O’Brien, Vairma vie for top Teamsters post in post-Hoffa era

For the first time in 23 years, someone other than a Hoffa will lead the 1.4 million- member Teamsters union in a closely watched election this fall that could have implications for shippers in the freight and small package sector.

Ballots will be mailed out Oct. 1. The winner is expected to be announced around Nov. 15.

The election of the new general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters marks the beginning of a new era for the powerful union. Teamsters President James P. “Jim” Hoffa, 80, will step down in March after leading the organization for 23 years.

His father, James R. “Jimmy” Hoffa, led the Teamsters from 1957 until 1971. He disappeared on July 30, 1975, outside the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Mich.  He is presumed to have been murdered, although his body was never found.

“Two decades of Hoffa have weakened our union,” the dissident Teamsters for a Democratic Union said in a post on its website. “We need new International Union leaders who will stand up to employers and mobilize members.’

The Teamsters union faces huge challenges. The Teamsters’ goals, besides winning good contracts, are rebuilding union power in trucking, reversing concessions at UPS, and organizing nonunion competitors like Amazon. That would be the largest successful organizing effort by any union in more than 30 years.

At one time when the elder Hoffa ran the Teamsters, union drivers accounted for nine out of every 10 on the road. Since deregulation in 1980, their ranks have been decimated.

Today only about one in every 10 jobs in trucking is unionized. UPS is their largest employer. On the freight side, only Yellow Transportation and ABF Freight System remain unionized among companies of any size. They employ about 40,000 Teamsters, compared to over 500,000 in the 1960s and 70s.

Two longtime labor leaders are seeking the post. Teamsters International Vice President-East Sean M. O'Brien, representing the Teamsters United slate, is a fourth-generation Teamster, and president of the Local 25 and secretary-treasurer of Joint Council 10, both in Boston.

His running mate is Fred Zuckerman. For 20 years, Zuckerman was president of Local 89 in Louisville, Ky., home to the UPS Worldport Air Hub and the UPS Louisville Centennial Ground Hub. The local represents the largest number of UPS Teamsters in the world and is expected to be a key voting bloc in this election.

O’Brien’s opponent is Teamsters International Vice President-at-Large Steve Vairma, representing the Teamsters Power slate. He has been secretary-treasurer of the Local 455 in Denver since 1996 and as president of the Joint Council 3, which represents members in eight states.

“This is a union that is now in transition,” Vairma said in a debate at the National Press Club on Sept. 1. “We’re moving into the future with new ideas and a new direction.”

Vairma and running mate Ron Herrera, an International Vice President of the Teamsters Western Region, are playing up their experience in office.

“Our opponents are seeking office for the very first time,” Vairma said. “Our focus is in organizing.”

O’Brien, on the other hand, is playing up his 35 years as a union member – and the fact he has no ties to the Hoffa regime.

“I came out of the rank and file,” O’Brien said. “My opponent has said Hoffa isn’t running. But that doesn’t mean his bad habits and policies won’t continue.”

Around Oct. 1, Teamsters rank and file will receive ballots to elect the union’s next General President. The O’Brien-Zuckerman (OZ) slate, called the “United Team,” has been rolling across the U.S. and Canada listening to rank and file Teamsters who are fed up with Hoffa and his hand-picked successors, including Vairma and Herrera.

“We believe we have the team for the future,” O’Brien said. “We believe we can take this International and make it bigger, faster, stronger.”

O’Brien and Zuckerman have the backing of the dissident Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). TDU and the Teamsters United movement came close to defeating Hoffa in 2016, winning 49 percent of the vote.

“Since the Vairma-Herrera slate’s record is so weak, they have spent the entire campaign dividing us and smearing the ‘OZ’ candidates and allies,” a flash from the O’Brien-Zuckerman team says. “When you have spent as long as they have doing nothing and screwing over our members, that's all they have to try to win.”

The winner will be the one who appeals to the post-Hoffa vision and their strategies for expanding union representation among the American workforce. At its 30th annual convention in June, the Teamsters voted to continue its focus on unionizing Amazon, saying it would devote “all resources necessary” to organize workers there.

Last year the Teamsters ended more than three decades of federal oversight that required the union to conduct direct elections of its top officers. Although no longer subject to the consent decree, the union has agreed to follow the same election rules, including oversight by an independent election supervisor.

This fall, Teamster members across North America will vote by mail ballot to select a union president and other top officers for a five-year term. The ballot count begins Nov. 15.