Ex-Union Head Fails in Bid for Post : Teamsters: Incumbent narrowly defeats Martin Fry, who left position after being convicted for role in 1978 fire-bombings.

The former head of the Teamster Union’s local in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has failed in a bid to recapture the post he relinquished after he was convicted for his role in the 1978 fire-bombings of non-union trucks.

When ballot results were announced Friday, Martin Fry of Ojai had narrowly lost in his bid to unseat Dennis Shaw of Oak View, the incumbent secretary-treasurer who won on a reform platform three years ago.

But Shaw said the narrow margin of victory--33 votes--was a message from the members that problems remain in the union’s local chapter.

“The message I get is I have a lot of work to do,” Shaw said. “I did not get a landslide victory.”

Despite his loss, Fry said he was happy that one member of his slate--UPS driver Scott Dennison--was elected to serve as president of the local’s board of trustees.

Because of Fry’s felony conviction for embezzlement that stemmed from the 1978 fire-bombing, federal law prevented him from running for his old job while he was on parole or conducting any union business other than clerical or janitorial work.

After his election in 1990, Shaw fired Fry from his $36,000-a-year job as a union clerk, contending that Fry had been calling the shots for Greg Boverson, the previous secretary-treasurer, from behind the scenes.

Final results in the four-way race for Local 186 leadership showed Shaw on top with 592 votes, or 50.6% of the 1,170 votes that were cast; Fry received 559 votes, or 47.8%; Sarah Zuniga, 36 votes; and John Windsor, eight votes.

Local 186 represents about 2,400 Teamsters in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, including 1,100 food production workers at Nabisco Co. in Oxnard, and is regarded as one of the most important labor unions in the county.

During his campaign, Shaw charged that Fry had maintained control of the union chapter even while serving 21 months in federal prison and continued to exercise control after his release in 1987.

Although he was himself hired by Fry in 1985, Shaw portrayed himself as a reform-minded administrator who won concessions from employers through negotiation rather than confrontation.

“This is a classic battle between what the Teamsters have stood for in the past and what we should stand for in the future,” said the 48-year-old Shaw before the vote.

The defeat is at least a temporary setback for Fry, who served as Local 186’s secretary-treasurer from 1976 until 1985, including election to a three-year term only months after his conviction in 1985.

The charges against Fry were filed after the union’s bitter dispute in 1978 with Redman Moving and Storage Co. in Thousand Oaks.

Although the union organized the company’s employees, the company refused to recognize the local, and was subsequently the target of a campaign of fear, threats and violence, court documents showed. Vandals slashed more than 100 tires, shot out windows and burned two trucks.

The Justice Department’s Organized Crime Task Force indicted Fry and others for conspiring to burn the trucks. A jury convicted Fry of embezzling union funds by paying for the gasoline in a car used to follow a Redman truck across state lines for the purpose of setting it ablaze.

Despite his loss, Fry’s supporters remained loyal Friday. Barbara Baker said she was able to put aside Fry’s past problems.

“I figure what he did he did on the union’s behalf,” Baker said. “That was a tough time for unions then.”