Herman
Benson spent most of his long life on an endless quest: to make unions better
through democracy. He died last week at age 104 still working to fulfill that
noble goal.
Five decades ago, Benson founded the
Association for Union Democracy, a small but potent organization that has
played a huge role in helping and inspiring reformers in the unending struggle
to oust passive or crooked union officials.
Benson’s crowning achievement came in
1991 when along with labor lawyer Susan Jennik, then AUD’s executive director,
convinced a judge to direct a court-appointed elections officer to oversee
every aspect of the first rank and file election for the top officers of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Reformers were convinced that without
outside supervision the union hierarchy and their local union allies would have
rigged the election to keep the old guard in power. Instead, a clearly-honest
election resulted in the late Ron Carey becoming international president of the
IBT.
Local unions should be building blocks of democracy
with Herman Benson remembered as the visionary of that ideal.
