Teamsters Chief Calls for Ouster of Local Leaders

Accusing local Teamster leaders of improperly handling expenses, locking members out of meetings and physically threatening a fellow board member, the president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Thursday called for their removal.

A hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 6 in Ventura to determine whether Local 186, which represents 2,400 Teamsters in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, should be handed over to an appointed trustee until new elections can be held.

Three Teamsters from elsewhere in California will base their decision on testimony from local leaders and the rank and file about the union’s troubles over the last several months.

The local’s president, Scott Dennison, has accused other individuals on the seven-member executive board of preventing him from participating in any decisions, harassing him verbally, using obscenities to describe his wife and physically threatening him at a board meeting.

Dennis Shaw, who holds the local’s chief administrative office of secretary-treasurer, immediately denied all charges, saying they were politically motivated.

Shaw said Teamsters General President Ron Carey is trying to oust him from office to further his own reputation as a reformer.

“He has bragged about how many locals he has put into trusteeship,” Shaw said. “The more he puts under trusteeship the more chance he has of getting reelected.”

International Brotherhood of Teamsters spokesman Bernie Mulligan said the local has been under review for several months. In addition to Dennison’s accusations, Mulligan said members were locked out of meetings based on their political alliances and monthly expense reports were not properly approved.

“It’s gotten pretty repulsive,” Mulligan said.

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Mulligan said the Teamsters have put 35 locals around the country into trusteeship since Carey took over the union’s presidency in 1992.

“One of the trademarks of the Carey administration is protecting members’ rights to have a democratic meeting,” Mulligan said. “There have been serious questions raised about the lack of democracy in that local and those questions need to be investigated.”

Dennison was elected to the local’s presidency in September, 1993, the sole member of the executive board to win office on a slate headed by Marty Fry. Fry, who was the local’s top leader until being convicted and imprisoned for embezzlement, came within 33 votes of defeating Shaw for the top job last September.

Shaw accused Fry of being behind Dennison’s allegations. “Now Marty has to work the background. He’s trying to come in the back door.”

Dennison denied that Fry prompted his complaints. He said he has been isolated from other board members since his first meeting as president. During that meeting, he said, he asked many questions and took notes and other board members then made snide remarks about his questions.

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Later meetings focused briefly on minor matters, he said, then dissolved into criticisms of him. Dennison said he generally left those meetings after 45 minutes of harassment.

“Obviously, somebody is taking care of union business when I’m not there,” Dennison said. “They have their own agenda, which is usually nothing in my presence.”

At the June 7 executive board meeting, Dennison said he was physically threatened.

“Several people said they were going to take me out and kick my backside,” Dennison said. He said objects were thrown at him as he walked down a hallway to leave the building, but he did not turn back to see what they were or who was throwing them.

Shaw said he never threatened Dennison and never saw other members of the board do so.

Shaw said union members have asked him to fight to keep the executive board in office.

“But the cards are stacked against me,” Shaw said. “They never asked me about any of these things. They took Scott’s word on everything. That sounds like a kangaroo court to me. Someday a labor historian will come down and say, boy, that labor purge never should have happened.”