At issue is a scandal that now threatens to go beyond the internecine politics of the Teamsters. It may also engulf other unions, including the AFL-CIO–and possibly the Clinton White House. The dispute centers on Carey’s 1996 re-election race for the Teamsters presidency. Carey denies knowing of any malfeasance in his campaign, but three political consultants who helped his effort pleaded guilty last week to federal fraud and conspiracy counts for shuffling moneys between the Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO and the Carey campaign. Among the charges: a shell game in which a Dem-ocratic official–unnamed in the indictment–allegedly agreed to seek contributors to the Carey campaign in exchange for Teamsters donations to the DNC. More indictments could be on the way.
When Carey took over the Teamsters in 1992, he successfully packaged himself as a reformer. (The previous three heads of the union had wound up in jail.) The press praised the New Yorker for abandoning the limousines and the mob ties. And Carey seemed to be effective. Just last month the former driver for United Parcel Service led a nationwide strike against the shipping giant. It was a risky gambit–but the union won pay hikes and more full-time jobs.
A Hoffa win, says Carey, would be a return to the bad old days. Most labor leaders–and Clinton officials–agree and hope that Carey survives. But they’realso nervously watching their own backs. One of the Carey aides who pleaded guilty, direct-mail guru Martin Davis, was part of a firm that did direct-mail solicitations for the president’s re-election. Fed-eral prosecutors want to know if anyonein the president’s orbit was in on the she-nanigans. ““We wouldn’t go near stuff like this,’’ insists one senior Clintonite. But if they did, then the White House will have yet another mess on its hands.
