two decades ago, Teamsters for a Democratic Union.
``The (Jimmy) Hoffa days and the Mafia and all that,'' Fields said, ``that's really ruined the Teamsters image. The old way was you got your salary increase, but the head people did things for their own benefit instead of for the rank-and-file.''
A plank borrowed from Teamsters for a Democratic Union's platform helped Vinson and Haley beat Williams' ticket. They got the local's bylaws changed to allow members to vote by mail. Traditionally, local 822 members would vote at polling places chosen by the incumbents.
Gwaltney, whose work force is mostly black, had polling places in its lunchroom. UPS workers, who are mostly white, would have to drive somewhere else to vote, and they often got off work too late to cast a ballot.
During his three-year term, Vinson wants to do simple things to raise the visibility of the union, such as ask members to wear caps with the union logo. He says the union for years has been nearly invisible to some potential members, which makes it difficult to sign up new members.
Other goals are less concrete: Vinson says his mission is to find a balance of justice in the workplace. ``I don't want to hurt companies,'' Vinson said. ``I don't want people to get paid and have full benefits and get a pension for doing nothing. That's a bad rap on unions.''
Vinson's negotiating skills will get an early test. The union's contract with Tarmac is scheduled to expire this month.
``I told Tarmac, `Look, I want you guys to make money, because the more money you make, the more of those big white trucks you have running up and down the road and the more employees you have,' '' Vinson said. ``That's good for us.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
UPS driver David Vinson takes over today as president of Teamsters
local 822, which represents 1,750 Hampton Roads workers.
by CNB