Civic, labor leader denied rights with outrageous punishment

by JUAN ANDRADE

Chicago Sun-Times

In our American system of jus­tice, we go to great lengths to ensure that any punishment fits’ the crime. And, I believe we can all agree, one of the most se­vere forms of punishment an American can suffer is the loss of any of his or her constitutional rights.

But even before a person’s rights are revoked in America, one must first be accused, tried, con­victed and sentenced in a court of law. Only the courts should have that power.

Yet it can happen and it is hap­pening right now to an upstanding, good and decent local civic and la­bor leader, in whose case the pun­ishment is the crime.

Bill Hogan Jr., 60, has been banned for life from the Interna­tional Brotherhood of Teamsters by order of a nongovernmental en­tity known as the Independent Re­view Board. The board is unilater­ally empowered to ban Teamsters from their union, without so much as civil or criminal charges being filed against them. A person can appeal the board’s decision in fed­eral court, but, unlike Hogan, most just accept their fate instead of spending their life’s savings fight­ing to have their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and as­sociation restored.

The ban also effectively pro­hibits any member of the Team­sters union from associating with Hogan about union, personal or so­cial issues, under threat of suspen­sion or expulsion - which on its face violates union members’ con­stitutional rights, too.

The board can ban Teamsters who have been found guilty of a crime or of associating with the mob. But no one has accused Hogan of committing a crime, nor with having any association with the mob. The board merely ac­cused him of negotiating a “sub­standard” contract in Las Vegas, and based its ban on that - disre­garding the fact that as president of the Teamsters Joint Council in Chicago, Hogan lacked the author­ity to negotiate a contract in Las Vegas.

Hogan does admit that he was contacted by the negotiating par­ties, which is permissible. But the two parties broke off the negotia­tions before an agreement on a contract could be reached, which was unfortunate, because the nego­tiated pay rate had actually been _increased from $7 to $11 per hour. Exactly what was substandard about that increase is beyond me. But more important, how can a non-existing contract be substan­dard?

At its peak, there were 110,000 Teamsters in Chicago when Hogan served as president of the Joint Council, and he immediately re­duced his own compensation by $80,000 annually because Hogan’s life has been about fighting for jus­tice and fairness for workers, not about enriching himself. His father helped start the union in 1939, so the family has strong ties to a countless number of Teamsters.

Yet, under the ban, Hogan can­not attend the weddings of his godchildren, the wakes of lifelong friends, or the baptism of children born to parents Hogan brought into the union because Teamsters may try to discuss union business with him and lose their jobs. He can’t play on his old Teamsters softball team because someone may ask him about a union issue and get fired for it.

Hogan’s -son Robert is head of Teamsters Local 714 and Hogan can’t ask him, “How are things at work?” for fear of getting him fired. Incredibly, anybody who wants to become a Teamster has to effectively forfeit his or her right to associate with Bill Hogan. Why should any American be prohib­ited from associating with another American, especially with someone like Bill Hogan, who has never even been accused of a crime?

As a prominent civic leader, Hogan has served as president of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, using his exten­sive business savvy and problem solving ability to help bring trade shows, conventions and other at­tractions to the city. As a result, visitors have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Chicago, and countless workers have’ gotten hundreds of thousands of hours of work at good wages. Hogan is still an active member of the Bureau’s board of directors and its executive committee, and is going before a federal appeals court in New York asking that the ban be lifted.

Hogan is now due the same jus­tice and fairness that he has al­ways sought for others, and hope­fully, the appeals court will rule in his favor.