THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501140229
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Teamsters International President Ron Carey was in Norfolk last week to swear in the new reform-minded leaders of Local 822. Carey, who was elected to head the Teamsters in 1991 after running as a reformer, wanted to show his support for new Local 822 President David Vinson and his slate of candidates. During a question-and-answer session with staff writer Lon Wagner, Carey spoke about the significance of reformers like Vinson heading the locals. Carey also discussed the problem the Teamsters have had with freight companies that set up nonunion subsidiaries right next door to unionized carriers, a practice known as ``double-breasting.'' And he talked about his long-term strategy to boost Teamster membership, which has declined from a peak of 2.2 million in 1974 to about 1.6 million today.
Q: How important is it for you to have locals like the 822 be led by reformers?
A: First of all, I think it's vitally important for the members. They now have leadership in this union that will be out there working for them, that will be developing programs for them, that will be servicing their needs, and what they have said very clearly from day one is that the members come first. That's important in terms of the whole movement, it's that kind of mentality, that kind of thrust that is so important for this union, because this union historically, for 88 years, sent a whole different message - the membership was last, the luxury, the perks, all of those kinds of things were things that were embedded in this union.
Q: How important is it for you politically to have a foot in the door in Virginia?
A: In terms of a foot in the door, we had that straight through. I mean, if you look at the elections, we really didn't have the leadership on board, so when you talk about pluses and minuses here, we had the support of the membership, the rank and file, in the national election, but the leadership is what we did not have. What does that mean to me? It means you now have leadership that will be leading the members in the reform movement in the direction that is important to them.
Do you think that your reform movement became stalled at all during the freight strike last year, when there was a lot of argument about the strike fund? Do you have enough in the strike fund? Should you increase dues to beef up the strike fund?
No, we knew going in what the problems were with the strike fund. We talked to the members about those issues. Shifting good full-time jobs, destroying good full-time jobs, and putting in part-time jobs with little or no benefits was an issue every member would stand up for, would fight for. We knew we did not have enough in the strike fund, but we did what we had to do. We went out there and borrowed money, we did the best we could in terms of trying to provide some strike assistance, but it was not the critical part of it. When leadership is there, leading the members, giving them information as we did during the freight strike, we gave them information every single week, we kept them informed of everything that was going on, and I think that's why we succeeded in winning a decent settlement there.
Do you have a long-term strategy that will help out the unionized freight companies when they have another nonunionized company next to them, taking business away from them, undercutting their salaries?
Ironically, the companies that are doing the double-breasting are three or four of the major companies that we have under union contract. That was a situation we had to deal with during negotiations. Very difficult. They talked out of both sides of their mouths. What we are in the process of doing is trying to organize these companies around the country. It's a difficult process. You're dealing with legislation. If you are able to win an organizing drive, you then have a terrible difficulty in getting the first contract. But we are making headway. How do you measure that? Organizing is not like writing a story - you write it, it's over and done with. Organizing is a process that takes a long time; it can take two or three years. It's a difficult, expensive process, and the government in this country, corporate America doesn't want organizing to work, it doesn't want free, fair trade to work, so the government goes along with it.
Where the union is growing is not within the freight companies, obviously. Is there anything you can do about that?
Obviously, I disagree with that. There is growth going on there, the problem is we've got to get some of those freight companies to grow in the union sector. We have provided in this agreement certain what I think are fair compromises so they can grow more. That was part of this agreement - you cannot stick your head in the sand on some of the issues you had to face or we'd be facing another 40,000 (members) down the tubes. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
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KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW by CNB