Pete Camarata, 1946 - 2014... Working class leader remembered with thoughts on how to build a true rank-and-file union movement
A true leader of the American working class died at the beginning of last week, and the tributes and stories have been coming in slowly, with The New York Times providing its version in its Sunday February 16, 2014 edition. Pete Camarata Remembered, a Labor Beat interview videos, is now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/YpNpCz4W0Rk. Although there have been many tributes since his death on February 9, 2014, Labor Beat is providing this as a reflection on how union reform movements might be organized.
Pete Camarata in 1998. Labor Beat photo by Larry Duncan.PETE CAMARATA � Working Class Hero, Union Reform Leader Passes. September 7, 1946 - February 9, 2014
In these interview excerpts from the 1998 Labor Beat documentary, The Teamsters, Whose Union Is It?, Pete Camarata (co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union) speaks at a time of crisis for the union reform movement. Ron Carey, the TDU-endorsed national President of the Teamsters, had been forced out of office by a government intervention around the question of possible financial corruption in the Carey administration. In this five-minute selection, Camarata alludes to the different stages of Carey's rise, stages which Camarata witnessed as a leading TDU activist, including the UPS strike in 1997.
In his stride as a commentator on the rank-and-file movement, Camarata takes a principled, independent look at the circumstances of Carey's downfall. "Instead of developing a movement, instead of developing activism and empowering rank-and-file members, in many ways the reform movement turned toward high-priced political operatives to make the changes in the union. And it doesn't work. It doesn't make changes, and now it's got us into deep trouble."
It should be noted that nearly all of the rank-and-file/union solidarity movement nationally did not object to the government's intervention into the Teamsters affairs, ultimately removing its president, without any independent due process by the union to investigate Carey and act upon those findings. Too late for justice and union independence of government intervention, a federal court jury in Manhattan on Oct. 12, 2001 found Carey not guilty of the seven counts of perjury for which he was railroaded out of office.
Pete Camarata's observations on one of the most traumatic periods in recent Teamsters history illustrate the importance of his organizing experiences and clarity of analysis. Length - 4:51
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By: BrandonBag
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