Teamsters Get Break On Election Costs

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the government must pay for a rerun election to choose a new Teamsters president.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a split decision, overturned a lower court judge who had ordered the union to pay.

The appeals court cited the terms of a consent decree between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the government as the reason for its ruling.

“The decree provides that if the government chooses to supervise the 1996 elections, of which the rerun is conceded to be a part, the government will bear the cost,” the court wrote.

The government spent more than $17.5 million on the Teamsters’ first election in 1996, which was won by Ron Carey.

A court-appointed monitor overturned Carey’s victory after finding that the outcome was affected by an illegal scheme to swap Teamsters contributions to political groups for donations to Carey.

Carey was then barred from running for re-election. He has denied wrongdoing and taken a leave of absence. No date has been set for the new election.