Teamsters For A Democratic Union - Rebuilding Teamster Power

Rebuilding Teamster Power

Rank-and-file Teamsters won the right to vote for top Teamster officers after a decade-long fight led by TDU. In the 1990s members used that right to elect new leaders and change the union’s direction.

This period saw new successes for the reform movement, including: electing a new leadership, financial reforms that cut dues waste at the IBT, reversing decades of membership losses, and the UPS strike victory — labor’s most important victory in decades.

But the 1990s also confronted our movement with serious challenges as employers tried to undercut the union’s power and old guard officials launched a civil war to try to block Teamster reform.

TDU wasn’t satisfied with just changing our union’s top leadership. We saw that change as an opening for rank-and-file Teamsters to make our union stronger by getting involved at all levels. TDU members kept the pressure on resistant local officials and provided many of the troops to carry out the IBT’s programs.

While supporting the new leadership’s good work, TDU also pushed for deeper reforms in areas such as the grievance procedure and pension benefits. TDU remained the watchdog group for Teamsters, publishing the $100,000 Club and other nonpartisan information and demanding accountability at all levels.