Dupage Policy Journal

An audit of the Burr Ridge-based Teamsters Local 731 has revealed alleged impropriety in the union’s leadership. 

Teamsters Local 731 oversees 6,000 union members working locally. The inappropriate spending was brought to light after Local 731 members received a letter from Sean O'Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). 

“The violations and wrongdoing identified above are not a complete list,” O’Brien said in the letter, quoted in a recent WGN report. “It is clear that the Local 731 Executive Board will continue to violate legally required rules and procedures unless they are stopped from doing so by the imposition of this emergency trusteeship.”

Credit card receipts from Local 731 allegedly showed that board officer and President Terrence Hancock bought more than $16,000 worth of personal goods on a union credit card, including a Coach bag and alcohol at local bars and steakhouses. The alcohol alone totaled $15,914.01. Local 731 was also accused of paying themselves nearly $304,000 in unauthorized bonuses from 2018 to 2022. 

“Hancock and the Local 731 Executive Board have a years-long pattern of using their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of the local and its membership, in derogation of their legal duties and responsibilities,” O'Brien's final notice to the officers and members of Teamsters Local 731 said. 

Local 731 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents construction workers, garbage truck drivers and others, a report from the Daily Herald said. Kara Deniz, assistant director of the Department of Strategic Initiatives for the Teamsters, noted that an emergency trustee has been appointed to put things back in order

"This is a process so we can bring things up to the standards our members deserve and expect and so there will be accountability," Deniz said in the Herald report. 

The Local 731 is also accused of 198 inappropriate credit card charges and 47 instances of reimbursement checks without supporting or nonitemized receipts, including two for more than $18,000 each for dinners at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse.

The local issues come after decades of abuse at the top of the Teamsters, which were under the oversight of the federal government from 1988 until 2020. 

“February 17 will be a historic day for the Teamsters because we’re finally ending government interference in our union,” James Hoffa, Teamsters president, told Bloomberg Law in 2020. 

The federal government began oversight of the organization after reaching a settlement in 1988 that avoided a court hearing. The move came after then-federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the union and its backers, which included organized crime members. The accusations included murders that were organized by those involved in the union, as well as extensive racketeering.

Five months later, in July 2020, former Teamsters Vice President John Ulrich was sentenced to 18 months in prison for bribery, a Department of Justice press release said.

The Teamsters have been involved in recent attempts to organize Amazon warehouses across the country, a 2022 BBC report said.

The issue comes to light as former Illinois state Sen. Tom Cullerton was spotted working in Springfield as a lobbyist after serving jail time for taking a “no show” job from the Teamsters while he was serving in the General Assembly, a recent DuPage Policy Journal report said.