Showdown Vote Nears on Challenge to Leadership of Teamsters Local 63

For the first time in a decade, a serious contest is being waged for the leadership of Teamsters Local 63, one of the largest local unions in Southern California and one in which the last election was marred by violence.

Three years ago, a group of men who were planning to run against Bob Marciel, chief executive of the local, never made it to the nominating meeting. They were attacked one night on a Montebello street as they were walking to the meeting and suffered serious injuries.

Marciel won unopposed. Several months later, the Teamsters national office ordered the local to hold another election, but no one ran against the incumbent officeholders.

This year, a slate of five men and two women are running against Marciel and his slate. The challengers are headed by Bob Kirkpatrick, 43, a former Army intelligence officer who resides in Apple Valley and is a veteran driver for Consolidated Freightways.

Both sides are predicting victory in a vote that will be held Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at union halls in Barstow, El Monte, Los Angeles, Rialto and Vernon. The local is headquartered in Los Angeles, but its jurisdiction extends through parts of four counties--Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside.

The election is drawing an unusual amount of attention in labor circles, both because Marciel has not faced active opposition in the past and because of what happened three years ago.

Now 47, Marciel has been the secretary-treasurer of Local 63, which represents about 13,000 drivers and warehouse workers, since 1978. In 1979, he handily defeated one opponent in his first reelection bid. In 1982, no one ran against him.

Then, in 1985, a group of dissidents, headed by James Bender of Fountain Valley, announced that they would form an opposition slate. But on the night of Nov. 2, 1985, as they were walking to the nominating meeting at a union hiring hall in Montebello, Bender and several of his allies were attacked by a group of men wearing T-shirts urging the reelection of Marciel. What happened that night was the subject of a federal civil trial in Santa Ana earlier this year.

Bender said he was beaten unconscious. Jack Douglas, who planned to run with him, said he suffered permanent hearing loss after he was knocked down and repeatedly kicked in the head. Harry Rodriguez said he was struck on the head from behind, fell down and was kicked. Later, he learned that he had been stabbed in the back with an ice pick and suffered a collapsed lung.

Damages Awarded

A jury in Santa Ana awarded $568,000 in damages to nine members of the local in February. Last July, the trial judge, J. Spencer Letts, upheld the verdict on appeal and also ordered the union to pay $200,000 of the victims’ legal costs. He said the $768,000 award--the equivalent of about $59 a member--would be “a cheap price to pay” if it encouraged free union elections in the future.

In a lengthy opinion, Letts said the attack on the dissidents constituted a “blatant attempt by union officials to interfere with the right of the proposed opposition candidates to wage their campaign free from coercion or intimidation.” The union has filed a further appeal.

Marciel was not held personally responsible by the jury or the judge.

Bender is still a member of the local and is supporting Kirkpatrick for secretary-treasurer, the top position in the local. Douglas is running with him, for president, the No. 2 post in the local.

Kirkpatrick has been an elected shop steward for four years, a volunteer job. He asserts that Marciel is not a good negotiator, is remote from the members and is vastly overpaid. Last year, according to federal records, Marciel was paid $141,300 as secretary-treasurer of Local 63 and another $58,720 as an international organizer, a total salary of $200,020. Additionally, he was reimbursed for $20,919 in expenses and has a union-purchased Cadillac.

Reduce Salary

If elected, Kirkpatrick said he would reduce the secretary-treasurer’s salary to $87,000 and would lower the salaries of several other local officials. He also pledges to be more accessible to the members, to direct business agents to be on call at night and to establish an 800 number at the local’s offices so that it is not so expensive for members to telephone for help. He also pledges to refuse to accept any new two-tier contracts.

Marciel readily acknowledges that he is well-paid.

“I make a lot of money,” he said in an interview this week. “I earn it. I work 14 to 16 hours a day. I’m on every committee you can think of. I’m responsible for negotiating all the local agreements. The bakery contract we have is the best in the country.”

Both men have been campaigning hard and the literature on each side has been strident. One of Kirkpatrick’s flyers says: “There are rumors of hoodlums belonging to our union. An inquiry is needed. Our union finances are a disaster. We are on the verge of bankruptcy!”

Marciel’s supporters have countered with warnings: “Be Careful . . . Kirkpatrick’s slate is a TDU slate!,” a reference to the fact that Kirkpatrick and two of his running mates, Scott Askey and John Cetinske, are members of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a dissident group that has been battling the union leadership around the country for more than a decade.

The flyer also asserts that the TDU members “have gone to Iran at the invitation of the Revolutionary Guards--those infamous men who have taken Americans hostage and tried to humiliate all Americans. . . . Don’t let the Socialists take over your union.” Not surprisingly, Kirkpatrick says this contention is ludicrous, the same thing Marciel says about the bankruptcy charge.