{"id":10973,"date":"2023-08-20T23:20:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T03:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=10973"},"modified":"2023-08-22T23:08:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T03:08:00","slug":"are-the-teamsters-going-red-hunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/08\/are-the-teamsters-going-red-hunting\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Teamsters going red-hunting?"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>hen I first read Jill Dunson\u2019s opinion piece in Newsweek<\/em><\/a>, \u201cBlue-Collar Workers Are Under Attack by an Intellectual-Industrial Complex,\u201d it sounded to me like the rantings of a far-right weirdo. Her column lumped together Tom Hall of the World Socialist Website<\/em> (WSWS) and Barry Eidlin, a regular contributor<\/a> to Jacobin<\/em> magazine\u2014individuals who have nothing in common\u2014and appeared to confirm she was some kind of myopic anti-communist.<\/p>\n

She may be all of these things, but Dunson is also a UPS part-time pre-loader in Texas and a member of the Teamsters\u2019 UPS National Bargaining Committee. The Teamsters have a tightly controlled media operation run by Teamster General President Sean O\u2019Brien\u2019s chief of staff, Brian Rainville, so it is very unlikely that Dunson went rogue. Her column was very likely cleared by the union\u2019s staff before publication.<\/p>\n

What incensed Dunson were Hall and Eidlin\u2019s criticisms of the Tentative Agreement (TA) reached on July 25 between UPS and the Teamsters. Let\u2019s be clear: Hall made quite extensive<\/a> criticisms of the TA, while Eidlin, an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, has been largely supportive<\/a> of both the TA and the O\u2019Brien-Zuckerman leadership. Dunson wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As a part-timer, I make less than $20 per hour. But when this agreement is ratified on August 22, my pay will shoot up immediately to more than $24 per hour. This will make a huge difference in my family’s finances and peace-of-mind.<\/p>\n

This is why it drives me crazy to know there are people who do not work at UPS but who falsely claim to champion our fight. Today’s labor movement is filled with armchair “activists” interfering in real wins that give real money to people who badly need it. I have a serious problem with that. These individuals don’t do my job, yet they stand in the way of 340,000 Teamsters trying to improve our lives at work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How Holland and Eidlin can possibly \u201cstand in the way of 340,000 Teamsters trying to improve [their] lives at work\u201d is just baffling. Hall was able to respond to Dunson in a follow-up column soon afterwards. I thought he did a good job, despite how much I abhor the WSWS\u2019s politics and despite myself being the target<\/a> of their vitriol. Hall hit the nail head, when he wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The reason that many workers are opposed to the deal between the world’s largest shipping company and the 330,000 employees the contract covers is not that they are supposedly being manipulated by “armchair activists.” It’s because the new contract falls short of their demands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How many UPS Teamsters ultimately vote \u201cno\u201d on the TA, we will see in a few days. The deadline for voting is Tuesday, August 22. The widespread criticism of the Teamster leadership and the TA on social media platforms has clearly frustrated the union\u2019s leadership. The widespread circulation of criticism, especially the WSWS, and other alternative news outlets, like Teamsterlink<\/em><\/a>, has caused them headaches, despite the union\u2019s own extensive social media campaigning.<\/p>\n

This is not a new situation in the Teamsters. Last Fall, Sean O\u2019Brien faced widespread criticism for his role in the national railroad negotiations. O\u2019Brien welcomed the presidential intervention of Joe Biden and told Teamster rail members to accept the unpopular contract. Speaking to the convention delegates of the Teamster-affiliated Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLET), he told<\/a> them to stop whining and stop talking to outsiders\u2014just falling a hair\u2019s breadth of the red-baiting tactics traditionally employed against dissidents.<\/p>\n