Goodbye, With Pride

Chuck Whobrey grew up around labor union organizing. Still, serving as the fourth president of Teamsters Local 215 for 32 years — the longest in the union’s history — was not the path he thought he would take. After transitioning into the role in his 30s – and now 67 – Whobrey has stepped down and been replaced by former Secretary-Treasurer Earl Brown.

“I’m looking forward to not quite having such a stressful life,” he says.

Unions have been in Whobrey’s blood since he was young. He remembers joining his father — a business representative with Local 215 who died in 1975 — on the picket line with employees of Alexander Funeral Home as an 11-year-old.

The Benjamin Bosse High School graduate joined the union in 1974 as a seasonal worker for the Department of Parks and Recreation. With his sister’s encouragement, he graduated from Indiana University with a degree in general studies — and a concentration in labor studies — in 1980. After interning at Local 215 in summer 1979, he briefly worked in construction before following in his father’s footsteps as the union’s business representative in 1981. He then became its president in 1993. He also served as the vice president of Teamsters’ Joint Council 94. He still is the union chair of both the Teamsters’ Central States Pen- sion Fund and Health and Welfare Fund.