Q: How did the Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) originally merge with the Teamsters Union?
A: In 2004, the GCIU faced dwindling membership as a result of plant closures and a lack of organizing. North America’s last dedicated publishing and printing union was down to only 70,000 members. As such, GCIU President George Tedeschi and International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) General President Jim Hoffa negotiated and ratified a Merger Agreement.
The merger and Merger Agreement were put to a vote of the GCIU membership – a majority of whom approved. On January 1, 2005, the merger between the GCIU and the IBT took effect.
At the time Tedeschi said, “We know that by becoming an IBT conference, the GCIU will have a powerful new alliance for organizing and negotiating decent wages and benefits for our members.”
Q: What was the result of the merger?
A: The Graphic Communications Conference (GCC) was created as part of the IBT. Tedeschi — later Kurt Freeman and Steven Nobles — led the GCC conference.
The IBT agreed to let the GCC keep the GCC Teamsters’ dues so the conference would have the resources it needed to grow. But Tedeschi and Freeman never appreciated the power of the Teamsters to advance their legislative agenda or organize new members. As a result, the GCC continued its decline financially and organizationally, leaving it with less than 17,000 dues-paying members today.
When Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien took office in 2022, he sought information on why the GCC was so weak and ineffective. What he found was disturbing. Instead of focusing on improving membership, the GCC had a pension in crisis and no strategies to counter rapidly consolidating industries. Freeman and his cronies were literally missing in action.
Q: Why did Kurt Freeman decide to terminate the Merger Agreement with the Teamsters?
A: Freeman and his expensive D.C. legal team reacted negatively when they were called to account by Teamsters leaders for standing idly by while the GCC hemorrhaged members, money, and influence in the industry. The critical and declining state of the GCC demanded changes, but Freeman and his team were apparently only concerned with keeping their salaries and control of the GCC treasury.
Freeman wanted to maintain the status quo and not make any changes to the GCC. That is why immediately after the close of an arbitration hearing on May 19, 2023 – before briefs were filed or a decision was issued by the Arbitrator – the GCC unilaterally withdrew an order requiring the Merger Agreement that created the GCC to stay in effect. They then declared in writing to General President O’Brien that the Merger Agreement had been terminated.
The reason for the GCC’s actions was obvious: approximately 1,500 members of GCC Locals in Boston, New York, Iowa, and Montreal had already voted to directly affiliate with the IBT under the Merger Agreement, and they feared losing more.
Q: Were GCC members allowed to vote on terminating the Merger Agreement with the Teamsters?
A: No, GCC members were denied their democratic right to vote on terminating the Merger Agreement. Unlike when the GCC membership was allowed to vote on the merger and Merger Agreement with the Teamsters in 2004, members were denied the right in 2023 to decide whether the Merger Agreement should have been terminated.
Q: If the GCC is no longer part of the Teamsters, what’s the GCC’s future?
A: Freeman and his cronies rushed to change the name of the GCC to the “Printing Packaging & Production Workers Union” (PPPWU). This new “PPPWU” has no money, provides no services to members, and is continuing its decline as Nobles and his crew wring every last dollar out of the workers they represent.
It is clear that the GCC is incapable of surviving on its own. Once they rename your union, they will obviously attempt to shop your organization around for another merger partner.
Q: What can GCC members do to stop this power grab and remain members of the Teamsters?
A: Sign authorization and membership cards when asked to do so by IBT organizers. This will permit the IBT to file a petition with the NLRB to allow you to vote for Teamsters representation with your employer.