I was shocked and distressed when Tim Sylvester
lost the presidency of New York Teamsters Local 804 on Dec. 15.
I was elated when I realized this was just
the first round in Sylvester’s bid to become the next General President of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters; that he was still in the fight.
In
effect incumbent General President James P. Hoffa won the opening round of the
2016 election when a slate obviously aligned with him beat Sylvester by 70
votes.
Sylvester
is going into the second round, the final round, with the continued support of
Teamsters United and Teamsters for a Democratic Union. The preliminary for the
final round will be at the 2016 Teamsters Convention in June at which Sylvester
must win enough votes to be on the ballot in the
November-December 2016 election--no sure thing when you are opposing an
entrenched incumbent.
There
are two routes to the presidency for Sylvester:
First:
Hoffa stumbling into a scandal so serious he is forced from office;
Second
and most likely: Sylvester generating enough support from Teamsters disgusted
with the Hoffa administration along with somehow tapping into the vast reservoir
of rank and filers (over a million) who haven’t bothered to vote in past IBT
elections.
vvv
vvv
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