How the Change of Guard in the Teamsters Union Can Help Revitalize Labor

The Teamsters is one of the largest unions in the country and, arguably, the most powerful. It organizes over 1.3 million members, including some 340,000 employees at United Parcel Service (UPS). Along with the US Postal Service, Amazon, FedEx, and other package delivery companies, UPS has long played a key role in commodity distribution. This has only grown with the changes in the economy brought about by computers and the internet.

The other million Teamsters include both private and public sector workers such as those in the Anheuser-Busch breweries, various trucking companies, oil refineries, NYC Housing Authority workers, and others. If the entire Teamsters union went on strike today, the US and Canadian economies could be brought to their knees.

Past struggles—first to organize the workers at UPS, and then to wage subsequent battles—have created a better paid workforce as compared to the unorganized workers in the package delivery and warehouse industries. However, the gains made by workers at UPS are being undermined by competition from companies like Amazon and FedEx.

Teamsters Protest
The Teamsters is one of the largest unions in the country and, arguably, the most powerful. / Image: Susan Ruggles via Flickr

The Teamsters union had been led by James Hoffa, Jr. since 1998. Hoffa’s policies centered on the idea of “partnership with the bosses.” When the tentative 2018 UPS contract was sent to membership for “approval,” the union’s undemocratic and convoluted voting system led to “ratification”—even though a majority voted to reject it!

This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Many in the rank and file favored a leadership that would take the union in a new direction, leading to splits in the Teamsters leadership. Hoffa decided not to run for reelection, and an opposition slate called Teamsters United, or “OZ”—O’Brien and Zuckerman were at the head of the ticket—ended up winning decisively. The Executive Board will now have a Teamsters United majority. The Teamsters United coalition also includes the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), an opposition current that dates to the 1970s.

Bosses’ attack on the labor movement

The wages, benefits, and working conditions of the entire working class have been under sustained attack by employers since the 1970s. As part of the bosses’ attack, they have gone after the unions and have driven down the percentage of private sector workers who are organized. Part of the special attack against the Teamsters included federal deregulation of the trucking industry in the 1970s, and the implementation of NAFTA in the 1990s. The federal government, via the misnamed “Justice” Department, has repeatedly interfered in the Teamsters union, ostensibly to “root out organized crime,” but in reality to assert control over the union and weaken it.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was formed in 1903 after the merger of a handful of small craft unions organizing truck drivers. In the 1930s, revolutionary socialists in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the Midwest started successful organizing campaigns and led militant strikes. This transformed the Teamsters from a craft union into a larger industrial union, organizing truck drivers, their assistants, those who load and unload the trucks, warehouse workers, and clerks, as well as factory workers and others. As the influence of Marxism grew in the Teamsters, organized crime was welcomed in to fight the labor militants. The Justice Department colluded with top Teamsters union officials to remove the Marxist leaders and railroaded some of them to prison at the outset of World War II.

Wisconsin Solidarity Rally
As the standard of living is driven down, the working class looks for a way to fight back. / Image: Peace Education Center via Flickr

Since then, the Teamsters leadership has often collaborated actively with the capitalist government in Washington. On January 13, President-elect O’Brien accepted a two-year appointment to the US Commerce Department’s 45-member Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Of those 45 members, 35 are present or former corporate executives from the likes of UPS, the American Truckers Association, and Amazon. Along with three college business administration professors, the chief executives of the Ports of Los Angeles and Carolina, a senior staffer from Homeland Security, and a trial lawyer, there are two other union reps: AFL-CIO President Elizabeth Shuler, and ILWU Local 63 Marine Clerks President Mike Podue.

As the Commerce Department continues to fight for US supply chain domination over its imperialist competitors in the world market, it will no doubt move to force transportation, warehouse, and longshore workers to shoulder increased workloads, longer hours, and worsening working conditions. In this effort, the Biden administration will leverage these committee positions to pressure O’Brien and the other union leaders to defend such measures among their union members.

The US government serves as the collective political representative of the capitalist class. Its interest is to control the labor movement so as to force workers to accept the growing instability of the capitalist system and the accompanying decline in living and working conditions. Unfortunately for the bosses, the workers have other ideas. As the standard of living is driven down, eventually the working class looks for a way to fight back.

Anger from below leads to splits in the leadership

The leadership of a union always faces two contradictory pressures. On the one hand, they are subjected to tremendous pressure, including various forms of bribery, from the ruling class. The bosses want the union leaders to keep the working class in check and under control. However, the union tops must simultaneously maintain a degree of credibility with the membership; otherwise they would have no influence over the workers. Over time, the anger of the workers either finds a reflection in the union leadership, or a new, more militant leadership will be put in its place.

In the early 1930s, the anger of the working class began to be manifested via the emergence of radical socialist leadership, like the Minneapolis Teamsters, the West Coast Longshoremen (ILWU), and the Toledo Auto-Lite strikers. Feeling the ground shake under them, a wing of American Federation of Labor leaders, led by John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers, formed the Committee for Industrial Organizations to organize industrial unions in the major unorganized sectors. This later became the Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO.

Sean Obrien
Sean O’Brien is General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. / Image: Wikimedia Commons

Sean O’Brien is the newly elected leader of the Teamsters. He is a fourth-generation member of the union, and the leader of Teamsters Local 25 since 2006. He also leads Teamsters New England Joint Council 10. In the past, O’Brien was an opponent of TDU and was part of the James Hoffa, Jr. team. O’Brien was chosen by Hoffa to play a key role in negotiating the 2018 contract with UPS.

Under pressure from below by the workers, and facing a tough adversary in UPS, O’Brien wanted to make sure the Teamsters forces were united. To this end, he added to his team the leader of the important Louisville Teamsters Local 89, Fred Zuckerman, who was an opponent of Hoffa. Louisville is a hub of UPS operations, and Local 89 has 15,000 members, with more than half of those in the UPS Air District, including Worldport—the largest UPS Air hub in the world, where it is not uncommon for workers to process over a million packages in a single day.

Zuckerman’s inclusion caused a rift between Hoffa and O’Brien. O’Brien then began to develop a relationship with TDU and others who opposed Hoffa’s policies. This was a clear repudiation of the Hoffa leadership and the start of the coalition that emerged during the 2021 Teamsters election, in which the OZ slate won decisive control of the union. Where will the new Teamster leaders go from here? O’Brien has promised a more militant Teamsters union.

He wants to win higher wages and benefits for the membership and to launch a major effort to organize Amazon. A specific resolution to that effect was adopted by the 2021 Teamsters national convention. O’Brien was quoted in the NY Times: “If we’re negotiating concessionary contracts and we’re negotiating substandard agreements, why would any member, why would any person want to join the Teamsters union?” The question posed to O’Brien and the incoming Teamster leadership is as follows: what are they willing to do to mobilize the membership—including future members—to battle the bosses and win? The experience of the last century shows that victory depends on using the successful strategy of the past: the militant, class-struggle traditions of the Minneapolis Teamsters of the 1930s.

At that time, the Minneapolis Teamsters took a tiny local of fewer than 50 members and built it into a local of more than 5,000. They attained union recognition and higher wages in the depths of the Great Depression, when unemployment was more than 20%. What was the secret to their success?

Carl Skoglund, Ray Dunne, Farrell Dobbs, and the other Minneapolis Teamsters started with a Marxist understanding and perspective. They had no illusions in capitalism. The bosses make their money from their exploitation of the working class, so the classes have no common interest. They knew that partnership with the bosses meant defeat for the workers. They understood that the bosses’ government stands against the workers, even when it pretends to be “neutral.” The workers can only win when they understand the real stakes and adhere scrupulously to class independence.

Workers’ victory in one industry strengthens workers everywhere else. Isolated strikes allow the bosses to pick us off, one by one. That means there is a need to win over the broader working class, along with the unemployed, in order to really win major victories. Furthermore, workers can place no trust in the political parties and institutions created by big business to perpetuate their system—especially the Democratic Party, the National Labor Relations Board, and the courts.

UPS and Amazon

The union battles at UPS and Amazon will be a huge challenge, as these companies are controlled by the big capitalists.

There are two interrelated challenges facing the incoming Teamsters leadership. Firstly, they must negotiate a new contract at UPS that not only gives nothing back, but wins real improvements in wages, benefits, and working conditions. Secondly, they must fight to unionize the Amazon workforce as part of a campaign to raise their rights, wages, conditions, and benefits to parity with UPS workers. This will be a huge challenge, as UPS and Amazon are companies controlled by the big capitalists. There is nothing simple or easy about winning such a struggle. But this battle can be won, provided the labor movement is fully mobilized and willing to do what it takes.

At every single UPS workplace, there must be meetings held and strike committees elected that will ensure the members are fully informed of negotiations at every step. Facts must be transparently disseminated, including the company’s profits, as well as the salaries, benefits, and other perks granted to top management.

The workers must come to understand that only their power to shut down operations—which stops the flow of profits—can attain real victory. The demands of the workers must be aimed at building maximum unity. We must not allow one group of workers to be set against another (e.g., part-time vs. full-time, drivers vs. warehouse staff, this region vs. that one, etc.). The Teamsters must reach out to the rest of the labor movement for help. All workers, both public sector and private, must be convinced that a victory at UPS will help all of labor, just as a defeat there would hurt the entire movement. This is especially true for the unions at the US Postal Service.

In cooperation with the rest of the labor movement, the Teamsters should spearhead a national organizing committee at Amazon. This committee should then organize regional and local subcommittees. The first step in this campaign should be a massive effort to let the workers know the pay and benefits of Teamsters members at UPS versus non unionized Amazon workers. The point should be made that once Amazon is organized, workers at both companies will be in a stronger position to make further gains. Once enough Amazon workers sign on to the unionization drive, the workers can determine a strategy for how to attain recognition of their right to organize, even if this means sidestepping the anti-union rules of the NLRB and the capitalist courts.

The limits of trade unionism under capitalism

A strong contract at UPS and the unionization of Amazon would be tremendous victories for workers everywhere. But even if unions have the most determined and farsighted leadership imaginable, there is no golden age of nice living standards on the horizon. World capitalism, including its US component, is in a period of decline. Faced with the demands of a powerful labor movement, the bosses will find increasingly devious and vicious ways to counterattack. The challenge posed to labor is not merely to fight back and to organize the unorganized, but to use such battles to eventually wrest control of society from the capitalist class. And this will require the building of a mass, independent workers’ political party, with union members front and center.

This is an unapologetically Marxist perspective. It is why those workers armed with Marxism will be best able to help the labor movement shift from an ineffective defensive posture to a powerful offensive stance. The International Marxist Tendency supports every positive step forward that the new Teamsters leadership takes. However, we are convinced that if they don’t draw from the successful lessons of the 1934 Teamsters Strike, as well as the 1997 strike against UPS under the leadership of Ron Carey, they will not be able to overcome the extremely tough resistance they will face from the bosses and the broader ruling class.

So what should militant, class-conscious members of the Teamsters rank and file do today? The most important thing for Teamster members looking for a way to build genuine workers’ power is to get educated in revolutionary Marxism and the militant traditions of the labor movement. Armed with Marxist ideas, we can build a mighty labor movement that can successfully end the nightmare of capitalism once and for all.


Are you a communist?
Then apply to join your party!