{{short description|American labor organization}} {{Infobox union |name = Teamsters for a Democratic Union |location = United States/Canada |affiliations = Teamster Reformers |num_members = |full_name = |native_name = |image = Ken paff 1.jpg |caption = |founded = June 5, 1976 |dissolved = |merged_into = |headquarters = [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]] |key_people = [[Ken Paff]] |website = {{url|www.tdu.org}} |footnotes = }}'''Teamsters for a Democratic Union''' ('''TDU''') is a [[grassroots]] rank and file organization whose goal is to reform the [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters]] (IBT), or Teamsters Union. The organization has chapters nationwide in the United States and Canada.

==History== TDU was started in [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]], in the 1970s, as an alliance of [[socialists]] who had taken Teamster jobs and a layer of [[militant]] truck drivers who had been organizing against contract concessions,<ref>{{cite web |title=Teamsters for a Democratic Union |url=https://rfs.dsausa.org/case-studies/teamsters-for-a-democratic-union/ |website=Democratic Socialists of America |accessdate=8 July 2023 |archive-date=16 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230616023920/https://rfs.dsausa.org/case-studies/teamsters-for-a-democratic-union/ |url-status=live}}</ref> after the federal government exposed extensive corruption in the union, which included leadership raiding union-held pension funds, collusion with organized crime, and collusive collective bargaining between union officials and employers at the expense of union members.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marvit |first1=Moshe |title=A Lesson on How to Unite Across Race and Class From… the Teamsters |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/a-lesson-on-how-to-unite-across-race-and-class-from-the-teamsters/ |website=The Nation |accessdate=14 December 2016}}</ref>

==TDU activists== * [[Dan La Botz]] * [[Pete Camarata]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Douglas |title=Pete Camarata, Who Fought Fellow Teamsters for Reforms, Dies at 67 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/us/pete-camarata-who-fought-fellow-teamsters-for-reforms-dies-at-67.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=15 February 2014}}</ref> * [[Thomas Geoghegan]] * [[Paul Alan Levy]], general counsel 1984–1999<ref name="Goldberg 2024">{{cite journal |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5015681 |title=At the Intersection of Federal Labor Law and Rank-and-File Activism: A Legal History of Teamsters for a Democratic Union |author=Michael J. Goldberg |journal=[[Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law]] |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=177–231 |date=December 13, 2024 |access-date=January 5, 2025 |ssrn=5015681 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.5015681 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> * [[Ken Paff]] * [[Sandy Pope]], 2011 candidate for IBT president

==Endorsements== In November 2019, TDU members voted to endorse the Teamsters United O'Brien/Zuckerman slate for International President and Secretary/Treasurer.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Levin |first1=David |title=The Teamster Revolt Against the Hoffa Era |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/teamsters-democratic-union-tdu-hoffa-ups |website=Jacobin Magazine |accessdate=16 January 2020}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union by [[Dan La Botz]], [[Penguin Random House]], 1992 * Rebel Rank and File, Edited by Aaron Brenner, [[Robert Brenner]], and Cal Winslow, [[Verso Books]], 2010

==External links== *[http://www.tdu.org/ Teamsters for a Democratic Union Homepage] *[http://www.teamsters.org/ International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Homepage]

[[Category:International Brotherhood of Teamsters]] [[Category:Organizations established in 1976]] [[Category:Organizations based in Detroit]] [[Category:Trade union reform movements]] [[Category:1976 establishments in Ohio]]

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