Working In These Times
The Strange Hogan Family/Teamsters Saga Continues
Bill Hogan with his friend actor Jim Belushi. (Photo courtesy TeamsterInjustice.com)
CHICAGO—Bill Hogan was once a close ally of notorious Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, running for the leadership slate with Hoffa in 1996. Working In These Times contributor Steve Franklin once described Hogan as "the tough-talking, gregarious member of a powerful union family."
Now Hogan is enlisting high-profile friends, including actor Jim Belushi and former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, to blame Hoffa for cooperating with the feds in what he calls an "un-American" violation of his free speech rights. Union rules have barred Teamsters—including Hogan's son and best friend— from speaking with Hogan since his 2002 expulsion under allegations he worked to depress wages and benefits for Las Vegas Teamsters to help out his brother's contracting company.
On Thursday at the Hyatt downtown, supporters including Hefner, former Chicago Bear Richard Dent, state legislators and restauranteurs all spoke in Hogan's favor. Hogan faces contempt of court charges, which could carry six months in jail, for continuing to speak with Teamsters, including son Bobby Hogan and long-time friend Robert Riley (both members of Teamsters Local 714).
The Hogans charge Hoffa has aided the federal Independent Review Board in using the pretense of purging Mob elements to carry out a "vendetta against the Hogan family." (The Hogan camp makes its case at the website Teamster Injustice. Read a Chicago Sun-Times piece about Thursday's event here, and Steve Franklin's 2002 account of the saga here.)
The Teamster Injustice website sums up Bill Hogan's expulsion thus:
Bill Hogan, then President of Joint Council 25, had been expelled as the result of IRB action in 2002 because he intended to negotiate a “substandard” labor agreement for temporary trade show workers in Las Vegas, a charge which many in the union viewed as baseless because no contract for temporary workers was ever signed and negotiations with management were in an early stage.
In 2005, Riley was suspended from the union for breaking the prohibition on talking to an expelled member (Hogan), then son Bobby Hogan was suspended for six months and faced life expulsion for failing to discipline Riley for his infraction. A letter from Bobby Hogan to Hoffa regarding his six-month suspension says:
The IRB was installed 19 years ago to remove mob influence from the Union under controversial use of the Civil RICO statute. It was intended as a short term measure and indeed mob influence was broken within the first few years as confirmed by a 1999 government study, a Harvard study and a 2005 internal union audit conducted by Ed McDonald former head of a Justice Dept organized crime task force.
To justify its continuing existence and the obscene salaries paid to its investigators, (according to Labor Dept records, chief IRB investigator Charles Carberry made $1.1 million in salary over a two and half year period) the IRB needs to keep the pot boiling, taking political sides and trumping up charges against targets in the union.
Bobby Hogan says he speaks for "members who have been silent and who fear to speak publicly against the loss of internal democracy and free speech."
He boldly predicts the ongoing persecution of his family by Hoffa and the IRB will cause more union members to "also find their voice, and undertake the effort to take back their union and return it to its rightful purpose as a democratic institution that protects and advances the interests of its membership.”
Meanwhile Teamsters for a Democratic Union, who have also fought Hoffa and the Teamster establishment, have long been laying out their own path to union democracy. And from what I understand that path does not involve Hogan.
TDU has plenty to focus on at the moment, given that among other things, one of their key constituencies, UPS employees, are facing a holiday shipping season with profits down and management squeezing workers for extra productivity (explained here.)
Citing their own battle with Hoffa, TDU's website says:
Teamsters from every industry and local are signing up at DumpHoffa.org and planning a wave of local organizing meetings at the start of the new year. The economy is supposed to begin to recover in 2010. That’s good news. But if we want to recover from the concessions that have rocked our union, it is up to us.
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Comments
You might want to re-think this piece.
“Notorious” Teamster leader Hoffa is in a fight with Hogan and this automatically makes Hogan the good guy? I don’t think so.
I am no fan of the Independent Review Board, but you might want to take a longer look at this story before making Hogan out to be some champion of union democracy and fair play.
This is one of those cases where I can’t support any of these folks - not Junior Hoffa, not the Hogans, not TDU and certainly not the feds.
In the Hogans case, they are a perfect example of what’s wrong with the house of labor.
They are a dynasty of union bosses, who have dominated Teamsters local 714 for many many years.
IBT local 714, among other crafts, represent the teamsters who work in the trade show industry in Chicago, driving delivery trucks and unloading freight at the McCormick Place Convention Center, the Navy Pier and the other trade show venues in the city.
The Hogans are on both sides of the labor relations fence in that industry - members of the family dominate the trade show teamsters union AND are equipment rental contractors serving the industry.
Also, in the union’s motion picture teamster jurisdiction (representing truck drivers who work at on location movie sets in Illinois) they give out the best jobs to their cronies - and they also run the equipment rental rackets there too.
That explains their ties to Hollywood celebrities - I’m sure favors were called in and arms were twisted to get their support.
Basically, the Hogans practice old school Jackie Presser-style union gangsterism.
In other words, as many bad actors as their are in the IBT, the Hogans are among the worst.
Kari Lydersen’s article also missed a rather important point about Hoffa and the Independent Review Board (IRB).
Hoffa has been working for years to close the IRB. Along with John Coli, Hoffa in 2008 was able to get a commitment from Obama to begin the process of winding down the IRB. Hoffa’s early and energetic support for Obama was thus instrumental in achieving one of the union’s long-standing goals.
Hoffa gets a lot of criticism. Her deserves credit for this one.
Bruce, I have to - partially - agree with you there.
Although the 7 decades of cosa nostra domination in the Teamsters critically weakened the union (and opened the door for a government takeover) the years of government intervention have been even worse.
it’s not a commonly known fact, but the Teamsters core industry, road freight, has become overwhelmingly non union.
An industry that in 1970 had 450,000 unionized workers out of a total workforce of 500,000 today has only 88,000 union workers out of a total workforce of over 2 million.
A large part of that union decay is thanks to Teamsters General President Frank Fitzsimmons signing of the Special Commodities Rider to the 1973-76 National Master Freight Agreement, which allowed “double breasting” (union trucking companies operating non union subsidiaries).
And a large part of that is due to Democratic icons President Jimmy Carter and Senator Ted Kennedy’s imposition of Deregulation in 1978.
And a lot of that is directly because of the misleadership of President Ron Carey during the brief period that TDU ran the Teamsters (1991-98)
But there’s plenty of blame for Hoffa as well.
And, having the federal government directly involved in the administration of the union since 1988 has had a whole lot to do with the decay of the Teamsters, particularly in the freight industry.
So a government free Teamsters would be a huge step forward for American labor.
The fanfare over the passing of this sad, demented, self absorbed, sexually depraved, racially self loathing individual just boggle the mind.. His demise was as predictable as the sun rising. His business,
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his family and particularly the children he had artificially created will be happier and far better off without him, not to mention wealthier. Remember and play his music if you want..it was pretty good but don’t for get what an absolute failure as man he was. He dies a whiny drug addicted loser.. Save your sorrow for someone worthy.
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