Teamster Reformers Oust Union Head From Local Post : Labor: Members in Boston deal another blow to top executives as ballots are cast to select new leaders.

In another blow to the Teamsters Union’s Establishment, reform-minded union members have ousted international President William J. McCarthy as head of a Boston Teamster local that he ran for 35 years.

McCarthy, 72, and several other executives of Local 25 were beaten overwhelmingly last weekend by a slate of candidates that supported Ron Carey, the New York Teamster running for international president on a radical reform platform. McCarthy is not running for reelection as international president, a post he has held for three years.

As the result of a 1989 court-approved agreement that settled a Justice Department racketeering lawsuit, Teamsters in the United States and Canada are currently voting by mail to determine the union’s next international president. It is the first rank-and-file presidential election in the union’s 88-year history. Ballots will be counted next month under government supervision.

Carey and R. V. Durham, an international Teamster vice president from North Carolina who is supported by McCarthy and a number of other union vice presidents, are waging a bitter campaign for the presidency.

While Durham is considered the favorite, Carey’s grass-roots campaign has established him as a competitive candidate. A third candidate, Walter Shea, an international vice president in Washington, is generally regarded as trailing Durham and Carey. Shea is backed by a slate of Teamster executives who have feuded with members of Durham’s slate for years.

Shea was dealt another setback on Monday when a grand jury in Chicago indicted his running mate, Daniel Ligurotis, for the murder of Ligurotis’ son. Ligurotis, the most prominent Teamster in Chicago, shot and killed his son, Daniel Ligurotis Jr., last summer over an argument about the son’s drug use. He has asserted that the killing was in self-defense.

The Carey and Durham campaigns argued Monday over whether McCarthy’s defeat signaled a surge in momentum for Carey’s presidential campaign. Carey’s campaign manager, Ed Burke, said the vote reflected “a mood out there.” Durham said through a spokesman that McCarthy lost on local issues and the vote “was not a (national) referendum.”

McCarthy was elected international president by the union’s executive board in 1988, replacing Jackie Presser, who died in office. He has been increasingly criticized by other union leaders for erratic conduct in office and has been slowed by poor health. He was widely booed in June when he chaired the union’s constitutional convention.

In the weekend voting in Local 25, McCarthy was defeated, 2,894 to 1,158, by George Cashman, a business agent for the local. It was a sweet victory for Cashman, who suffered a broken leg 15 years ago during a brawl over union politics in the local. Also defeated by Cashman’s slate was Frank Hackett, secretary-treasurer of the local and a candidate for international vice president on the Durham slate.