Past sins haunting Teamsters in Vegas

Sun Staff and Wire Reports

Monday, June 25, 2001 | 11:16 a.m.

James P. Hoffa will likely be the near-unanimous presidential choice of the 1,800 delegates attending the Teamsters Union convention, which opened in Las Vegas this morning at the Paris hotel-casino.

It's also likely that Hoffa will not duplicate -- nor probably even mention -- the unforgettable scene of 15 years ago, the last time the Teamsters held its convention in the nation's gambling capital.

Then Teamsters President Jackie Presser, a 350-pound behemoth who had been indicted by the Justice Department on corruption charges only a week earlier, was paraded aloft through Caesars Palace Hotel in a gilded sedan chair by four husky men clad as Roman gladiators. It was the highlight of a $650,000 union-sponsored party.

"I certainly will not be doing that," Hoffa said last week. "And you can take that to the bank."

The main purpose of the five-day gathering is to nominate officers to run the 1.4-million-member union for the next five years.

And they plan to adopt an amendment that will enshrine the one- person, one-vote principle in the union's constitution.

"This is the kickoff convention for the Hoffa Administration," said the former Detroit labor lawyer and son of legendary Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa. "It is the beginning of the 21st century and we are basically putting into place the blocks on which to build this union."

The choice of Las Vegas -- long associated with the old, corrupt days of the Teamsters union when its presidents were regularly indicted -- as the site to mark this new beginning is somewhat ironic.

The city still stands as a symbol of the union's shady past, when pension funds were routinely diverted and used by organized crime figures to finance the construction of new casinos run by gangsters.

But Teamsters officials insist Las Vegas' heavy union presence and cheap hotel and air-fare rates far outweigh past images of union corruption.

"Las Vegas is one of the most unionized cities in the country," Hoffa said. "The hotels are union. It is also a place where we can have a convention that is economical. We are very proud to be here."

Teamsters attorney Pat Szymanski said union officials realized that holding their convention in Las Vegas might raise questions. Even so, he said, they decided the benefits outstripped the potential negative reaction.

The hotels, for example, provided convention space free of charge.

But Kenneth Kovach, a professor of industrial relations at George Mason University who is familiar with Teamsters history, thinks the union rushed its return to Vegas.

"Hoffa ran as a reform candidate," Kovach said. "He promised to restore the Teamsters to their past glory. I guess Vegas is the place to go if you want to restore the Teamsters to their past glory. That is their stomping ground. But if you are running as a reformer, you don't go back to the scene of the original crimes.' "

Nominations for union president will take place Thursday. Hoffa's forces have an iron grip on the convention, controlling nearly 90 percent of the delegates. He will be overwhelmingly nominated.

But since a candidate needs only 5 percent, or less than 100 delegates, to be nominated, dissident forces are expected to succeed in putting up their own candidate, Tom Leedham, secretary-treasurer of Local 206 in Portland, Ore. Leedham ran against Hoffa in 1998, receiving 40 percent of the vote.

"It is Teamsters rank-and-file who will decide who will lead this union," Leedham said. "It is not delegates at this convention. Our goal is not focused on the convention. Our goal is to have enough delegates to make sure our slate is nominated and then put our real energy and resources into the membership election."

Leedham's supporters marched in force into the convention this morning as the rift among conventioneers became apparent. But they were quickly overshadowed by Hoffa supporters chanting "Hoffa, Hoffa."

Convention delegates were also to hear from Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., today and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on Thursday.

President Bush was not invited. "We just didn't think it was time," Hoffa said. "We have great respect for George Bush. We think our relationship is evolving. In the future we will have a great deal of contact."

Last year, Hoffa flirted with the Republicans before endorsing Democrat Al Gore for president. But he made it clear to Democrats that his endorsement can no longer be taken for granted.

Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada delivered a bipartisan speech at the convention this morning.

"You have reached out across party lines to search for people who will support your issues," Ensign said. "If you don't have a relationship you can't even get in there to convince people. Working together, I think we can do great things for the American people."

Hoffa was elected to a truncated three-year term in 1998 after former President Ron Carey was expelled from the union. This round, Hoffa will be seeking a full five-year presidential term.

This week he was also expected to step up his calls for the elimination of the Independent Review Board, the federal body charged with investigating and preventing corruption within the union.

Hoffa argues that the Teamsters' new ethics program, "RISE," can serve as an effective watchdog to the union.

In his effort to win federal approval for this plan, Hoffa has made overtures to top GOP officials, promising a more "bipartisan" outlook by the Teamsters in the hope they will support his move to eliminate the IRB.

But the dissident group Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), which opposes Hoffa, argues that RISE is unwilling to root out corruption within the Teamsters and is expected to nominate Needham as president.

As part of its campaign against Hoffa, the TDU is touting a report issued in May by the IRB, issued in response to Hoffa's decision to place Teamster Local 631 of Las Vegas under trusteeship last year.

The report charges Hoffa lieutenants Dane Passo and William Hogan Jr. with collaborating with United Service Cos., a Las Vegas janitorial company, to provide convention workers to Las Vegas convention service companies at wages well below those called for under Local 631's collective bargaining agreements.

This was motivated by family connections, the report alleges -- Hogan's brother is Michael Hogan, a top executive at United. Passo, who ran Hoffa's 1998 presidential campaign, served as Hoffa's personal representative to Local 631.

The report alleges that Passo, in collaboration with Hogan, pressed former 631 secretary-treasurer Timothy Murphy to accept a deal to supply non-union United employees to convention companies at $8 per hour -- well below the more than $20 per hour Teamster employees were entitled to receive in wages and benefits.

Murphy resisted this deal, saying to IRB investigators that"I wasn't going to jail or lose my contract" over the alleged conspiracy.

Passo then influenced Hoffa to place 631 under trusteeship and remove Murphy as union president in April 2000, the IRB report states.

Hoffa previously said 631 was placed under trusteeship because of "severe mismanagement" of the union, including failure to file grievances on behalf of members, the negotiation of "substandard" agreements, and failure to enforce collective bargaining agreements."

Murphy was also directly accused of making employment decisions influenced by political motives. Passo repeatedly pressured Jim Wilkerson, the trustee of the union, to accept the United deal, but Wilkerson also resisted, then complained personally to Hoffa that Passo was interfering with his ability to run 631, the report states.

At Passo's insistence, Wilkerson was removed as trustee of the local in November 2000, the report said. The report doesn't indicate Hoffa knew about Passo's or Hogan's efforts, and states that Hoffa wasn't told Hogan's brother worked for United.

However, IRB officials said Hoffa's decisions regarding 631 were "to a large extent based solely on Passo's" recommendations.

The report recommended that the Teamsters' General Executive Board charge Passo and Hogan with breach of their fiduciary obligations to Teamsters members. Passo and Hogan have both gone on voluntary leave from their positions as international representatives for the union.

"The latest charges against Hoffa's top aides put the lie to Hoffa's claims that he can clean up his own house," TDU National Organizer Ken Paff said in a statement. "It's time to end this charade of Hoffa's RISE program, which stands by and cheers for Hoffa while his people engage in this kind of dirty dealing against our Teamster members." The Detroit News and the Las Vegas Sun

contributed to this story.