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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
, Michael Mishak
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
A long-troubled Teamsters local has elected a leadership slate of reformers, throwing out incumbents accused of steering nonunion work to preferred companies in exchange for favors and jobs for relatives.
Teamsters Local 631 represents 6,500 workers in the convention industry, in trash collection, and for United Parcel Service and other companies. A slate led by Kevin Hardison and John Phillipenas solidly defeated the incumbents, headed by Wayne King and Tommy Blitsch, in a bitterly contested election.
About a dozen union reformers told the Sun this year that union leadership was colluding with major convention center contractors to provide them with cheaper nonunion labor.
Members told the Sun the union had set up a lucrative nonunion employment agency within the union hall, at the expense of union members, whose hours were cut. They complained that as they waited for work, the union hall dispatcher gave jobs to nonunion workers who paid $60 to be on the union work list.
In exchange for getting sweetheart deals from the union, the convention contractors did favors for union leadership, including providing work for family members, according to some union members. Blitsch’s wife, for example, had been working for the Freeman Cos., a giant in the convention services business.
Members in other industries had their own gripes: Bad contracts due to coziness with company managers and mismanagement of union funds at a time when union leaders gave themselves significant pay raises.
“We’re going to put things back into the hands of members,” Hardison said. “That means we listen to their concerns, we go out and represent them, we return phone calls, we go to job sites.”
Hardison said the local would crackdown on contract violations, conduct an aggressive organizing campaign against nonunion companies and strengthen alliances with its two sister locals, as well as with other Southern Nevada unions.
The election was fierce, with King and the outgoing executive board suspending Hardison from membership for two years, thereby making him ineligible to run for office. The suspension was overturned on appeal by Teamsters Joint Council No. 42.
Messages the Sun left at the union hall for King and Blitsch were not returned Friday.
The insurgents take over a union with a long history of turmoil.
In 2000, the union was placed under emergency trusteeship because of what Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. called “severe mismanagement.”
Dane Passo, a special assistant to Hoffa, was sent to Las Vegas to oversee the local until the Independent Review Board, a federal watchdog of the Teamsters, exposed another scandal.
Investigators found that within months of moving to Las Vegas, Passo engineered a deal with William T. Hogan Jr., leader of the Chicago Teamsters, to steer hundreds of convention jobs to nonunion workers employed by a temporary labor firm for which Hogan’s brother was a top executive.
Ed Burke, a onetime Chicago Teamster and a business agent at a California local, was appointed trustee of Local 631 in June 2001, becoming the third overseer in a little more than a year. He eventually ran for office in 2003 and was elected secretary-treasurer on a slate that included Blitsch and King.
But in 2006, the review board recommended that Burke be charged with bringing reproach upon the union. Burke left the local, which made King the secretary-treasurer and Blitsch the president.
The new leadership must also confront a $47 million unfunded liability in the pension fund.
This just proves that the truth will always come out. I believe local 631 is finally in good hands. I raised my son to fight for what he believes in. I am sure with Gods help the Empowerment slate will straighten this mess up.
It sounds as if the union members have been victimized and now should seek retibution against those who victimized them. Simply voting them out of office after they have stolen legitimate members money,denied members jobs and undercut legal contracts needs to be investigated. It is a very suitable case for the US Justice Department. A little advise from a retired midwest Teamster. Of course there are other measures which we can discuss later.
its about time that Wayne and his cronies got what they deserved. To Tommy bitchboy enjoy your employment at Freemen and Wayne enjoy your medical retirement at a reduced rate!!!
This is truely a sad day when teamster business is aired out in public. I am disgusted with the new slate that is taking over 631. This newspaper clearly has been one-sided. If this newspaper new the true about everything they never would have printed this garbage. I commend wayne king and tommy for not airing out all the stuff about this new slate that they know about them. It speaks to their character. I will only tell the public one thing don weimer the new vice president has more family members working for freeman than anyone in that union. So if you want to talk about sweethart deals and being goods friends with management look no further than him. This is a sad day for all the teamsters at 631 and I pray for those who depend on their health and welfare comming from the union that it will stay funded under this new leadership because their past track records are not very good.
God, the membership of our local made a huge mistake. In these economic time's to turn the local over to these guys spells doom for 631. Within six months the I.R.B will take our local. The Las Vegas Sun needs to get their facts right. The pension is not 47 million in the hole. Ed Burke did not run in 2003 with King. According to the records from JC 42 they did not over turn Kevin's suspension. I am proud to say non of my fellow coworkers at Coach USA voted for Hardison or Phillpenas. Why dont you do a follow up story in a couple months on how many drug addicts, thieves, and family members these people hire. This local is in so much trouble. One question for the Las Vegas Sun, if any of these things were true about the out going administration dont you think the government would have stepped in?
I would like to express my agreement with b_informed & liesandmorelies.
I have been a member of Teamsters Local #631 for some 25 years and have seen trouble come and go but I am amazed that someone would talk to a local paper about internal union buisness and false information at that. Obviously the Las Vegas Sun is not interested in truth but in vilifying Unions.
As a Union Member in good standing I believe that whomever this person is that has been feeding this tripe of information to a source "Outside" of the Union should be brought up on charges before an E-Board for unethical behavior unbefitting a Union Member with the intent to do harm to the Teamsters Union as a whole. I have also noticed that the two reporters (used loosely) have done other articles demeaning Local #631. Don't even get me started on drugs addicts, thieves, and nepotism.
Get your facts straight before you open your mouth and then do it in the appropriate Union Fashion by the correct chain of command. Rumors are abundant and plentiful and it is a coward, yes I said coward who does what has been done here in giving inaccurate information to a "Non-Union" News Paper.
If all of these allegations were true then why didn't these so-called "Good Union Members" go to JC 42 and show the proof of these allegations and demand not only an investigation but action rather than talking to reporters (again used loosely) who have no interest in the good of the Teamsters Union or any other Union for that matter? They have their own personal agenda's and enough idiot's believed them.
Read your By-Laws on dealing with problems people rather than listening to blithering, babbling babies who are unset because they didn't get what they wanted or because things didn't go their way.
They should be black balled
It's about time! Hopefully the regular members of the Teamsters will have real representation. They need a union that is willing to fight for the members. When there is a collective bargaining agreement signed by the union and the employers, the union needs to FIGHT to uphold the articles in their own CBA! That had not happened, so maybe a new start will be what these dues paying members need.
If the incumbents have lost, there must have been a great reason.
GOOD FOR YOU, MEMBERS OF TEAMSTERS LOCAL 631!
lovelyme23
sounds like you're not even a union member let alone one of our Union members by your wording and that is why loyal union members shouldn't be talking to "Non-Union" members about Union business.
If you're a member of another Union our union business is still none of your buisness either. You don't talk about union buisness to non-union members or other union members you deal with it according to the by-laws of the respective unions.
How do you know about our representation unless you have been talking to some "Rat" who has been funneling information and false at that.
Yes I read the article and I know for a fact the the outgoing officials were not in office when those allegations that were made against them happened. Can you say "25 + Years as a #631 Teamster Member"?
You have the right to your opinion and to express it but so do I. You obviously believe everything you read in the newspaper. Do you spread the tripe also?