Anyone But Hoffa

In looking back at the history of our great Local 320, there are many good times and a few bad times but, the Union has persisted.  We have grown and changed over the years while remaining a local that represents only Public Employees.

Over the past 3 plus decades, the demographics of the “Public Employee” has changed.  While the jobs performed by our members have remained the same or similar over the years, there has been a change in the people that are performing those jobs.  With this change, the Local 320 now represents members from a broad range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.  With this change, one would expect to see a similar change in the make-up of our Local 320 employee pool to match the diversity of the members that they represent.

That is not the case.  In fact, I am unable to find one record of Local 320 having a full time BA on staff that was a person of color.   Not one Business Agent.   Several members have made mention of this fact and are wondering why.  Some have speculated that this is an extension of the elitism that our E-Board has displayed.  Some have simply stated that they feel the Local 320 leadership is racist.  I will not speculate here on the reason and, for all I know, it may just be an oversight on the part of our Local 320 leadership.

I do believe that it is time for a change, for our Local to embrace the diversity of the members.   We shouldn’t be hiring BA’s from outside our ranks.  We shouldn’t be hiring other Local’s failures.   We should be hiring BA’s from within the units that they will represent.

To the Local 320 E-Board, and Sue Mauren in particular, it is time.  Do the right thing and recognize the hard work and capabilities of our members.  Hire a person of color to fill the next two BA positions.  If you do that, you will almost have the same level of diversity among the BA’s that you have among the members that you represent. Almost.

Several times over the past months I have been approached by members that ask “why don’t you support Hoffa?”  After a brief discussion, it becomes clear that these members either have no idea what Hoffa has been doing to our Union for his own benefit or, are on his payroll.  Please share this posting from the Teamsters Magazine with all of your fellow members.  This is only a sampling of what is publicly known of the corrupt and illeagal actions of James P. Hoffa.  Let’s get the word out to all of our members.  It’s time to act or watch our Union become a footnote in history.

Leading up to the November 2010 elections, the focus was very clearly on the attempt by some politicians to paint the Public Workers as the cause of the financial problems in many states.  Many candidates used this as their platform for election, promising to cut wages and the “Cadillac” benefits of public workers.  In November of 2010, as soon as the elections results were in, we all knew what was in store for public workers.  DRIVE and Union Leaders  all over the Country, including Ed Reynoso and Sue Mauren of Joint Council 32, warned of the impending “War” on workers and gave speeches about what we had coming our way.  Did they organize at that time or take action?  Simply, No.

Jump ahead to January of 2011.  As the newly elected Legislators and Governors took Office, we immediately saw the attacks begin against Public Employees with the Nations focus being on our neighbors in Wisconsin.  Rallies and protests took place at the Capitol in WI and the Teamsters were notably absent.   In late February, after several calls from outraged members , the Teamsters finally began to take action… in Wisconsin.  Did our Local or JC32 take action in Minnesota in February or March?  No, they were busy celebrating the appointment of Ed Reynoso to a political office.  An appointment that will take away from the job we are paying him to do and reduce his effectiveness as our legislative lobbyist.  Yes, they did put out info about the web site that the Local 320 finally came up with and their catch phrase, “Stop the Slash” but, it was a weak effort at best.

On April 4th, the JC32 finally took action and had a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol.  Or did they?  I would submit to you the following.  Had the AFL-CIO (an organization that the IBT separated from years ago) not put on a rally, the JC32 would still be sitting on their thumbs, just as the IBT is.  Have you been to the “Stop the Slash” web site?  Not very much information there and no signs of a plan of action.  They finally have a starting point but nothing new is being done.

None of this comes as a surprise.  With Ed Reynoso being focused on his new found fame as a member of the Metropolitan Council, and the JC32 President following Hoffa’s lead, nothing of substance will be accomplished.  They have both taken a position of sucking up to their newly found political friends regardless of what their friends do to the members and this will continue until the members put an end to it.

In addition to the Members calling and/or writing to their representatives at the Capitol, we need the JC32 and DRIVE to take action on behalf of the Members.  We need JC32 and DRIVE to put the Members interests before their desire for personal gains, financial or political.  We must have a  Political Director at DRIVE that is not indebted to any politicians as Ed Reynoso is to the Governor, for his appointment to the Metropolitan Council.  We need Leadership that will hold politicians to their campaign promises and tell the politicians definitively that we will not tolerate being lied to or brushed aside.  We must demand all of these things of JC32 & DRIVE and continue to demand that they perform, as they clearly will not do it on their own for the money we currently pay them.

What can the Members do?

Call Local 320, Joint Council 32 & D.R.I.V.E. and put them on notice that you will not tolerate their lack of decisive action.  Demand that they provide us with the representation that we are paying them for.  Print and circulate the attached Petition to Remove Ed Reynoso as DRIVE Political Director and Special Projects Coordinator.   Vote this fall to replace the corrupt failure of an IBT General President, James P. Hoffa, sending a clear message that ignoring the members interests is no longer acceptable.

The Anyone But Hoffa Delegate Slate ran on a platform that focussed on the issue of multiple salaries, multiple salaries that are being given to people as a payoff for supporting our current leadership.  This has been a common practice in the Teamsters, under the James P. Hoffa administration, with Sue Mauren pulling down multiple salaries and using the same method to gain support for her own political agendas.  The Sue Mauren slate lost the election, a clear statement from the members that they are against this practice and want a change.

On Thursday March 10th, less than a week after Sue Maurens slate lost the Local 320 Delegate Election,  Edward Reynoso was sworn in as a member of the Metropolitan Council by Governor Dayton.  Why are we writing about this?  We believe this to be another example of our leadership using political and financial payoffs to further their own agenda.  Sue Mauren worked hard to get Governor Dayton elected.  She spent thousands of our dollars and hundreds of hours of JC32 and Local 320 staff time on the campaign.  Ironically, Governor Dayton took Sue Mauren’s suggestion of who she would like put on the Metropolitan Council, despite a belief by many that he lacks the qualifications for the appointment.  Why would Sue Mauren suggest Ed for the position?  Because he has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to support Sue’s agendas and attack members that don’t.

Ed Reynoso is the Political Director and Special Projects Coordinator for Joint Council 32 DRIVE.  His position is tasked with representing our members at the legislature to gain support for beneficial legislation and help drum up oposition to derogatory legislation.  These positions pay him over $105,000.00, plus benefits & perks,  and require that he put in 56 hours a week to further the interests of the Teamsters that are members of JC32.  Ed is also serving on the Governor’s Workforce Development Council, the Workers Compensation Advisory Council, the Minnesota HealthCare Task Force and Governor’s Job Skills Partnership.  With record budget shortfalls and Public Employees being targeted as the root of the State’s financial problems, Ed should be expecting the busiest legislative session 20 + years.  He should be freeing up his time from other things to focus on this as his priority.  To the contrary, Ed has now been given other things to focus on.

As a member of the Met Council, Ed Reynoso will be receiving a salary of $38,000.00 to work a minimum of 8 days a month at the Met Council, serving on the Environment and Transportation committees.  That’s 8 MORE days that Ed will not be working on the legislative priorities that we are paying for.  Why is this acceptable to the JC32?  Will we get our monies worth out of Ed Reynoso this legislative session?  Will his salary from the Governor’s appointment be a conflict of interest when dealing with our legislative interests VS. the Governor’s interests?

I call upon our members to act.  Petitions will soon be circulated to remove Ed Reynoso from his positions at the Joint Council.  We need to continue the fight to take back OUR Union from the tyranny of those currently in leadership positions.  We need to make our leadership listen to us and act in OUR interests instead of using their positions to benefit themselves at our expense.  Please make your voice heard on this issue by signing the petition.

Dear Members of the Anyone But Hoffa Slate:

Congratulations on a well-deserved victory in your Convention Delegate
election.  Our union and our country needs your activism and
leadership more than ever!

Politicians across the country are coming after public sector workers’
wages, benefits, and union rights. It’s the fight of our lifetimes.

Corporate politicians are trying to divide us and turn public and
private sector workers against each other.  Our real enemies are the
reckless Wall Street bankers who drove our economy over the cliff—not
the fire fighters and teachers and Teamsters who provide the public
services we need.

Public employees have power and can be a tremendous force for change
when we get active and get involved.  That’s the lesson of
Wisconsin—and that’s the lesson of your victory in Local 320.

I congratulate the “Anyone but Hoffa Slate” and Local 320 members for
standing up for change.

Your successful campaign to win this delegate election is a model for
what it will take to turn our union around. You reached out to your
brothers and sisters, member-to-member, talking face-to-face and on
the phone about what it will take to turn around our union.

That kind of grassroots activism is what my campaign is all about.
That’s why I was honored to back your slate.

I look forward to working with you to stand up to corporate
politicians, defend working families and rebuild our union’s power.

In solidarity,

Sandy Pope

The Anyone But Hoffa Slate won the Teamsters Local 320 Delegate Election by a nice margin.  You can see the vote count here and it will also be posted early next week on the Election Supervisors site, IBTVote.  We thank all of those that assisted us with getting the word out.  Without your support and feedback, we would not have been able to focus our efforts and our campaign would have been less effective.  We now need to focus on the Delegate Convention and getting the word out to more members to vote this fall in the IBT election.  As you can see from the number of ballots in this election, only about 25% of the membership returned a ballot.  We need to get ALL of our members involved and voting so that their voice is heard.  We, the members, ARE the Union.  Let no one take that away from you, misrepresent you, or use your resources against you.

James P Hoffa was found in violation of campaign rules for attempting to bribe IBT members with your money, offering IBT jobs to people in return for favors to further his political and personal agendas.  The sanction imposed by the Election Supervisor did not appear to be commensurate with the violation.   Upon review, the Appeals Master has issued a ruling that the actions taken by the Election Supervisors Office were not adequate, and has also forwarded the case to the US Attorney’s Office.  Yet another case that shows James P Hoffa for the rat that he is.

BUT…  it goes deeper than that.  James Hoffa has many minions that emulate him.  One of them would appear to be the well known Sue Mauren who is running a Delegate slate.  She has not stated it in her literature, presumably out of concern that it would be detrimental to her campaign, but she is running to support Hoffa.  Sue didn’t always support Hoffa.  He knew that and and used his “go-to tactics” to correct the problem.  She is now drawing salaries from the IBT, Joint Council, and the Local.  Once the money started rolling in, she became a staunch supporter of Hoffa.  She also appears to handle things in our house that same way as Hoffa, offering jobs to people for the sole purpose of benefiting her agenda.

Case in point, there are three BA’s at the Local 320 that were never employed as rank and file members, never holding a job as a 320 member prior to being hired by Sue Mauren to work at the Local.

Having never been a member of our Local, Leland Johnson was hired by Sue Mauren to act as a BA for Local 320.  When his Local was merged into another local, Sue hired him on to prevent him from being left without a job.

Eric Skoog was called in to a meeting with his employer, another local, with the intent to suspend him for failure to perform the duties of a BA and some improprieties.  He knew what was coming and resigned.  How could he afford to do this?  He already had the promise of a job at the Local 320 from Sue Mauren.  A job offered so that she could attempt to dig up dirt on another local for her own political gain.

Sami Gabriel was a BA at that same “other Local” as Eric Skoog.  Sami was fired by the members of that Local and immediately hired by Sue Mauren as a BA for Local 320.  Once again, Sue Mauren hired someone that had already proven they were, at best, a very poor excuse for a BA.  So much so that their local either fired them or, was in the process, when Sue decided they would be a good match for her agenda.

What Do James P. Hoffa and Sue Mauren Have in Common?

Not only do both Sue Mauren and Jimmy Hoffa want Hoffa to remain the IBT General President, they both display a blatant lack of respect for the IBT Constitution, the Election Rules, and the members.  Roughly 2 weeks after Nominations and Slate Declarations were filed for the Local 320 Delegate Elections, Sue Mauren has been declared in violation of the election rules for accepting a donation from an LLC out of Florida.

You can read the entire Election Supervisors ruling here.

Or find Sue Maurens site with the posted violation notice here.

It is time to get rid of these “Career Union Politicians” that are twisting all the rules and deceiving the members so they can line their own pockets at the members expense.  It is time to put someone in the Office of the General President that will hold ALL employees of the IBT, Joint Councils, and Locals accountable to the members.  Only the members can make this happen.  Be sure to vote in the Local 320 Delegate Election.  Vote the Anyone But Hoffa Slate and get the representation that you deserve.  Ballots will be mailed on February 11th and must be received by US Mail no later than March 4th at 9:00 AM to be counted.