A former professional soccer participant and police officer, Reed led Native 399 for over 20 years, organized staff in cable tv and in commercials and refused to make a "New Media" take care of studios.
Leo T. Reed, the longest-serving secretary-treasurer for the Hollywood Teamsters, has died. He was 83 years outdated.
Teamsters Native 399, which bargains on behalf of 1000's of members within the leisure trade, stated on Monday that Reed died on Sunday from pure causes. “Leo was a fierce labor advocate that devoted 25 years of his profession to the members of Teamsters Native 399,” the Native’s present secretary-treasurer, Steve Dayan, stated in a press release. Dayan added, “Because the longest serving Principal Officer of Teamsters Native 399, he grew our Native from close to chapter to the gold normal it's right this moment. He prioritized organizing and negotiating robust contracts that may function the muse for the advantages, wages and dealing situations we nonetheless construct upon to today. He was good, stern and most significantly, targeted on the betterment of his members.”
Raised in La’ie on the North Shore of Oahu, Reed was the oldest of a number of youngsters and largely raised by his Samoan grandparents. After graduating from Kahuku Excessive Faculty, he attended Colorado State College on a soccer scholarship: “I wished to get off the island and your entire group noticed me off as a result of in 1958, going to Colorado was like going to Mars right this moment,” he informed Native 399’s 2019 winter newsreel in a retrospective article about his profession. Reed went professional in 1961, becoming a member of the Houston Oilers earlier than he was traded to the Denver Broncos, and was among the many first gamers of Samoan descent in American skilled soccer.
After leaving soccer for “private causes,” as he informed the newsreel, he joined the Honolulu Police Division and was assigned to the division’s Metro Squad earlier than he started his union profession. In 1973, Reed was employed as a supervisory enterprise agent for the Hawaii Authorities Staff Affiliation and, two years later, joined the Hawaii Teamsters (Native 996) earlier than relocating to California in 1980 and dealing as a Native 399-affiliated driver. Not lengthy after, he rose to turn into the Native’s enterprise agent.
By the point Reed turned the Native’s secretary-treasurer in 1988, first by appointment by the chief board and one yr later elected to the position, he stated the Native was “41 thousand dollars within the pink.” Throughout his tenure, he targeted on organizing staff in commercials, low-budget productions and cable tv tasks. “Cash began rolling in and extra members began becoming a member of,” he recalled to the 2019 newsreel. Reed refused to make a “New Media” take care of the studios as a result of he didn’t need to comply with decrease wage requirements, thereby forcing particular person “New Media” tasks to craft one-off offers with the Native.
After he turned director of the movement image theatrical commerce division on the Teamsters in 1994, Reed traveled across the nation to different Locals, aiming for considerably standardized wages in order that employers would have a tougher time shifting work to different jurisdictions to chop prices. Beginning in 1986 he additionally served as director of the Movement Image Trade Pension and Well being Plans, and in 1988 turned the chairman of the Primary Crafts. After eight three-year phrases as secretary-treasurer, Reed misplaced out to Dayan in a 2013 election.
For a number of years, Native 399 has provided a scholarship fund in Reed’s identify for graduating highschool seniors who've no less than one mum or dad belonging to the Native. The fund presents monetary help to pick college students attending a four-year school and college in addition to a coaching and vocational program.
Reed is survived by his spouse, 5 youngsters, 16 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.