{"id":9222,"date":"2023-02-12T23:59:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T04:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=9222"},"modified":"2023-02-16T13:42:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T18:42:34","slug":"building-teamster-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/02\/building-teamster-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Teamster Power?"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>ith a few weeks to go in Chicago\u2019s municipal election, union endorsements of candidates for Mayor and the City Council continue to roll in. It is expected, however, that there will be many run-off elections in April because candidates will not achieve the fifty percent necessary for an outright victory on February 28.<\/p>\n

The Teamsters play a major role in Chicago\u2019s elections. While the new Teamster leadership in Washington, D.C says they are taking the union in a new progressive direction in the U.S. labor movement, there is little evidence of that in the role they are playing in Chicago\u2019s current municipal elections.<\/p>\n

Terry Hancock, the President of the Teamsters Joint Council 25 (JC 25)<\/a> sits on the executive board of the CFL. The largest Teamster locals in JC 25\u2014Teamsters 705 and 710\u2014are not represented on the JC board. It is dominated by smaller local unions<\/a>. Terry Hancock\u2019s checkered past<\/a> didn\u2019t stop him from fancying himself a successor to James P. Hoffa, Jr. The Joint Council leadership is mostly made up of opponents of the eventual winners of the 2021 Teamsters election,Sean O\u2019Brien and Fred Zuckerman. One such opponent is Debra Simmons-Peterson<\/a>, the president of the long declining Local 743. She ran on the same slate with the hapless Steve Vairma<\/a>, Hoffa\u2019s chosen successor.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ll be the first to say Chicago is a strange perch from which to examine Teamster politics. It has always been a bastion of the conservative old guard, if not, outright mobbed-up<\/a> Teamster leaders. JC 25, the governing body for the 100,000-plus Teamsters in the greater Chicago area, is highly unrepresentative and politically backward. Up until a few years ago, JC 25 was led by John Coli<\/a>, who went to prison for extortion. Coli\u2019s father<\/a> was a major Chicago Outfit<\/a> figure. Even today James Glimco sits on the seven-member JC25 governing board. His grandfather was Joey Glimco<\/a>, a frightening figure in Chicago Mob history, although there is no evidence of mob ties with the younger Glimco.<\/p>\n

\"Alt
Teamsters Joint Council 25<\/a> endorsements poster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teamsters JC 25 largely endorses incumbents<\/a> for reelection, never seeking to rock the boat. But many of them are the worst aldermen on the city council. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n

Matt O\u2019Shea, Nick Sposato, and James Gardiner represent some of the worst backlash politics in Chicago. Large concentrations of cops, firefighters, and other mostly white city workers reside in their wards on the far Northwest and Southwest sides of the city. O\u2019Shea gained media attention a few years ago, when it was revealed that disgraced alderman Danny Solis<\/a> was wearing a wire for the Feds. O\u2019Shea declared<\/a>, \u201cWhere I come from, if you wore a wire, someone\u2019s gonna kick your ass.\u201d Sposato described<\/a> himself as a \u201crightie\u201d and openly supports Trump<\/a> while being a fanatical red-baiter. Gardiner\u2019s racism and misogyny<\/a> are well known, and he has targeted<\/a> critics in his ward for harassment.<\/p>\n

In one of the few cases where the Teamsters JC 25 is supporting a rival to an incumbent, it reveals what their priorities are. In Chicago\u2019s 25th Ward, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Byron Sigcho Lopez faces challenger Aida Flores, who, as I have written<\/a> recently, \u201cis fronting for real estate interests, anti-teacher union foundations, and waste management companies.\u201d The Teamsters JC 25 endorsed Flores. I can\u2019t help but think that this is revenge for Byron, who voted no on the boondoggle Casino project<\/a>. He was the only candidate endorsed by DSA to vote against it.<\/p>\n