This petition calls on the co-chairs of TDU to: 1) Reinstate Jess Lister’s TDU membership, or 2) Provide evidence for the allegations that Jess opposes TDU’s principles

On June 8, 2024, Jess Lister, a UPS Teamster in Griffin, GA, Local 728, renewed her membership online with Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). She received a confirmation email and then a letter in the mail from the TDU co-chairs thanking her for renewing her membership. This letter included a membership card with her handwritten name, valid until June 2025.

Then, on July 2, Jess received an automated email from TDU stating that her dues had been refunded, with Peter Landon listed as a TDU contact to reach out to with any questions. The next day she emailed Landon to ask why her dues had been refunded. TDU responded that evening:

“TDU reserves the right to exclude from membership, and from attendance at the TDU Convention, individuals who oppose TDU and its principles. Accordingly, the TDU co-chairs have reviewed and rejected your application to renew your TDU membership.”

The TDU co-chairs are Anthony Rosario, Sean Orr, Corey Levesque, and Sean Williams.

On Teamsters for a Democratic Union’s website they describe themselves as: “...a grassroots organization of thousands of members across North America, working together to rebuild Teamster Power. We fight for good contracts and oppose concessions and benefit cuts. We bring Teamsters together to enforce our rights and to hold union officials accountable to the members. Not controlled by any official and answerable only to the rank and file, we are an independent voice for working Teamsters.”

Jess has been an active part-time UPS worker for almost 7 years and a shop steward for 5 years. She has been an active TDU member since May 2023 and attended the 2023 TDU convention where she unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the TDU International Steering Committee. Today, Jess is on the Steering Committee of another Teamsters caucus, Teamsters Mobilize. Anyone who has met Jess knows she is a dedicated fighter, unafraid to speak out and hold IBT officials accountable, including the current leadership of Sean O’Brien. It is simply not true that Jess opposes TDU or its stated principles.

In fact, Jess has been courageously calling out TDU’s leadership when they went against TDU’s own stated principles of “oppose concessions and benefit cuts” and “hold union officials accountable to the members.” When Jess and Teamsters Mobilize led a Vote No campaign to oppose the major concessions in the 2023 UPS tentative agreement, such as creating a new lower-paid tier of warehouse workers and wage increases that don’t keep up with inflation, TDU leadership covered over those concessions and sold this tentative agreement to its members in order to maintain their alliance with the O’Brien administration. For this betrayal, Jess called out TDU’s leadership and stood up for the rank and file.

It’s our view that every Teamster for a Democratic Union member, and activists in the broader union reform movement, should oppose the TDU co-chairs’ action to deny membership to an active Teamster on what seems to be the basis of rightfully criticizing the organization’s leadership. This is an unhealthy and very dangerous precedent to set within the largest reform caucus in the Teamsters and it calls this statement into serious question: “Not controlled by any official and answerable only to the rank and file, we are an independent voice for working Teamsters.”

This petition calls on the co-chairs of TDU to: 1) Reinstate Jess Lister’s TDU membership, or 2) Provide evidence for the allegations that Jess opposes TDU’s principles

This petition was started by Teamsters Mobilize (TM), which works to engage, educate and empower workers to transform our union. TM grew out of TDU when, at the 2022 TDU Convention, TDU leadership denied UPS part-timer TDU members’ request to form a UPS Part-Timer Caucus. After that, those TDU members formed Teamsters Mobilize to fight for UPS part-timer demands in the 2023 UPS contract, and then organized a Vote No campaign for the 2023 UPS Contract. Many TM members are also TDU members. If you have any questions, please reach out to TM at info@teamstersmobilize.com.