Remembering Ron Carey 7 Years After His Vindication

By Tim Sylvester, Local 804 Steward

The purpose of this website is to unite the members of Local 804 through speaking the plain truth. Some people like the truth and others fear it. Regardless, we will report it. When our history has been neglected or just ignored, we will try to bring it to you.

This month marks the 7th Anniversary since our previous local president, Ron Carey, was found Not Guilty of all the charges that had been brought against him.

For those of us who knew him, this was the foregone conclusion of a case that tax payers never should have been expected to pay for. For the best source on this trial, members are encouraged to read “The Vindication of Ron Carey,” by author and former Newsday reporter Ken Crowe. Click here to read it.

For those of you who did not belong to Local 804 when Carey was our president, you can get a sense of what he stood for by viewing the videos on this site. There are very few speakers who can deliver the dynamic passion about labor and unionism as Ron can.

Under Ron Carey’s leadership, Local 804 members made history. We won the best pension benefits in the country. We helped put an end to the mob’s stranglehold on the Teamsters and elected reformers to lead our International Union. We took on corporate greed and won the 1997 UPS Strike—labor’s biggest victory in decades.

Local 804 members packed our union meetings to hear Ron Carey speak on issues that pertained to us and the future. We knew Ron Carey to be a man of his word who leveled with the members and never made excuses.

It is a very different tone in Local 804 today, with members being told that a contract that gives concessions to UPS when the company is making record profits is “fair for the times.” Members who have spoken out against this new direction in our local have been attacked from the podium and had their loyalty to our union questioned. You never saw that kind of disrespect or division in Local 804 under Ron Carey.

In an interview during the 2006 International Union election, Carey talked about the principles that guided him as Local 804 President:

“In Local 804, we always prided ourselves as being an independent local that put members first. As president, I saw it as my job to stand up to anyone who got in the way of a better future for my members—whether that was a company supervisor or the Teamster General President.”

“I’m sorry to say that Local 804 officials have lost that spirit of independence.

“Local 804 members have stayed true to reform. They’ve voted for reform candidates in every election. They voted for me twice. And they voted for Tom Leedham twice.

“But Local 804 officers have sucked up to Hoffa. They don’t speak out about how he’s hurting Teamster members. They followed him like sheep at the last Convention. They even voted to block Hoffa’s opposition from getting on the ballot. That’s a betrayal of Local 804 members who are proud that our local is known as the birthplace of Teamster democracy.”

Howie’s response to members who have raised concerns about his administration’s new approach to Hoffa and UPS management has repeatedly been, “If you don’t like it, don’t vote for us.”

That’s one message from this Executive Board that deserves serious consideration.

(Courtesy of www.804MembersUnited.org)