Delivering Democracy - Rank and File Teamsters in America's Strongest Union

In November, the Teamsters elected the O'Brien Zuckerman reform slate, the first time a non-Hoffa slate will be at the top of the 1.4 million member union since the 1990s. Philly DSA joins a panel of 3 Teamster rank and file activists to talk about the history of reformism in the union, the prospects for the OZ term, and about unions as a site of socialist struggle in the 21st century.

Panelists: Keon L is a railroad track construction worker and president of Track Local 3012 in the Teamsters Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) Teamsters Rail Conference. He is a member of TDU and BMWED-IBT Rank & File United caucus. He is a member of Philly DSA and the Philly DSA Labor Branch.

Tony R has been a Teamster for 28 years, is an elected Shop Steward and proud TDU member.

Elliot L is a UPS Driver in NYC, and a member of Teamsters Local 804 and TDU. He is also on the NYC DSA Labor Branch OC and the DSLC SC.

UPDATE: Philly DSA member John B has joined the panel. John worked for 20 years in Teamsters for a Democratic Union. As a staff member for the Ron Carey reform administration in the Teamsters he helped lead the preparations for the 1997 national UPS strike, which won the creation of 10,000 new full-time jobs. He has also had a prolific life as a socialist organizer that has lead him from the quaker ship Phoenix delivering supplies to North Vietnam to the Community College of Philadelphia, where he now teaches. 

Reading is not required, but if you would like some background on the TDU effort over the years, the following Jacobin articles are informative:

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/teamsters-united-democratic-union-ibt-election

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/10/ron-carey-teamsters-union-labor-tdu

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/01/teamsters-democratic-union-tdu-hoffa-ups