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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 18, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Teamsters leader files challenge

Union activists denounce frame-up of Carey

By Gary Wilson

Ron Carey, the Teamsters union leader, has opened a legal challenge to the government’s attempt to force him out of the office of union president.

On Dec. 2, Carey filed an appeal in federal court that challenges the decision to disqualify him from running for re-election.

Carey had been forced to take a leave from his job as head of the Teamsters union on Nov. 25 by a federal court and its agent, a lawyer who represents some of the most powerful Fortune 500 companies.

The lawyer, Kenneth Conboy, disqualified Carey based on allegations that he had committed felony violations of laws governing union elections. Carey denied having done anything wrong.

But he was never granted the basic legal right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. No trial or other legal proceeding was held.

Yet the big-business-controlled media immediately smeared Carey on TV and in the newspapers.

With the future of the union at stake, Carey decided to step aside temporarily. He is being forced to spend all his time building his own legal defense.

Carey’s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, says the Teamsters president "was never given the opportunity to confront his accusers." In fact, the charges against Carey were framed in "secret proceedings conducted by Election Officer Conboy, [in] gross violation of Mr. Carey’s constitutional rights."

Much of the so-called evidence against Carey comes from someone who confessed to committing exactly the crime for which Carey was disqualified from the presidency. This person faces a long prison sentence. But he’s trying to make a deal with the government so he can greatly reduce his sentence if his testimony hangs Carey.

Many activists in the Teamsters and other unions agree that the attack on Carey is aimed at squelching the emerging labor militancy. Carey was the leader of the UPS strike, labor’s most successful action in decades.

Efforts to rally support for Carey and defend him from the joint attack by government and big business have begun. Union activists in the National People’s Campaign have started a "campaign to defend Ron Carey and the labor movement."

The NPC is circulating a statement and collecting signatures.

The statement reads in part:

"The overturn of the Teamster elections and the disqualification of President Ron Carey is an attempt to undermine the Teamsters union. It is also a clear preparation for a broader government attack on the AFL-CIO leadership, which is attempting to revive the labor movement after decades of decline.

"This unwarranted, abusive interference by the government in the internal affairs of the Teamsters and the threats to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumpka, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, and SEIU President Andrew Stern, among others, is Corporate America’s revenge for the tremendous victory of the UPS strike, the defeat of Fast Track and the whole campaign to breathe new life into the ranks of labor by organizing the unorganized, fighting for the lowest paid, for workfare workers, people of color, women, lesbians and gays, immigrants and for appealing to communities across the country.

"The government is aiming its guns at the head of the labor movement.

"The case against Ron Carey has all the earmarks of a classical government frame-up of a militant labor leader. Anti-labor legal authorities have implicated Carey—against his sworn statement of innocence and his long record of fighting for the rank-and-file—by extracting statements from witnesses who are under indictment and face the threat of long prison terms.

"The disqualifying judge, Kenneth Conboy, is a high-paid corporate lawyer from the firm of Latham and Watkins, which has such clients as Chevron, Disney, Hughes Aircraft, McDonnel Douglas, Shell Oil, Texaco, Unocal and General Dynamics.

"The disqualification of Carey is arbitrary and clearly discriminatory against labor. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani were both found guilty of violating federal election laws. There was no rerun of their elections nor was either of them disqualified.

"We demand that the frame-up of President Ron Carey be stopped; it constitutes a disenfranchisement of the Teamsters who elected him. His disqualification should be reversed; the election should stand. We demand an end to the anti-labor inquisition aimed at the heart of the labor movement.

"Now is the time for the labor movement, communities and all progressive forces to close ranks and defend our rights against this corporate-inspired government campaign to break the unions. We must not sit passively by and allow the courts to decide our fate. We must mobilize. The fight begins with the defense of Ron Carey, who led the most important labor victory in 20 years. We must not let him go down."

Readers who want copies of the statement or want to reach the campaign to defend Ron Carey should contact the National People’s Campaign, 39 W. 14 St., Suite 206, New York, NY 10011. The phone number is (212) 633-6646.

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