Teamsters elect Hoffa opponents to lead union
William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | Nov 19, 2021 5:33PM EST
Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters this week swept a new slate of officers to power headed by long-time opponents of outgoing leader James P. Hoffa in an election that will affect the course of future contracts talks with employers in trucking and other industries, including UPS.
With 90 percent of the votes counted as of Friday, the Teamsters United ticket reportedly had won 69 percent of the vote, prompting the union to issue a
statement that Sean O’Brien, president of Local 25 in Boston, will succeed Hoffa as general president of the union, which has 1.4 million members.
Fred Zuckerman, president of Teamsters Local 89 in Louisville, Kentucky, home to UPS’s global air freight hub, was elected general secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters, succeeding Ken Hall, the union said. O’Brien and Zuckerman have pledged a more aggressive approach to contracts and organizing to expand the union.
The election is a reversal for those who backed a slate of candidates supported by Hoffa, who is retiring after serving as Teamsters president since 1998. In 2016, Hoffa
narrowly defeated a challenge by Zuckerman.
O’Brien defeated rival Steve Vairma, international vice president at large, in every region of the US. Late in the vote count, Vairma was winning only in Canada, by 3,535 votes. Altogether, fewer than 15 percent of Teamsters members appear to have voted.
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