At the fiftieth annual Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) convention, 550 Teamsters talked about building power in their workplaces, from United Parcel Service (UPS) barns to school bus yards to the San Diego Zoo. They swapped tips on running for local union office and debated TDU’s strategic priorities.
A major theme at the convention, held in Chicago, November 7–9, was the union’s renewed militancy. Teamsters elected Sean O’Brien in 2021 to head the 1.3-million-member union; the TDU-backed O’Brien–Zuckerman Teamsters United slate ran under the slogan “New Leadership and a New Direction.”
“We saw that election as an opening — an opportunity,” said TDU organizer David Levin. “And we’ve challenged ourselves to make the most of it: new leadership taking on employers by mobilizing members, TDU building union power from below.”
All around the convention, TDU members shared how they are organizing in their locals to make the most of this opportunity — whether supported by local leaders or organizing in spite of them.
“No one is coming to save us,” said Steve Tesfagiorgis, an Eritrean immigrant and custodian at the University of Minnesota, where workers organized a contract campaign and a victorious five-day strike in September against the wishes of their local union officials. “We need to get respect for ourselves, by ourselves.” TDU provided tools to help members run a “Vote No” campaign on a weak contract, hold Zoom meetings with of hundreds of workers, and create leaflets in five languages.
Katherine Wallace, a nurse at Michigan’s Corewell Health, saw the nationwide practice pickets during the last UPS contract campaign and was inspired to join an organizing drive in her workplace. Ten thousand Corewell nurses voted to join the Teamsters last year, in one of the biggest private sector union organizing victories in decades.
Members of reform groups in the United Auto Workers (UAW), the International Brotherhood of…
Auteur: Dan DiMaggio
