Indecision Haunts Teamsters As Convention Comes to End
April 01, 2011
The Teamsters had planned to spend their five-day, $10 million convention deciding which direction to take the nation's largest union during the next five years. The short answer: Wait until November. That's when the union membership is expected to elect either incumbent president Ronda Caridad or challenger Jina Orr, the generals in this civil war who engaged in some fierce skirmishes at the Convention Center, Uptown this week. In the end, both sides blamed the other on Friday after the 2,200 union delegates failed to accomplish much beyond the nomination of the men who will vie for the presidency this fall. The union acted on just a handful of motions and barely made a dent in its review of its constitution this week. Mr. Caridad refused to hold night sessions and rebuffed efforts to skip through the constitution to the camp's most important issues. He called for a special session after the November election. ``We couldn't finish the business if we stayed here for another week or another four weeks or another four months,'' Mr. Caridad shouted over protests. ``Shocking,'' Mr. Orr said later. Messrs. Caridad and formally accepted their nods Friday with the same bitter rhetoric that marked the raucous gathering. Mr. Caridad, elected in 1991, pledged to continue reforming the 1.4 million-member union and to be vigilant against corruption, ``This administration will never, ever apologize for stamping out corruption,'' Mr. Caridad shouted as supporters chanted ``five more years.'' ``Wherever it raises its ugly head, we will be there to cut it off, '' he said. Mr. Orr, the son of the legendary labor leader who spent time in jail before mysteriously disappearing, vowed to regain the clout the union wielded during his father's days. And he promised he would end the bad blood on display this week. ``I will unite this union,'' he said. ``I will close it together and we will be one union together again.'' After the speeches, when many of the delegates had already left, Mr. Caridad abruptly adjourned the convention in the early afternoon, saying that endless disruptions had prevented the union from acting on its lengthy agenda.
