Teamster Local Placed in Trustee’s Control : Organized labor: National union takes action because of political infighting and mass firings of staff members in the organization’s biggest Southland branch.

The biggest Teamsters Union local in Southern California is so racked by political infighting and mass firings of staff members that union executives in Washington on Thursday put the 13,000-member local under the control of a trustee.

National union leaders took over Local 63, which represents food-distribution workers from Barstow to Bakersfield, at the instruction of the Teamsters’ court-appointed administrator, Frederick Lacey. Lacey has been overseeing the affairs of the entire union for two years under a consent decree that settled a Justice Department racketeering lawsuit against the Teamsters.

It was only the second time in his tenure as administrator of the union that Lacey has ordered a local put in trusteeship to clean it up.

Appointed as trustee for an indefinite period was Jim Roberts, a Teamster freight-industry specialist based in San Bruno, Calif. Forced out was the local’s controversial chief officer, Robert Marciel, who as secretary-treasurer and a union international representative has drawn a $210,000-a-year salary--and recently has drawn a commensurate amount of flak.

Last month, Marciel’s elected slate of delegates to the Teamster Union’s national convention in Florida was banned by court-appointed Teamster election officials because of ballot fraud.

Two weeks ago, 13 of Marciel’s 18 appointed business agents--full-time union staffers who handle grievances at various work sites--demanded that Marciel resign. They complained that his reputation had been ruined by the ballot fraud incident, and warned him that members would not reelect him when the local picks officers in December.

Marciel refused to step down. The protesting business agents then began distributing flyers at some work sites criticizing Marciel. One of the business agents, Bob Aquino, who was elected to the less-powerful post of local president on a slate with Marciel in the local’s last election, announced that he would run against Marciel for secretary-treasurer.

On Monday, Marciel fired Aquino and a still-disputed number of other business agents. In addition, in what high-placed union sources described as an act of political retaliation, Marciel began planning to transfer his local’s freight workers--about 4,000 members--to the jurisdiction of another Southland Teamster local. Sources said Marciel was convinced that his political opposition came largely from Aquino and other business agents who serve in Local 63’s freight division.

Teamster President William McCarthy on Tuesday ordered Marciel to abandon any transfer plan.

Marciel denied that he had taken steps to shift a large segment of his local’s members to another local simply to win a political battle. But he admitted, “I thought about it.”

It remained unclear how many business agents Marciel had fired. Several sources said all 13 dissenters had been fired. Marciel said he had fired eight, seven of whom work in the freight division.

“I got a revolution on my hands,” he said, acknowledging that he wanted to “get rid of these guys.”

Marciel said he had not been formally notified of the trusteeship but had been told by his local’s attorney to meet with Roberts this morning. “I welcome an investigation,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

The turmoil in Local 63 is another illustration of how government oversight of the Teamsters, the nation’s largest union, is promoting unprecedented political conflict in an institution famed for monolithic leadership. A mass protest against a local’s secretary-treasurer by business agents--who serve at the pleasure of the secretary-treasurer and draw salaries two to three times higher than they earned as rank-and-file Teamsters--is highly unusual.

Marciel has headed Local 63 since 1978, enjoying a reputation as a tough, street-smart, charismatic leader--a man who is “not a rocket scientist,” in the words of one employer who negotiates with the local.

During Marciel’s tenure, Local 63 has absorbed a number of other Southland locals through mergers, growing enormously in size. Despite that fact, membership has fallen by 2,000 in the past three years and the $5-million budget for this year fell into the red recently, forcing Marciel to borrow $200,000 against the local’s fleet of automobiles in order to pay staff salaries.

Marciel in recent years has been appointed to several posts in the Teamsters’ Western United States hierarchy in addition to his Local 63 post. At last month’s union convention he was nominated as a candidate for Western regional vice president on a slate headed by longtime union executive Walter Shea of Washington. The union’s 1.6 million members will vote for national officers for the first time in December under terms of the consent decree.

However, during the convention, Marciel’s political reputation was shaken when Lacey’s office released a report harshly critical of ballot fraud that took place at some work sites in Local 63 during the election of delegates. Some of Marciel’s business agents were found to have collected ballots from members, an action that “destroys the integrity” of the secret-ballot election, Lacey wrote.

Lacey found the violations so serious that he referred the case to the Justice Department for possible criminal action.

Two days after the convention ended, Aquino and 12 other business agents confronted Marciel and asked him to resign. There was an element of self-interest in their request. The business agents hoped to form their own slate of candidates. Many of them figured to lose their jobs if a new, unfriendly administration was voted in by members.

While Marciel refused to step down as secretary-treasurer, a few days later he withdrew his candidacy for regional vice president, telling Teamster election officials that he wanted to concentrate on conditions in his local.

After Marciel fired the business agents on Monday, Lacey stepped in, saying that concerns about the firings and possible attempts to transfer some members to another local required the local to be put into trusteeship.

Union officials said some of the business agents fired by Marciel may be restored to their jobs by trustee Roberts.

Aquino said he and other members of the executive board “are all partially at fault” for what he described as Marciel’s tendency to view the local “as his private business, not a labor union.” Aquino and other members of the local’s executive board have increased Marciel’s salary sizably, making him among the dozen highest-paid Teamster executives in the nation.

“When we read the findings (of Lacey’s report on the delegate election), I guess we all looked at each other and said, ‘Enough is enough,’ ” Aquino said.

In 1988, the local was ordered by a federal court jury to pay $768,000 in damages and attorney fees to several union members who planned to run against Marciel in the 1985 election. The members were brutally attacked while walking to a nominating meeting. Marciel was named as a defendant in the lawsuit but a jury determined he was not personally responsible.