Union members to cast ballots this month in hot 726 race 

By Dermot Connolly 

Four slates of candidates will be on the ballots mailed later this month to the more than 4,000 members of Teamsters Union Local 726, which represents truck drivers, dispatchers, and related positions working for the City of Chicago as well Cook County, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and other municipalities and public institutions in northern Illinois.

            At least two slates are campaigning on change platforms, alleging the current leadership, which has been in place ten years, has not represented rank and file members properly. Current officeholders, led by John Falzone as president, claim two successful elections prove members of the local generally are satisfied.

            All active members of 726 whose dues payments are up to date by close of business (4:30 p.m.) on Friday, Nov. 2, will be eligible to vote. Ballots will be mailed in mid-October. The rules call for returned ballots to be collected from the union's post office box Nov. 3 and counted at the 726 union hall at 300 S. Ashland Ave. For more information, log on to www.teamsterslocal726.org.

            Ballots will be printed Tuesday, Oct. 9, and mailed soon afterward, probably on Thursday, Oct. 11. The dates could change if any protests arise regarding any aspect of the election process. Post-election protests must be filed by Wednesday, Nov. 6; election results will be certified soon afterward.

            In addition to Falzone, the union’s current executive board is running for election to a third five-year term on the Fair and Equity slate. The others currently serving are Kenneth R. Brantley, vice president; Thomas P. Clair, secretary/treasurer; Jack F. Hurley, recording secretary; Mike Mercantante, trustee/business agent; Linda Cruz and Anthony Fiori, trustees; and business agents Michael Melone, Kevin Kaiser (law enforcement), William McTighe, and Luther “Woody” Woodruff.

            As of this writing, the other slates planning to be on the ballots are The Members Only Slate, Every Teamster Counts, and Fighting for the Future. Angelo Fata, who is running for president on The Members Only Slate, said there was a chance the three opposition groups might join forces to submit a combined slate.

 

'Doing this for the members'

            "We are doing this for the members, not any one slate," Fata said.

            Besides Fata, a Chicago Water Department truck driver, TMOS candidates include fellow Water Department driver Carlos Sanchez, running for vice president, and Tres Peel, a Water Department dispatcher and candidate for secretary/treasurer. All three helped found TMOS two years ago. Newcomers on the slate are Jose Guerneca, a Streets and Sanitation Department driver running for recording secretary; Mark Kaminski, a city Aviation Department driver based at Midway Airport and candidate for business agent/trustee; James Hynes, another Water Department driver and trustee candidate; and Steve Pascua, a trustee candidate and a driver for the Chicago Bureau of Rodent Control.

            The Fighting for Fairness ticket includes Joe Vercillo, a city Aviation Department driver running for president; Leo “Duke” Clark Jr., for vice president; and Vincent Tenuto, a union steward and City Department of Transportation driver, for secretary/treasurer. Keith A. Russell, a water plant operator for the City of Oak Forest, is running for a trustee position, as is Sheryl Franklin, who works in Street Operations for the City, and John Dominikovich, a Cook County Highway Department employee. Bill Kessler, a City Streets and Sanitation driver is the FFF candidate for recording secretary, and Daniel Fisher, a Glenwood police officer, is running for business agent (law enforcement).

            Information about the Every Teamster Counts slate was not available.

            While TMOS has made its views known in recent months through informational programs shown on the CAN-TV cable channel, Fighting for the Future has a website, www.fightingforthefuture.com. The non-incumbent slates share dissatisfaction with how the union is being run.

            “You don’t have to vote for us," Fata said on a recent TV broadcast. "Just come out and vote. We need to get rid of these people [current leadership]. They are hurting us, especially the young people coming up in the union.”

            Several FFF members are second- and third-generation union members, primarily from Teamster families, but they contend they do not have the same pride in the local their fathers and grandfathers did because they do not feel they are respected when they attend meetings.

 

Sufficient representation sought

            One plank in the FFF platform is getting funding so business agents are available 24/7 to members who need their help. A common complaint among all the opposition candidates is that the union does not give members sufficient representation in disciplinary hearings and other matters.

            Fisher of FFF stated, “I am disgusted with the decadence and incompetence of the current leadership of 726. I am tired of my phone calls not being returned. I am tired of terrible contracts. I am fed up with BAs [business agents] not showing up to or falling asleep during discipline hearings. I am stunned and amazed by the unbelievably bloated salaries our current 726 leaders receive, but perform almost no work. I am appalled that the current leadership of 726 thinks it is okay to tell members to 'shut up' during union meetings. I am offended that I am repeatedly told that my needs 'do not matter.'”

FFF’s motto is “restore the pride,” while TMOS chose its name because the slate intends to work for “the union members only."

Fata said his slate has committed to taking a ten percent pay cut. If elected, they will put the extra money back into the local to train younger members to get involved in committees addressing all outstanding issues and to send members to sit in on contract negotiations. All the union locals negotiate contracts jointly with the City, but Fata and other opposition candidates contend their local often gets shortchanged on raises and benefits, and they blame the leadership for poor representation.

Falzone has scoffed at that argument in the past, contending the local does not need committees because the leadership keeps union members informed at meetings about contracts and other issues. He pointed to the scholarships the local offers as something it is doing for members and their families.

 

Long grievance process

On a related matter, Fata and his group have argued that the grievance process takes too long, charging grievances that should be handled in days or weeks are taking much longer.

"I have a grievance that goes back a year, and I haven’t heard anything,” said Kaminski, a TMOS candidate.

“I don’t even bother with them [grievances] here," said Fata. "I just send mine to the feds [the national union leadership]. At least you get a phone call.”

He said most of his grievances deal with the issue of laborers and foremen seen driving trucks, which he said is taking jobs away from Local 726 members, particularly the so-called “pool drivers” who he said are hired to fill vacancies at various departments but often are sent home without work. Fata and members of his slate argue there would be enough full-time work for all the pool drivers if foremen and other trades people were not allowed to do the pool drivers' work.

Fata said he has provided photographic evidence of wrongdoing to the union leadership but "nothing is ever done."

When union members get their ballots this month, they can choose among all the candidates and are not required to vote for an entire slate. However the election works out, Fata said he feels discontent is so strong among the membership that the current leadership will be unseated.

TMOS members, if elected, have pledged to be in office for no more than two terms.

“We feel that is long enough to get what we want done," Fata said. "We want to open it up to the younger members.”