It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
The Port of Virginia® is using a layered approach to strengthen safety throughout its operation by identifying the most common critical risks at its terminals and offices, emphasize safety as a core value and creation of an internal safety brand that serves as a continual reminder for everyone on port property.
The effort was recently recognized by Signal Mutual, the insurance carrier for The Port of Virginia, which presented its Executive Leadership Award to Virginia International Terminals Chief Operating Officer Joseph P. “Joe” Ruddy. The award recognizes the effort underway at the port to emphasize safety and reduce the number of injuries, reportable incidents and lost workdays. (Virginia International Terminals, LLC, is the privately-held terminal operating company for The Port of Virginia.)
“This award is not about an individual, but what The Port of Virginia® is doing, as an organization, to get better and create a culture of safety across the entire operation,” Ruddy said. “It is our goal to eliminate injuries, lost workdays and the like, and become the safest port in North America.”
“Safety is a core value here and as a team we are coming together to ensure that we protect what matters, which are the people that work here, our labor partners, our guests and the contractors coming to and from our facilities and offices. At the end of every day, of every shift, people should be going home in the exact same condition in which they showed up.”
Lost workdays is one of the safety metrics used by the industry and during the last four years, the number of lost workdays at The Port of Virginia, as the result of on-the-job industry, is decreasing. (Lost workdays are measured in the total number of days an employee could not work against every 200,000 hours worked.)
The Port of Virginia, lost workdays by fiscal year, July 1 – June 30:
2022 = 1.82 days
2023 = 1.83 days
2024 = 1.37 days
2025 = 1.04 days
2026 = 1.09 days (as of Feb. 2026)
2026 goal = 0.91
OSHA industry average = 1.4 days
“We are trending in the right direction, in terms of lost workdays, and have been for the last four years, but the goal is zero,” said Sarah J. McCoy, the interim CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.
Last fall, port leadership announced an organization-wide initiative to ingrain safety even more into the port’s culture. Since then, the port has created a safety brand, We Protect What Matters, and has collaborated with local ILA leadership (International Longshoremen’s Association) and port team members from across the organization to better understand where the highest risks are and how best to mitigate them.
The safety effort includes:
Creation of critical risks and life-saving rules
Recognition for those going above-and-beyond standard safety practices
Identifying and marking potential hazards
Safety audits
Safety briefings for guests
Annual safety training (CPR, first-aid, etc.)
We Protect What Matters messaging campaign
“We had a lot of conversations, grounded in real experience that led to the identification of our Seven Critical Risks and Six Life-Saving Rules,” McCoy, said. “These risks and rules are not about adding complexity or checking a box. They are about clarity, using common language to recognize risk, communicating more effectively and focusing our attention on the situations where the potential for serious harm is greatest.”
“This organizational effort reflects our shared commitment to care, consistency, and accountability. Care for one another, consistency in how we approach safety and accountability to make sure everyone goes home safe at the end of the day.”
Signal’s Executive Leadership Award is an annual award given to an executive who advances employee safety and health through a strong safety culture and a sustainable safety management system.
“The recipient sets high safety standards grounded in personal values, demonstrates a sustained commitment to preventing workplace injuries and illnesses, leads safety efforts in a visible, hands-on manner, and develops effective safety initiatives that are implemented across the organization,” said an award description from Signal.
The products and services herein described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive.
Associated British Ports Invests in Young People
Pictured L to R Max Burnett (ABP), Lucy Ottewell-Key (Horizon), Andrew Dawes (ABP), and Fiona Wright (Horizon)
Associated British Ports (ABP) is delighted to become a founder patron of the Horizon Youth Zone in Grimsby to help support the charity in providing a safe, inspiring place for young people.
As Founder Patrons, ABP will join a growing family of businesses, organisations and philanthropists contributing to the charity’s annual running costs. This enables Horizon to keep offering state-of-the-art facilities, new opportunities, and first-class youth work to thousands of young people in North East Lincolnshire.
Andrew Dawes, Regional Director for ABP in the Humber said: "We’re absolutely delighted to be a Founder Patron of Horizon Onside Youth Zone.
It’s a privilege to support a project that will create opportunities, raise aspirations, and make a lasting difference for young people across North East Lincolnshire. We very much look forward to work alongside them in showcasing opportunities across our port and maritime sector in the Humber."
Horizon CEO, Lucy Ottewell Key said: “We are grateful for the generous support of Associated British Ports. Their belief in Horizon Youth Zone is a powerful message to the young people of North East Lincolnshire that their futures matter. Thanks to this support, more young people will have a safe place to grow, connect, discover their strengths, and build the confidence they need to thrive.”
Since Horizon’s grand opening last weekend, young members are now able to access an indoor climbing wall, four court sports hall, training kitchen, music room with a recording studio, fully equipped gym, sensory room, dance and drama studio, 3G kick pitch, arts and crafts room, and enterprise and employability suite. In addition to these incredible facilities, trained youth workers and dedicated volunteers are available seven days a week to offer guidance and holistic support to help the area’s young people to thrive. The Youth Zone is creating permanent full and part-time jobs, as well as numerous volunteering opportunities.
Horizon Youth Zone is an independent charity with a private sector-led board and part of the OnSide Network of 18 Youth Zones nationwide, supporting more than 55,000 young people annually. Youth Zones are open to young people aged between eight and 19 (up to 25 for those with additional needs), seven days a week, for just £5 membership per year and 50p a visit.
The products and services herein described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive.
APM Terminals Expands in Middle East with Jeddah Terminal Investment
APM made a strategic investment in Saudi Arabia's key port and its first on the Red Sea (APM)
Maersk’s terminal operator, APM Terminals, is positioning itself to benefit from the growing status of Jeddah Islamic Port as it announced the acquisition of a stake in a terminal operated by DP World. It represents APM’s first Red Sea presence and further expands its Middle East presence.
As part of measures to deepen its presence in Saudi Arabia, APM Terminals entered into an agreement with DP World to acquire a 37.5 percent stake in the Southern Container Terminal (SCT) at Jeddah Islamic Port. The two companies did not disclose the value of the investment.
APM Terminals is making the strategic investment owing to Jeddah’s role as a vital gateway not only to the local market but also to global networks. DP World, which secured a 30-year build-operate-transfer concession to operate the terminal in 2019, will retain a 62.5 percent majority shareholding and continue to lead the operations at the facility.
Critically, APM Terminals is acquiring a stake in the facility exactly a year after DP World completed a massive $800 million modernization and expansion of SCT. In March last year, DP World completed a three-year project that transformed the terminal into one of the region’s most advanced and sustainable container facilities, the hallmark of which was doubling its capacity from 1.8 million TEU to 4 million TEUs. The expansion also paved the way for a future capacity of 5 million TEU, with additional ship-to-shore equipment to be deployed as demand grows.
The project also involved expanding the terminal’s capacity for refrigerated containers (reefers) from 1,200 to 2,340, something that now ensures optimal conditions for temperature-sensitive shipments. Spanning a total quay length of 2,150 meters, including a deep-water quay with an 18-metre depth, SCT is today capable of accommodating up to five ultra-large container vessels simultaneously.
Mid-this year, DP World expects to complete the construction of the 415,000-square-meter Jeddah Logistics Park that is being touted as the largest integrated facility of its kind in the Kingdom and which is adjacent to SCT. Maersk is also pumping investments into the park that is expected to offer state-of-the-art warehousing, distribution and freight forwarding services, further strengthening Jeddah’s position as a key hub connecting trade routes across Asia, Africa, and Europe.
“Jeddah Islamic port is one of the region's most important trade corridors. This investment secures long-term access to quality infrastructure and strengthens our ability to support customers with reliable, scalable capacity in the Kingdom,” said Keith Svendsen, APM Terminals CEO.
Jeddah Islamic port is located along busy global shipping lines connecting three continents making it the Red Sea's top port for transit trade and transshipment of container and cargo. With four terminals and 62 berths, the port has been witnessing growth in the number of ships calling at the port. Last year, about 4,000 vessels docked at the port.
“Since securing the concession in 2019, we have transformed the Southern Container Terminal into a modern, high-capacity gateway, further strengthening Jeddah’s position as a leading Red Sea hub in support of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” said Yuvraj Narayan, DP World Group CEO.
He added the partnership with APM Terminals reflects the confidence global industry leaders place in the port operator’s capabilities.
Port of Los Angeles Expects Continued Weakness After January Decline
The Port of Los Angeles expects continued declines in volumes due to higher inventories, uncertainties in trade policies, and last year's frontloading by importers (Port of Los Angeles file photo)
The Port of Los Angeles foresees continued weakness in container volumes for the first quarter of 2026 after a 12 percent decline in January. However, while highlighting that it does not expect increased certainty for U.S. trade policies, it believes the rate of decline is stabilizing and is not expected to “drop off a cliff” as the U.S. moves forward in 2026.
As the largest container port in the Americas, the Port of Los Angeles is viewed as a key measure of U.S. trade, especially with China and Asia. Despite the uncertainties and changes in trade policies in 2025, the port recorded its third busiest year, handling more than 10 million containers. While it represented a marginal decline versus 2024, it marked the 26th year the Port of Los Angeles was the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere.
While saying “January held no surprises,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka told reporters at a media briefing on February 17 that he expects a decline of “less than 10 percent” for volume in the first quarter. After that, he said, “I don’t see the economy or cargo volume dropping off a cliff…. I don’t see a dire situation.”
Seroka notes that in addition to continuing uncertainties in U.S. trade policy, they are facing a headwind after “importers scrambled to get cargo in ahead of the tariffs” in 2025. He believes that impacted January volumes and will continue to have an impact into 2026.
All measures of volume were off during January, with imports down 13 percent while exports were down 8 percent to the lowest levels in nearly three years. Critically, imports were 3 percent below the port’s five-year running average.
Similarly, the indicators are also weak. Seroka pointed to the consumer confidence index, which is at its lowest level in 11 years. He reported in January that empties leaving the port, an indicator of shippers preparing for export cargo, were down 12 percent. He said this reflects softer demand ahead. During the conversation, it was noted that the U.S. is not exporting much to China currently.
Halfway through February, the forecast for the month was that arrivals looked “relatively flat” compared to last year. However, the Lunar New Year holiday began this week and will have an impact going forward. Seroka said the primary impact would be felt in March at the port of Los Angeles.
Seroka also believes that importers are in a “cautious restocking phase.” He notes that inventories are higher at the beginning of the year, meaning they expect it will impact volumes going forward. He also notes that the frontloading that took place in 2025 means they will continue to face challenging year-over-year comparisons as they go forward this year.
Despite a cautious outlook, Seroka noted that order levels appear to be fairly stable, contributing to the outlook of a leveling off for volumes as they move into 2026. He also notes the American consumer has “shown remarkable resilience.”
The Port of Los Angeles’ forecasts follow similar broader outlooks from the National Retail Federation, which expects retail imports to remain at lower levels moving into 2026. The spending frenzy during and after the pandemic has cooled, with analysts noting that consumers remain concerned.
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Stop Tyrant Trump’s Lawless Attack on the Regulations Keeping Us Safe
Trump deserves Impeachment and Removal from Office. Congress should act now, before more Americans die, get sick, or are injured from the destruction of long-established, critical protections. US President Donald Trump speaks alongside coal and energy workers during an executive order signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House on April 8, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Deregulation” is an antiseptic word loved by the giant corporations that rule the people. In reality, health and safety “deregulation” spells death, injury, and disease for the American people of all ages and backgrounds. This is especially so with the deranged dictates from the Tyrant Trump, who is happily beholden to his corporate paymasters, who are making him richer by the day.
President Donald Trump’s mindless deregulation mania got underway in January 2025 with his illegal shutting down of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has saved lives in poor countries—by providing food, water, medicine, etc.—for a pittance. USAID spends less in a year than the Pentagon spends in a week. International aid groups predict that the ongoing cuts could lead to 9.4 million preventable deaths occurring in poor countries by 2030 unless the vicious and cruel, unlawful Trumpian shutdown is reversed.
It turns out Trump was just warming up for his illegal violence against innocent American families in both blue and red states. He has abolished requirements for the auto industry to limit its emissions and maintain fuel efficiencies. The result: more disease-bearing gases and particulates into the lungs of Americans, including the most vulnerable—children and people suffering from respiratory diseases.
Trump wants to roll back the regulations that would require auto company fleets to average 50 miles per gallon by 2031. In 2024, the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its proposed vehicle fuel economy standards would save Americans more than $23 billion in fuel costs while reducing pollution.
Rather than faithfully execute federal laws, and ensure the well-being of the people, Dictator Donald is using his position and time in the White House to enrich himself and to get his name on anything he can get away with.
Month after month, Trump is illegally reducing or shutting down lifesaving programs without the required congressional approval. One of his major targets is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This month, his puppet EPA head, Lee Zeldin, celebrated the elimination of lethal greenhouse gases from the EPA’s regulatory controls. Zeldin and Trump are in effect telling Americans, “Let them breathe toxic air.” Plus, more climate catastrophes.
Smothering wind and solar projects while boosting the omnicidal polluting oil, gas, and coal production is another way Trump is exposing people to sickening gases and particulates. A corporate cynic once joked, “No problem, you can always refuse to inhale.”
Trump’s treachery toward coal miners, whom he praises, is shocking. He cut the funds for free testing of coal miners’ lungs, often afflicted with the deadly black lung diseases that have taken hundreds of thousands of coal miners’ lives over the past century and a half. We worked to pass the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, to control the levels of coal dust causing this disease, but Trump is unraveling it by cutting law enforcement. The Trump administration says it is “reconsidering” the long-awaited proposed silica control regulations. More unnecessary delay. In 2024, Politico reported that “Mine Safety and Health Administration projects that the final rule will avert up to 1,067 deaths and 3,746 silica-related illnesses.”
In his mass firings of federal civil servants, Trump has included the ranks of federal safety inspectors for meat and poultry plants (USDA), for occupational health and safety (OSHA), and specialized areas like you would never imagine—such as nuclear security. Tyrant Trump worsened the potential danger for workers and communities by firing most of the inspectors general—again illegally—who are the powerful watchdogs over federal departments and agencies. Many inspector general positions are still vacant.
In terms of short and long-run perils, Trump’s attacks on scientific research and discovery to reduce or prevent diseases would be enough to give him the grisly record for knowingly letting Americans die. The assault on vaccines, including for contagious diseases, is staggering, led by RFK, Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services.
RFK, Jr. becomes more extreme by the day. His actions go way beyond any legitimate skepticism of the drug companies. He is going along with officials in states like Florida who are about to ban children’s vaccine mandates, even for polio, measles, and whooping cough. He has severely slashed, without congressional authority, budgets for basic and applied science programs underway at universities and other public institutions. His salvos are resulting in the reduction of families getting their children vaccinated, who, if contagious, could infect their classmates. The so-called powerful medical societies have not risen to their optimal level of resistance to what is fast coming, a green light for epidemics—starting with the resurgence of measles now underway in places like South Carolina.
The crazed Menace-in-Chief wanted to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its rescue responses to hyper-hurricanes, floods, and giant wildfires. He recklessly says the states can handle the carnage from such disasters. The real reason is that he doesn’t want to be held responsible for failing to properly respond to such disasters. Remember the criticism of George W. Bush’s response to Katrina?
Again, with Trump, it is all about him, feeding his insatiable MONSTROUS EGO, rather than saving American lives. Recently, tragic events have forced him to reconsider. He is bringing back some of the experts and rescuers he fired from FEMA earlier last year.
Rather than faithfully execute federal laws, and ensure the well-being of the people, Dictator Donald is using his position and time in the White House to enrich himself and to get his name on anything he can get away with—the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the US Institute of Peace, the US Treasury Department’s relief checks during Covid-19, the federal investment accounts, special visas, and a discount drug program. (See the February 16, 2026, article in the New York Times by Peter Baker titled, A Superman, Jedi and Pope).
Chronically lying; threatening violence against his opponents and people abroad; slandering anyone he feels like via the compliant mass media, including journalists and editors; and generally wrecking America as a serial law violator, Trump deserves to be told, “YOU’RE FIRED.” (This was his favorite TV show catchphrase). Trump deserves Impeachment and Removal from Office. Congress should act now, before more Americans die, get sick, or are injured from the destruction of long-established, critical protections under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Monday, February 09, 2026
‘Statistics Are Human Beings With the Tears Wiped Away’: Silicosis, Dead Workers, and Corporate Greed
The counter-top manufacturing industry doesn’t want to protect workers from harm; it wants protection from the workers it harms.
Sun Valley, CA - October 31: Stone countertop fabricators wear masks to help protect against airborne particles which can contribute to silicosis at a shop on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023 in Sun Valley, CA. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Those who cut our artificial stone countertops are breathing in silica dust and dying. Not just a few. In fact, so many that in Australia they’ve banned the product and adopted safer substitutes. In the US, however, the industry wants to ban workers from suing the manufacturers and Republicans are doing their bidding, introducing H.R. 5437, The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Stone Slab Products Act.
Dr. David Michaels, the former head of OSHA, points us to California’s tearless Silicosis Surveillance Dashboard: 511 cases of silicosis have been diagnosed among these workers; 29 have died (average age 46); 54 underwent lung transplants; and 98 percent of these workers are Latino.
In 2021, there were only two diagnosed silicosis cases in California. In 2025 there were 214. “The number of cases is rising rapidly,” Dr. Michaels wrote to me, “That’s the important point.”
Here’s the more tearful description form Dr. Michaels during testimony last month before the House: The hallmarks of the disease: shortness of breath and diminished exercise capacity that progresses to an inability to climb even one flight of stairs. A short walk that should take just 20 minutes can take an hour. Working is difficult or impossible. People cough incessantly. They can’t sleep because it is difficult to breathe and they are kept awake coughing. Over time, people with more advanced silicosis require supplemental oxygen and can’t leave home without an oxygen tank. And they are at increased risk of dying from lung cancer.
The crime behind this slaughter is that safer, profitable substitutes are available. As Michaels testified: There are substitute products that are comparable in use and cost, but which do not kill workers. Many substitutes are made from amorphous silica—a different and a safer material than crystalline silica. Since Australia banned countertops containing crystalline silica, countertops are fabricated from alternative products that look and cost the same but are safer for workers.
But switching to safer products involves costs that the manufacturers would prefer to avoid. Why lose any profits at all? Why go through the disruptions involved in producing new products? Better to be shielded by your political allies.
The countertop manufacturing industry doesn’t want to protect workers from harm; it wants protection from the workers it harms. It worries this could become another asbestos epidemic that has cost asbestos manufacturers billions of dollars in payments to the victims. This time around, the industry is in position to nip it in the bud, given that the Republicans are in full control of all three branches of government.
What the industry dreads are third-party suits. Workers are not permitted, in nearly all circumstances, to sue their own employers for illnesses and exposures at work. Those claims are covered by state workers’ compensation programs. But harmed workers can and do sue manufacturers of equipment or substances that cause them harm. And if the harm can be proved to a jury, the compensation can be steep. It doesn’t make up for the damage to the exposed workers, but it provides some support to their families and pressures the industry to find safer substitutes for its harmful products.
The solution preferred by the countertop industry is simple: get a free pass, which is what this killer legislation would do. It would shield the entire industry from “persons who claim personal injuries as a result of exposure to silica dust produced during the alteration of such products in the course of their employment by third-party fabricators.”
Nice. No change needed, no interruption of profitable production, no switching to new products. No nothing except a few political donations to grease the skids. And at least some of that corporate-funded grease comes from millionaire Marty Davis, the CEO of Cambria, a large counter manufacturer, who has donated more than $800,000 to Republicans, and encouraged Trump to challenged the outcome of the 2020 election.
On this piece of legislation, the Democrats are saying the right things. Rep. Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-Ga.), the ranking Democrat on the House Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet Subcommittee committee, which is pushing this legislation, said it as clearly as could be said: The bill behind today’s hearing would give blanket immunity to artificial stone manufacturers and suppliers, preventing injured workers from seeking justice in court. It would dismiss the hundreds of cases pending against these manufacturers.
…Our courts determine liability all the time. People petition the court, have their grievances heard, a judge and jury consider the evidence, and a judgment is rendered.
Manufacturers are asking for a different scenario – one where the deep pockets go to Congress, Congress makes a snap judgment, and the big businesses never have to go to court again. That’s not how our justice system is supposed to work, and I condemn the blatant misuse of this committee to shield corporations at the expense of the American worker.
If only more Democrats would speak like this more often, millions of working people might hear them.
The quote in the headline of this article is attributed to journalist Paul Brodeur, author of “Expendable Americans.”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (R) and U.S .Senator Bernie Sanders join striking Starbucks workers in New York City, on December 1, 2025.ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump launched a war against workers as soon as he reclaimed power in January 2025. Now, nearly a year into his second administration, it’s possible to take stock of the year’s notable victories and the challenges looming in 2026.
Some of the administration’s immediate moves included rescinding a Biden-era executive order that raised the minimum wage for federal workers, rolling back laws prohibiting workplace discrimination, pulling out of an international agreement that would have imposed a minimum tax on corporations, and killing dozens of workplace safety rules.
Some of Trump’s most vicious moves targeted immigrant workers, many of whom have been terrorized by the unrelenting barrage of ICE raids throughout their communities and workplaces.
“The administration’s worksite immigration enforcement actions are targeting underpaid immigrant workers from predominantly Indigenous, Latine, and Black communities who are already at high risk of exploitation by employers,” Marisa DÃaz, the Immigrant Worker Justice Program director at the National Employment Law Project, told Truthout. “These attacks push vulnerable workers further into the shadows, reward exploitative employers who profit on violating workers’ rights, and make workplaces less safe for all. We call for an end to these raids and stand with all who are organizing for the dignity and safety of all workers.”
An Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report found that Trump’s deportation agenda will potentially eliminate 6 million jobs.
Trump’s Anti-Worker Team Is Solidified for 2026
Things may become even more dire in 2026, as many Trump appointees are poised to wield power.
Wayne Palmer, a coal industry executive, will serve as the assistant secretary of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. David Keeling will head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Keeling previously oversaw health and safety protocols at Amazon and UPS, and the companies collectively racked up over 300 workplace safety citations and $2 million in OSHA fines while he was in charge. Andrew Rogers, a former attorney at the anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson, will serve as the next administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.
Additionally, Trump’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may soon begin deciding cases.
Upon arriving in the White House, Trump illegally fired board member Gwynne Wilcox, depriving the agency of the necessary quorum of at least three members. The board also paused all active investigations, including two dozen inquiries into companies owned by Trump megadonor Elon Musk.
In July, Trump finally selected two new members: James Murphy, who has spent many years as counsel to Republican NLRB members, and Scott Mayer, who currently serves as the chief labor counsel for Boeing and formerly worked for the anti-union law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. In February, NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cowen rescinded more than two dozen Biden-era General Counsel memos addressing issues such as the electronic monitoring of workers and the employment status of college athletes.
If its quorum is reestablished, the board is expected to take these efforts a step further and overturn Biden-era rulings. These include the ban on “captive audience” meetings, in which employers effectively force workers to sit through anti-union propaganda and the 2023 Cemex case decision, which determined that, if a majority of workers sign union affiliation cards, employers have to either recognize the union or hold an election within two weeks.
“There is a very strong likelihood that the NLRB will achieve quorum in the new year and begin a more aggressive attack on workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain,” Margaret Poydock, a senior policy analyst at EPI, told Truthout. “President Trump is the largest union buster in U.S. history, and his interference with the independence of the NLRB will result in the further weakening of our nation’s labor laws.”
Despite these potential obstacles, U.S. workers are still looking toward 2026 with the hope of building on the victories of 2025 and establishing the power necessary to counter the Trump regime.
The Victories of 2025
The climate for workers has undeniably become more hostile, but 2025 still saw its share of significant labor wins nonetheless.
After a brief strike in October 2024, dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts approved a contract that raises wages by over 60 percent over the course of six years and assures that jobs are guaranteed as employers move toward automation.
During the summer, teachers in Philadelphia reached an agreement with the school district, narrowly averting a strike. In addition to securing bonuses, a new sick day policy, and yearly raises for all bargaining unit members, the new contract offers five weeks of paid parental leave, a historic first for the district.
After a series of marches and rallies, California grocery workers at Kroger and Albertsons brand stores have ratified new contracts that include wage increases, a new pension plan, and enhanced health care benefits.
After three years of bargaining, workers at the Daily News secured their first contract in over 30 years, establishing minimum salaries, wage increases, and new benefits for part-time employees.
In a landmark decision, unionized journalists at POLITICO and E&E News (PEN Guild) prevailed in an arbitration case against POLITICO management over the company’s adoption of AI at the website. The arbitrator found that POLITICO violated its collective bargaining agreement by adopting two AI-powered editorial products without the necessary, negotiated safeguards.
“Workers across the country are fed up with corporate greed and an economy that rewards those at the top while working people struggle to get by.”
“This ruling affirms that employers cannot use emerging technology as an end-run around contractual obligations,” said Washington-Baltimore News Guild General Counsel Amos Laor in a statement on the decision. “AI tools may be new, but the legal principles we secured in the agreement are not: management must provide notice, bargain with the union, and ensure that innovation does not come at the expense of workers’ rights or diminish their work. For journalists, issues of journalistic integrity are directly tied to their reputation, relationship with readers, and ability to perform their duties, and we view the protection of newsroom ethical standards as an integral part of their labor rights.”
In the fall, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani — who has repeatedlystood in solidarity with striking workers — prevailed over former Governor Andrew Cuomo to become the next mayor of New York City.
Mamdani found widespread support and built an energized base through a campaign that focused on affordability, and many believe his historic win will spark further progressive electoral campaigns throughout the country.
“The working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands,” Mamdani told the crowd at his victory party. “Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor; palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars; knuckles scarred with kitchen burns — these are not hands that have been allowed to hold power. And yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater. Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it.”
In November, after four strikes and 16 months of negotiations, the union representing 21,000 health care, research, and technical professionals in the University of California system ratified their “best contract yet.”
The new agreement, which was approved by 98 percent of voting members, established combined pregnancy and child care leave, year-to-year raises, equity pool adjustments, and a minimum wage of $25 across all job titles.
“Today, I am overjoyed that I will be able to afford a safe place to sleep close enough to commute to my job at the University of California, San Francisco,” said union rep and Animal Health Technician Carina Jauregui in a statement. “I am thrilled that my coworkers will finally be able to provide for their families without having to worry about how they’re going to pay the bills. And I am emboldened to keep telling my story, which is now not just a story of loss, but of victory.”
The year concluded with a strike by Starbucks workers. The action kicked off on November 13, the corporation’s annual “Red Cup Day,” and included more than 65 stores across 40 cities. Since then, it has expanded to at least 120 stores across 85 cities. Workers are demanding better staffing, higher take-home pay, and a resolution to hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges against the company.
Amid the strike, New York City reached a $38.9 million settlement with the company after the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found it had violated local labor laws more than half a million times since 2021. The settlement will result in restitution payments for more than 15,000 workers.
“Our nationwide Red Cup Rebellion shows that workers across the country are fed up with corporate greed and an economy that rewards those at the top while working people struggle to get by,” Sabina Aguirre, a barista from Columbus, Ohio, told Truthout. Starbucks executives keep getting richer while baristas can’t earn a livable wage or get enough hours for benefits.
“Instead of working with us to fix those problems, the company continues to break labor law and ignore the baristas who power their profits,” she continued. “We know our strength is in our solidarity as working people, and we have allies all over the world who have stepped up to back our cause.”
Such worker solidarity could prove to be the only effective answer to Trump’s anti-labor agenda. This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.
Michael Arria Michael Arria is the U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter: @michaelarria.
Friday, November 14, 2025
Op-Ed: A "Night Court" for the U.S. Navy's Administrative Overload
Time is our critical resource now. The Navy knows that we have a few scant years before we face major risk for an invasion of Taiwan. In the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC) headquarters in San Diego, countdown clocks on the wall measure the days before mid-2027 arrives. The force is in a dead sprint, not a marathon – and we need to throw off excess weight.
To meet the challenge of war with China, the surface force has been driving hard towards more tactical competence. New equipment is rapidly hitting the fleet. New simulators are being built around the world. New cohorts of Warfare Tactics Instructors (WTIs) are graduating. SMWDC is even expanding the Surface Warfare Combat Training Continuum (SWCTC) to boost and standardize tactical knowledge across the surface force.
All of this looks good on paper. But when these efforts reach the ships, they collide with the tight schedules of sailors who count the hours in the day and often come up short. Sailors already work an average of 88.3 hours a week while underway. Where will the time for these warfighting reforms come from?
If sailors are already fully occupied and their schedules are overflowing, it hardly matters how good the new simulators or WTIs are. The present system of time allocation in the surface fleet is not a deliberate product of a warfighting-centric focus, but rather an unchecked process of creeping administrative overload. When new tacticians and training tools hit the fleet, they are eclipsed and diluted by a vast array of miscellaneous requirements. The leaders of the surface force must launch an effort to systematically protect time for tactics by aggressively pruning other requirements, or else these new efforts will fall short.
Guarding the Fleet’s Time
Thankfully, a model for how to do this already exists – a “night court.” Twice, Secretaries of Defense have convened night courts, which are rapid reviews of large groups of programs by a top official to aggressively triage acquisition programs. Most recently, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper convened a night court for both the Army and the larger Pentagon in 2019. In the process, Secretary Esper refocused billions of dollars to better fund reform efforts. In the defense world, night courts like this are also occasionally called “zero-based reviews.” The difference is subtle – a zero-based review starts from a clean slate and adds programs that are considered the most necessary, while a night court starts with the existing plan and cuts out excess.
The term “night court” will be used here, but the Navy could reasonably use either method. The end goal is the same. Senior admirals should review every program that owns a fraction of a sailor’s day, and ruthlessly remove the ones that, as the Secretary of War wrote recently, get in the way of “winning our Nation’s wars without distraction.”
Are there truly programs the fleet can afford to cut? Certainly. Consider the Fall Protection program. Warships are expected to:
Appoint a Fall Protection Program Manager and several “Competent Persons” to run the program.
Send those individuals to school – three days for the program manager and four days for each Competent Person. These individuals are usually senior Combat Systems personnel, already hard-pressed to maintain equipment and train for war.
Develop a command instruction for fall protection and rescue plans for a fall.
Perform a shipwide inspection for hazardous areas – anywhere with any height over four feet – and make design changes to the ship to remove the hazard. When this is impossible (which is usually the case on warships), post warning signs.
Train end users – any sailor who might go near a height over four feet – on the program.
Regularly inspect the program, and be prepared for outside assessors to audit it.
The Department of the Navy’s Fall Protection instruction, which outlines these requirements, is 185 pages long – twice as long as many of the surface fleet’s latest tactical publications.
We all agree that stopping falls is good in the abstract. No one wants to see a shipmate get injured. However, the truth is that the fleet simply cannot afford to spend precious time like this when pressing warfighting demands are calling. Sailors are continuously ensnared by programs, well-intentioned but ultimately misguided, that detract from fundamental tactical work. Warships do not have two crews – one that handles programs and one that handles combat. We face a zero-sum game with our time. Every minute that a sailor spends on an administrative program is a minute not spent on sharpening combat skills.
Leading the Night Court
Commander, Naval Surface Force Pacific (CNSP) – the surface fleet’s Type Commander (TYCOM) – is best placed to run this night court. Not only is CNSP close enough to ships to personally speak to the urgency of the problem, they also have the senior authority to directly cut many programs. CNSP has the holistic perspective to rebalance the time allocations of the surface force, understanding both the urgency of the strategic situation and which administrative requirements do truly matter. No one leader can remove every detrimental program alone. Fall Protection, for example, will require congressional action to exempt warships from OSHA. CNSP is senior enough, however, to cut a wide swath using the span of their own authority, and to advocate for the changes that require departmental or congressional authority.
CNSP is not the only path to success, but it is the simplest. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) or Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) could also build a programmatic night court – more directly replicating the acquisition night court that Secretary Esper created – but they are too distant from the fleet. The more echelons a leader is removed from a problem, the more they face what public economist Anthony Downs called a “message-distortion problem.” In any large bureaucracy, each layer of the chain of command, even when completely well-intentioned, naturally filters out some portion of any message as it works its way up. This feature of large bureaucracies makes the Navy’s most senior leaders ill-placed to judge which programs should be removed to improve time allocations at the deckplate level. Not only is CNSP closer to the fleet, senior leaders at CNSP have bypass mechanisms – tours, direct conversations with sailors, and a network on the waterfront – available to get to the core of each program’s value. Instead of leading it directly, the CNO and SECNAV are better suited to act as senior champions for a TYCOM-led night court.
The Night Court Process
The night court should go through three phases. First, measurement. Surface force leaders need to understand every program that takes up a sailor’s time. The team that runs the night court should be careful here. If they turn this information-gathering step into yet another tasker for ships, they may actually make the problem worse. The better answer is to put three or four SWO-qualified officers who have just departed sea tours in a room, and have them brainstorm a list of every requirement they encountered. Start the night court off of that rough draft, and only afterwards follow up with more comprehensive studies and requests for information. The goal is to move quickly, not to waste a year waiting for a formal – and quickly outdated – product.
The next step is adjudication. Each program must defend its existence to the night court. The key here is that program owners must not simply explain that a problem exists, but convince CNSP that their program meaningfully addresses the problem. Using Fall Protection again as an example, it is not good enough to list fall statistics – the Fall Protection team must convince CNSP that their program stops falls without putting an undue burden on ships.
Once the night court judges against a program, the last and hardest step is removal. The night court should identify the source of the program requirement, and if it is within CNSP’s influence, cut it directly. If the requirement is imposed on the surface fleet by a higher authority like congress, CNSP should push them for reform. Some of this work will generate natural friction amongst stakeholders. To build support, the night court should aggressively publicize how many hours of fleet time it saves, emphasize how many pages of administrative requirements it has cut, and cultivate support from combat-focused leaders who can speak to the warfighting benefits.
The goal is that, in the long run, regular night court reviews – perhaps every 1-2 years – cease to be radical. Ideally, guarding sailors’ time to emphasize warfighting will become a standard part of how the surface fleet operates and conceives of its identity: a more austere and focused force, supported by a more disciplined bureaucracy.
Dragging the Fleet Down
If surface force leaders like CNSP do not do the work of cutting time requirements, more time will not magically appear. Instead, the task of prioritizing will fall to unit commanders, junior officers, and chiefs. They will be forced to make changes within the margins of a system overflowing with years of creeping administrative overload, which has long surpassed the available time of sailors. The best of them will be honest about the fact that they cannot do everything, and accept hits to their record in exchange for a ruthless prioritization of combat skills. Ships with strong warfighting focus will fail more administrative inspections, earn fewer awards, and look worse on paper. Those leaders – the ones willing to be honest – will be winnowed out by a personnel system that does not appreciate nuance. The remaining leaders will take dishonesty as a norm and even an unavoidable price to be paid in exchange for career security. They will superficially hit their required administrative wickets at the cost of lethality. The Army War College report “Lying to Ourselves” famously described this dynamic within its own service, and the surface fleet is just as prone to it. Our failure to control excess time demands on ships yields an overflowing system that incentivizes dishonesty.
At this late hour, we cannot keep everything. When a crew member falls overboard, we teach them to immediately shed their steel-toed boots. Boots are normally vital – they keep our sailors safe in a shipboard industrial environment. But in the crisis of a man overboard, they drag sailors down. Our peacetime programs are the same. We can shed weight now, or we can drown in wartime.
LT Chris Rielage is a SWO and ASW/SUW WTI onboard USS CARL M LEVIN (DDG 120) in the Pacific. His publications have previously appeared in USNI’s Proceedings and CIMSEC. These opinions are expressed in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Department of the Navy or the U.S. government.
This article appears courtesy of CIMSEC and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
Sunday, November 09, 2025
Teamsters for a Democratic Union
TDU at Fifty: From Rank-and-File Rebels to Defenders of the Establishment
Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which will be celebrating the group’s fiftieth anniversary at its convention being held in Chicago this November 7 to 9, has for decades been known as the voice of reform in the Teamsters Union. But this year there will be those inside and outside the convention hall challenging TDU’s direction and arguing that it has abandoned its ideal. At the center of the controversy is TDU’s support for Teamster president Sean O’Brien who is allied with President Donald Trump.
Some Teamsters no longer see TDU as fighting for reform but rather as part of the establishment. They are appalled that O’Brien has aligned with President Donald Trump who has fired hundreds of thousands of federal workers, torn up their contracts, and effectively destroyed their unions, while at the same time he has reversed decades of Black workers’ achievements, and attacked immigrants. TDU’s alliance with O’Brien and thus with Trump has tarnished its reputation as a movement for union reform and social justice, while isolating the Teamsters from the majority of the labor movement.
For a number of TDU members and other Teamsters, TDU’s alliance with O’Brien and his support for Trump have become the central issue. Leonard Stoehr, a longtime Teamster now living in the Atlanta area, is an over-the-road driver for ABF company. Stoehr says, “I think a plurality of Teamsters voted for Trump, but without full information. They thought he was going to have a laser-like focus on the economy to help working people, but, once he took office, he went right back to representing the oligarchy, which is where he comes from. We will absolutely raise the Trump issue at the TDU convention, because support for Trump is a death-wish for organized labor.”
Dave Robbins, now retired, was a Teamster for fifty years and served as a steward or local officer in several local unions; he first joined TDU in 1977. He spent his life fighting for the union’s members. He will be going to the TDU convention with his wife Sol Rodriguez, also a TDU member. Dave doesn’t mince words. “Sean O’Brien is a terrible general president for so many reasons, but primarily for remaining silent about Trump’s racism, anti-immigrant attitudes. He’s a traitor, a class-traitor, and he should not be endorsed by TDU. Sean O’Brien is a pro-fascist, Trump-supporter.”
David Levin, TDU’s national organizer, the top staff person, disagrees. As he wrote to me, “Endorsing Sean O’Brien and the Teamsters United Slate does not mean endorsing Donald Trump or attacks on workers. TDU has been, and will continue to be vocal in our opposition to attacks on the working class, including OSHA, the NLRB, immigrant workers, and union-busting of federal worker unions.” He argues that since O’Brien real gains have been made. “Under new leadership, the IBT is standing up to employers and mobilizing members.”
Or as Peter Landon, a longtime TDU activist and former TDU staff person puts it, “I don’t support O’Brien. I do recognize the opportunities he has created for the membership to play far more of a role in the union.”
Some in TDU appear to have bought the argument that though Trump is an authoritarian, a union-buster, a racist and a sexist, who dispatches ICE, the National Guard, and active-duty troops to our cities, nevertheless they will continue to back O’Brien as long as it gives TDU more latitude for organizing in the Teamsters. This is the devil’s bargain that TDU has made. They are willing to endorse O’Brien, accepting his alliance with Trump as long as he tolerates the TDU’s organizing in and through the union.
At this convention, TDU will be holding a vote on whether or not to endorse O’Brien for union president for five more years. If TDU does endorse him, it will renew the devil’s bargain in both senses of that phrase, making a morally compromised decision that accepts a short-term gain for a larger, long-term loss. Such an endorsement would be made with eyes wide open and the knowledge that Sean O’Brien is comfortable with the Teamsters carrying the mantle of MAGA’s favorite union.
TDU in its Heyday
Teamsters for a Democratic Union began fifty years ago as a small group of rank-and-file activists committed to union democracy and militancy. I was one of them. After its founding, TDU opened a national office and hired a small staff paid modest wages made possible by the members’ dues and by grants from progressive foundations. (Today according to public documents TDU has revenues of over $300,000 and its educational and legal arm, Teamster Rank And File Education And Legal Defense Foundation raised $1.43 million in 2023. These are modest amounts compared to the Teamsters union’s treasury and to the wealthy corporations against which TDU for years fought for the members rights.)
TDU fought for things like elected rather than appointed union stewards and ran reformers for local union office as well as for top offices of the international union. When the U.S. Justice Department brought a RICO suit against the union and threatened to take it over, TDU argued that instead, as the feds removed the mafia. it should allow the membership to have free elections with the right to vote on the union’s top officers. The Justice Department and the courts agreed with TDU and rank-and-file Teamsters won a real victory for democracy.
For nearly all of its history, TDU was in the opposition and often persecuted by the Teamster leadership and company bosses. TDU members elected to the top offices of local unions found themselves blocked at every turn by the Teamsters’ national leadership. Only for five years, during the presidency of Ron Carey, whom TDU had helped to elect, was TDU not only tolerated but accepted by the union leadership. Carey and TDU, while they did not always see eye-to-eye, collaborated on local elections and contracts. It was TDU’s heyday. That was the TDU that I described in my book Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union published back in 1990.
TDU Makes a Deal with the Devil
Under Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., who served as Teamster general president from 1998 to 2018, that is for twenty-five long years, TDU was a persecuted opposition. Veteran TDU leaders like Ken Paff, and his successor David Levin yearned to come in out of the cold, to be able once again to operate with the support of the union leadership as they had when Ron Carey was president. The 2022 Teamster presidential election provided that opportunity.
Sean O’Brien, the head of Boston Local 25, was running for President of the Teamsters Union and remaking himself as a Teamster reformer. The head of Boston Local 25, he had a reputation as a thug. For example, he intervened in 2013 in the local election in Teamster 251 in Rhode Island, threatening the TDU activists there who were running a slate against his preferred candidate. “They need to be punished,” said O’Brien. The Teamsters Independent Review Board charged O’Brien and found him guilty of violating the Teamster Constitution and federal law when he threatened TDU members and he was suspended for two weeks.
Yet in 2022, in their campaign for the union’s top offices, O’Brien and his running mate Fred Zuckerman, known as the OZ slate, put themselves forward as reformers. Seeing an opportunity, Paff and Levin, negotiated with O’Brien to form an alliance, and eventually won over the TDU leadership and the TDU convention. O’Brien, with TDU’s support, won the election and became Teamster president.
The first item on O’Brien’s agenda was the UPS contract set to expire in August of 2023. He gave the impression he was prepared to lead a national strike to win the union’s demands. Back in 1997, President Ron Carey working with TDU had led UPS workers in a tremendous strike and won a real victory. The slogan for that strike had been “Part-Time America Won’t Work,” and the union forced the company to agree to create 10,000 new full-time jobs. It was one of the most important strikes by any union in that era and many Teamsters now wanted to repeat it. To prepare, TDU worked with O’Brien on planning the strategy and tactics needed to educate and organize the members.
But the strike never happened. O’Brien negotiated a contract with the company, which TDU proclaimed a historic victory, and there were some significant gains, but it was, in fact, weak in several areas. Most importantly it failed to end part-time status for workers who now made up 60% of the workforce. As Sam Gindin, former research director for the Canadian Auto Workers wrote, “The union made big gains — but in opting not to strike over demands beyond wages, the Teamsters may have passed up a transformative opportunity for the labor movement.”
Having won the Teamster presidency and having settled the UPS contract in August 2023 without a strike, O’Brien went off to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring, and then in July of 2024 O’Brien spoke at the Republican Party National Convention. While the Teamster leadership had declined to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, O’Brien’s speech was clearly a tacit endorsement of Donald Trump. To quell any doubts about where the union stood, the Teamsters made large financial contributions to Trump and other Republican candidates. So, TDU, now allied with O’Brien, has come full circle, from fighting the powers-that-be to joining them.
Teamster Reform in a New Era
The TDU convention this year will be different from others because there will be vocal opposition to the leadership both within and without the convention. In an attempt to diminish the opposition, TDU steering committee members and staff have called some dissident members and suggested, “Maybe it would be better if you don’t come this year.” Still there will be dissident members on the floor.
Some opposition will come from organized groups who oppose TDU’s current course. One such activist group within the union is Teamsters Mobilize (TM).
One member of TM is Jennifer Hancock of Local 322 , a part-time UPS employee in the warehouse, a sorter at the Coach Road hub and package car center in Richmond. “I’ve been doing it for 34 years,” she explains. “I’m also the political coordinator for Teamster local 322. We support candidates who support labor,” and most of those she says are Democrats
A few years ago, Hancock got involved in a TDU discussion group among UPS part-timers, mostly young people, a group that subsequently evolved into Teamsters Mobilize. “The general word about part-timers is that we’re lazy, we’re stoned, etc. But a few years ago, a bunch of us on a TDU part-timer chat decided to put together a group hoping to influence the next contract. At that time, we were still trying to work with TDU, so we went to the TDU convention. We wanted a part-timer caucus. There were Black caucuses, Latino caucuses, and women’s caucus. So why not a part-timer caucus? We finally got a watered-down resolution passed, but then it just disappeared. We’re told we couldn’t organize a caucus and would just have to rely on grievances. So, our hands were tied behind our backs.”
Teamster Mobilize went from being a part-time employee caucus to a more general reform group within the union. Their website says, “Teamsters Mobilize is a grassroots organization of Teamster activists organizing to build up real worker power in our union against our employers and their cronies, to expose corrupt Teamsters leadership, and to build brick-by-brick a genuine fighting labor movement.” A statement that sounds like TDU back in the 1970s and 80s when it was fighting Teamster presidents Frank Fitzsimmons, Roy Williams, and Jackie Presser.
This year it seems Hancock won’t be going to the convention. “I’m still a member of TDU, but I’m not allowed to come to the convention.” David Levine wrote her saying she couldn’t attend because she and Teamsters Mobilize members intended to “crash’ the convention. Levine wrote, “TDU is not going to allow non-registrants to crash our Convention or the Convention hotel and we are not going to allow TM to have a mixed group of registrants and crashers.”
But Hancock doesn’t believe that’s the real reason she is being excluded. “I believe there is going to be a floor vote on Sean O’Brien and they know that we would be against that. So, they’re putting their finger on the scale to get the result they want. I would not have voted for Sean O’Brien in any case. I don’t support Sean O’Brien because he is not supporting labor. Everything Sean O’Brien has done has been about supporting Sean O’Brien. His support for the Trump administration is also a big issue.”
She gives the example of Donald Trump’s firing of Gwynne A. Wilcox, removing her from the NLRB. When that happened, my principal officers and others went up to Washington, D.C. to protest—but the O’Brien and the International officers did nothing.”
Overall, says Hancock, “I am very disappointed in TDU. When I first joined TDU, this was before Sean O’Brien’s election, everyone told me what a great organization it was. We took TDU’s word and campaigned for Sean O’Brien. Then TDU snuggled up to the O’Brien administration and now there’s no light between them.”
John Palmer of the Hooker Slate
John Palmer, hails from San Antonio, Texas a member of Local 657 was a freight driver for ABF for years but is now international vice-president-at-large, elected on the O’Brien-Zuckerman slate. “I was played,” he says. I knew what O’Brien was, I had sat next to him for five years, but Fred Zuckerman convinced me that O’Brien had found religion and would be a reformer.”
Palmer soon learned that was not so. “It started when I objected to the UPS contract. I was the only one on the executive board who raised an objection. And I did it in public. I went to the press about it.” At a meeting to discuss the tentative contract, “I was attacked by all of the other executive board members. When they were done, I told them, ‘I appreciate the dogpile. Now I’m going to put together a slate,’ ” meaning an opposition slate to run against them. And he did. Today Palmer is running on the Hooker Fearless Slate for the same position he now holds.
When O’Brien organized a meeting with presidential candidate Donald Trump, Palmer explained, “I refused to meet with Trump. I know who Trump is. I wouldn’t sit in the same room with him for two reasons. First, he was a draft dodger. I’m a veteran and my dad and his brothers all served. Second, he’s a scab.”
Like some of the others with whom I talked, Palmer is also disappointed in TDU. “How can TDU be a democratic membership organization, when so many decisions are made by the national organizer,” for 45 years Ken Paff and now David Levin.
Palmer says, “I won’t be going to the TDU Convention, but I and many of our slate members will be at the hotel in Chicago. “I’m not coming to raise a ruckus. I’m 67 years old. I’m past that. But I’ll be talking with the members.”
Richard Hooker, Candidate for General President
Richard Hooker is the secretary-treasurer, the top officer of Philadelphia Teamster Local 623. Before becoming a full-time union officer, he was a UPS worker. “I’ve done every job you can think of at UPS.” The son of a preacher, he began working at UPS while attending Drexel University, and is now married and the father of four children.
“I’m not going to the convention, but I will be in the same hotel, collecting signatures from those who are there. The signatures are to become an accredited slate, though if we have to, we could still get on the ballot at the convention. But the TDU convention is a good opportunity to listen to and to talk with our members.”
While not a TDU member, Hooker says, he used to support TDU. But no more. “I’m shocked by TDU’s support for O’Brien. Even though I never was a member I always respected their fight, their being there. From the very beginning I never supported Sean O’Brien because of his intimidation, retribution, and retaliation. He has a history of doing that. He’s also known for failing to win strong contracts. He has a history of concessions, 13 of the last 18 years we have had concessions and he has a lot to do with that.”
Like others, Hooker criticizes O’Brien for “his fascination with Trump. He’s decided to go along with Trump and everything that he’s done. But not just Trump, also the ruling class, the employer class, the billionaire class, because that’s who Trump represents. He doesn’t represent the workers.”
Hooker is also critical of O’Brien’s actions within the Teamsters. “If you look at what O’Brien did when he first got elected. He eliminated a lot of people from the staff and 70 percent of them black and brown people.” As a result, Hooker explains, “The union, that is the union’s members, had to pay 2.9 million dollars as a result of a discrimination lawsuit. And then he fired three other officials for their support of the rival Steve Vairma slate. The union members had to pay 2 years back wages to each of those people. His policies don’t work for the Teamsters or for the broader working class.”
Hooker is disappointed with TDU today. “They have a go along to get along attitude. No matter what O’Brien does, they refuse to speak out against him. TDU was built to educate and empower and to call out wrong-doing.” But today, he says, TDU doesn’t speak out. “When you are silent, you have taken the side of the oppressor. That is what TDU has done because they refuse to speak out against the oppressor of the Teamsters. They have become what they fought against.”
Sean O’Brien, candidate for reelection, will be speaking at the TDU Convention, though he is not a member, and Richard Hooker, also not a member, will not be given such an opportunity. Levin wrote to Hooker, “TDU is not going to spend the members’ time or funds to host a campaign speech by you.” While TDU certainly has a right to determine who speaks and its conventions, it seems a shame not to allow the two candidates for Teamster president—the only two so far—to debate or at least speak. What an educational opportunity for the members! But Levin, clearly committed to O’Brien, has no interest in helping his opposition.
What Next for TDU?
With its fifty-year history, its substantial and expanding foundation fundraising capacity, its permanent staff, the continuity of its leadership, and its conviction that it’s the genuine voice of Teamster members, I think of TDU as something like a miniature version of the labor bureaucracy. Not financially privileged like most union officials, not corrupt like some officials have been, not tied to a political party, at least not until recently, but still a power center in the union which despite its theory and its genuine attempts to root itself among them remains separate from the union members.
Given all of this, TDU seems unlikely to change course, though there is the possibility that this convention could realign the organization, that it could return to its more militant roots. Denying O’Brien its endorsement would reestablish TDU as an independent organization speaking up for the Rank & File and holding leadership accountable, regardless of the risk. Not unlike the original founders of TDU some fifty years ago.
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
