Ronald Robert Carey (March 22, 1936 – December 11, 2008) was an American labor leader who served as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1991 to 1997. He was the first Teamster General President elected by a direct vote of the membership."Teamster Chief Won't Seek Re-election in '91." Associated Press. October 11, 1990.Kilborn, Peter. "Teamsters' New Chief Vows to Put Members First." The New York Times. December 13, 1991. He ran for re-election in 1996 and won, but in 1997 federal investigators discovered that the Carey campaign had engaged in an illegal donation kickback scheme to raise more than $700,000 for the 1996 re-election effort.Greenhouse, Steven. "Behind Turmoil For Teamsters, Rush for Cash." The New York Times. September 21, 1997. His re-election was overturned, Carey was disqualified from running for Teamsters president again, and he was subsequently expelled from the union for life.Greenhouse, Steven. "An Overseer Bars Teamster Leader From Re-Election." The New York Times. November 18, 1997.Greenhouse, Steven. "Beleaguered Carey Steps Aside As President of the Teamsters." The New York Times. November 26, 1997. Although a federal jury ultimately cleared him of all wrongdoing in the scandal, the lifetime ban remained in place until his death.Crowe, Kenneth. "The Vindication of Ron Carey." Union Democracy Review. December 2001-January 2002 issue.Greenhouse, Steven. "Former Teamsters President Is Cleared of Lying Charges." The New York Times.October 13, 2001.
Early life Carey, the second of six children (all of them boys), was born in Long Island City in March 1936 to Joseph and Loretta Carey.Asbury, Edith Evans. "Delivery Strike Leader; Ronald Robert Carey." The New York Times. November 21, 1974.McFadden, Robert D. "New Teamster Chief's Motto: Honest Work for Honest Pay." The New York Times. December 15, 1991.Kilborn, Peter T. "Carey Takes the Wheel." The New York Times. June 21, 1992.Greenhouse, Steven. "Teamsters Chief, Despite Victory, Is Remaining Defiant." The New York Times. December 16, 1996. His father was a driver for United Parcel Service (UPS). Carey's father had to work Sundays and Christmas Day (often without pay), which taught Ron about workplace injustice, but his father also took him to union meetings where Ron learned about workplace change and how to run a democratic union. Raised in Astoria and Long Island City, he graduated from Haaren High School in Manhattan and was offered entry into St. John's University on a swimming scholarship. But he turned down college, enlisting in the Marines in 1953 and serving until 1955.Greenhouse, Steven. "Ron Carey, Who Led Teamsters Reforms, Dies at 72." The New York Times. December 13, 2008. At the age of 18, he married Barbara Murphy, a girl who lived in the apartment above him. The Careys remained married until Ron's death; they had five children.
Carey became a UPS driver and joined the Teamsters in 1956. He and his father pooled their money and bought a home for both families in Kew Gardens, Queens.Although Joseph and Loretta Carey separated when Ron Carey was in his 20s, Joseph Carey continued to live in the house until his death. Joseph and Loretta Carey died within three days of one another in 1992. See: Kilborn, "Carey Takes the Wheel," The New York Times, June 21, 1992. He ran for and was elected shop steward of the 7,000-member Local 804 in 1958 because he felt members weren't getting the services their dues paid for. He was elected secretary of the local in 1965. After several unsuccessful campaigns, Carey was elected Local 804 president in November 1967. He earned a reputation as a hard bargainer (by 1977, he had negotiated salary increases which doubled his members' 1968 hourly wages) and for being free from graft and the influence of organized crime.Brill, Steven. The Teamsters. Paperback ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979. Under his leadership, in November 1967 Local 804 became one of the first Teamster locals whose members qualified for a pension after 25 years of employment regardless of age. He also led long but successful strikes in 1968, 1971, 1974, and 1982.Phalon, Richard. "Parcel Strike Is Spreading Into Jersey." The New York Times. August 4, 1970; Whitney, Craig R. "U.S. Acts on Union in Parcel Strike." The New York Times. September 24, 1970; Perlmutter, Emanuel. "United Parcel Strike Ends After 87 Days." The New York Times. November 21, 1974; Goldman, Ari. "U.P.S. Workers State Walkout After Dispute." The New York Times. September 10, 1982. He was re-elected eight times, winning each campaign by landslide margins. Although Local 804 had always negotiated its own contract with UPS, the national union forced the local to participate in the national master contract in 1979. Carey was named a negotiator for the national master contract, but was not included in the Teamsters' national bargaining team. In 1987, Carey sued to overturn a provision of the union's constitution which permitted rejection of a proposed contract only by a two-thirds majority. The union changed the provision to permit a majority to reject a proposed contract.
During his tenure as Local 804 president, Carey took two years of correspondence courses at home, two years of courses at the Xavier Institute for Labor Management Relations (a highly influential Catholic labor school), and six months of labor management courses at Cornell University.
Steven Brill devoted an entire chapter to Carey in his 1978 book, The Teamsters, which drew attention to the local leader and launched his national career within the Teamsters.
The Road to the Teamster General Presidency
Election campaign In 1989, Carey announced that he would run for president of the Teamsters union."Queens Teamster Seeks Union's Top Office." Associated Press. September 18, 1989. Carey was highly critical of the UPS contract that the Teamsters, led by interim General President William J. McCarthy, had negotiated in 1990.Ravo, Nick. "Unusual Labor Tension at U.P.S." The New York Times. July 28, 1990. Carey's local represented more than 6,600 members at UPS, making it largest Teamsters local within the company, and Carey's criticism of the contract carried great weight within the international union.Ravo, Nick. "Labor Pact Is Ratified At U.P.S." The New York Times. August 14, 1990. Carey also criticized McCarthy for refusing to call for a strike vote prior to ratification, for not adequately communicating the "concessionary" nature of the contract to Teamster members, and for helping oversee the loss of nearly 800,000 Teamsters members in the past decade.Johnson, Dirk. "All Unions Have Stake In Teamsters' Elections." The New York Times. January 20, 1991. In mid-October 1990, McCarthy, suffering from health problems and losing support within the union for his handling of various contract negotiations, announced he would not seek a full term as Teamsters president. Endorsed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a member-led reform caucus, Carey ran for General President on a pledge to eliminate corruption and organized crime's influence in the union.Carey was not a member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union. See: McFadden, "New Teamster Chief's Motto: Honest Work for Honest Pay," The New York Times, December 15, 1991; Kilborn, "Carey Takes the Wheel," The New York Times, June 21, 1992. Utilizing TDU's national mailing list, he raised $200,000 in mostly small contributions from Teamsters members and criss-crossed the country by car to meet with the union's membership.
The December 1991 election was the first in which Teamsters members elected the General President by direct secret ballot rather than through delegates hand-picked by local leaders. Other candidates in the election included: R.V. Durham, leader of the Teamsters in North Carolina and generally considered the front-runner in the campaign (he had the backing of a majority of the union's executive board); Walter Shea, a veteran union staffer from Washington, D.C.; and Carey. Although James P. Hoffa, son of disappeared Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and a long-time Teamsters union attorney, tried to enter the race for president, a federal official ruled that he did not qualify under the union's eligibility rules."Hoffa's Son Ineligible for Race." Associated Press. April 25, 1991. Carey and his slate (which included a candidate for secretary-treasurer and 13 vice presidencies) swept the election.Ten of the 13 candidates running on Carey's slate were members of TDU. The Carey slate did not contest three of the seats on the Teamsters executive board. See: Kilborn, "Carey Takes the Wheel," The New York Times, June 21, 1992. Carey won with 48.5 percent of the vote to Durham's 33.2 percent and Shea's 18.3 percent. But turnout was low: Less than half the membership voted, and only 16 percent of the union's total membership voted for Carey.Gerthwith, Jeff and Weiner, Tim. "Despite Change, Reform Is Slow In the Teamsters." The New York Times. June 28, 1993.Kilborn, Peter T. "Teamsters Chief Raids Regional Offices." The New York Times. March 22, 1994. Carey vowed to reduce the general president's salary, end the practice of permitting union officers to draw multiple salaries, no longer endorse Republicans for president, and seek federal legislation mandating universal health care.
First term Changes and challenges came quickly during Carey's first term. Within days of his inauguration as union president, he replaced a large number of top staff at the union's headquarters, and within a few weeks sold the union's two airplanes and started charging staff for lunches in the union cafeteria.Kilborn, Peter T. "Teamsters Chief Expects Convention Challenges." The New York Times. July 15, 1996. He twice ordered his own salary cut, from $225,000 in 1991 to $175,000 in 1994. In his first few months in office, Carey defeated a disaffiliation attempt by flight attendants working for Northwest Airlines (and later refused to agree to a contract in which the Teamsters would win a 30 percent ownership stake in Northwest in return for $886 million in contract concessions), renegotiated a contract for truck drivers (carhaulers) who ferried automobiles from ports and factories to dealers, and defeated an attempt by the Safeway grocery store chain to contract out its trucking operations. Carey was also active politically. He was the first Teamsters president to testify widely in front of Congress. He vigorously opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and pledged political retaliation against members of Congress who did.Kilborn, Peter T. "Encouraged but Still Wary, Union Leaders Gather." The New York Times. February 15, 1993; Jehl, Douglas. "The Free-Trade Accord; President Begins A Lobbying Blitz for Trade Accord." The New York Times. November 9, 1993; Bradsher, Keith. "After Vote, Labor Is Bitter But Big Business Is Elated." The New York Times. November 18, 1993; Apple, R.W., Jr. "Unions Faltering in Reprisals Against Trade Pact Backers." The New York Times. February 21, 1994.