28th National Convention: DAY FIVE

Joe Biden, Danny DeVito Close Teamsters Convention

Solidarity Trumps All on Final Day in Las Vegas

Vice President Joe Biden made one message clear during his keynote speech to Teamsters on the fifth and final day of the 28th National Convention: Teamsters move America.

“Building a better middle class and a ladder to get to it,” Biden said, to a packed convention hall of 1,600 delegates, “is dependent on a strong labor movement.”

Confidence and support from the Vice President capped a week of committee meetings, resolution adoptions, speeches and elections in Las Vegas. Solidarity reigned supreme throughout the convention, perhaps no more prevalent than in a special address from Emmy Award-winning actor Danny DeVito on June 30, 2011. The star of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and director of the acclaimed film “Hoffa” brought the crowd to its feet with a broadside against corporate greed and political reactionaries.

“These bozos want to turn back the clock to when the fat cats paid the workers pennies and took dollars for themselves,” DeVito said. “Should we go back to slavery? Take the vote away from women? Go back to child labor? Give raises to CEOs?

“I got an idea, how about outsourcing the CEOs and bringing the jobs back to the U.S.A.,” he said, to thunderous applause.

Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer C. Thomas Keegel offered an emotional speech of his own as he readied for retirement. The farewell address found Keegel reminiscing on his early days in the union with what is now Teamsters Local 120 in Minneapolis and the inspiration he has found in Teamsters who never back down from a fight or a strike.

“It’s been a fantastic trip,” he said. “I’m so proud to be a Teamster.”

More than 160 delegates from the local union affiliates of Teamsters Joint Council 25 participated passionately in convention proceedings throughout the week. Delegates engaged in nominations and candidate elections for International officers, and strengthened camaraderie throughout daily meetings, meals and reflections on the union.

“Solidarity was in the air each and every day during the greatest convention in the history of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,” said John T. Coli, President of Joint Council 25. “All of the delegates, alternate delegates and guests from Illinois and Indiana should be extremely proud of themselves for working together to make tomorrow better than today for the Teamsters.”

Discover more coverage, photos, videos and stories from each day of the 28th National Convention at www.ChicagoTeamsters.org.

Teamsters Joint Council 25 represents more than 100,000 hardworking men and women throughout Illinois and Indiana.

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