The Latest Breaking News from Teamsters

Markwayne Mullin, a former MMA fighter, argues with union’s Sean O’Brien as Bernie Sanders seeks order in Senate hearing

The Checks and Balances Letter delivers news and information from Ballotpedia’s Administrative State Project, including pivotal actions at the federal and state levels related to the separation of powers, due process, and the rule of law.

How driving delivery trucks and tour buses led the late Mike Davis to write his landmark work of L.A. history

CHICAGO — Former Teamsters union boss John Coli Sr. once basked in a reputation as a tough-nosed, nationally known organized labor figure, rubbing elbows with the state’s political and business elite, running up $15,000 tabs at Chicago steakhouses, and cruising around the Mediterranean on other people’s yachts.

A once-powerful labor leader in Chicago has been sentenced to 19 months in federal prison for extorting $325,000 in cash payments from the head of a film studio in the city

The feds enlisted Coli as a cooperator in 2019, just as a set of aggressive investigations into old-school, Chicago-style corruption turned public. He was seen as particularly significant given his ties to former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, former Chicago Mayors Richard M. Daley and…

Coli admitted in 2019 he’d taken $325,000 in cash payments from Cinespace Chicago Film Studios between 2014 and 2017. Worried at one point the money would stop, Coli told Cinespace president Alex Pissios, “I will f---ing have a picket line up here, and everything will stop.”

John Coli once bragged, “You can cut my fingers off, I wouldn’t talk.” Two years later, Coli pleaded guilty and formally agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

350,000 union workers are pushing for stronger workplace protections and wages. If the shipping giant rejects them, they will be ‘hitting the pavement’