U.S. Ordered to Pay for Teamsters Election

The government must pay for a rerun election to choose a new Teamsters president, a federal appeals court ruled. In a split decision, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York overturned a lower court judge who had ordered the union to pay. The appeals court cited terms of a 1989 consent decree between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Justice Department. 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 barred from running for reelection. He has denied wrongdoing and taken a leave of absence. No date has been set for the new election.