The Teamsters hired, then fired, the face of the infamous extreme right rally in Charlottesville

Earlier this year, the Teamsters International Brotherhood briefly used a man whose image was synonymous with the infamous “Unite The Right” rally that brought white supremacists to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

The Teamsters hired Peter Cytanovic for administrative work at the headquarters of the union in Washington, DC, before saying goodbye during his trial period, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. The union did not know Cytovic’s past when he entered on board, the source said.

More than seven years earlier, Cytanovic, then university student, traveled from Reno, Nevada, and marched among the neo -Nazis in the manifestation of “alternative law” on the grounds of the University of Virginia. Getty’s dramatic photo of a Citanovic shouts and covered with white pole, which then 20 years, his face illuminated by Tiki’s torches, perhaps became the most emblematic image of the manifestation. Since then he has said he is not a white nationalist.

Cytanovic refused to discuss his period with the Teamsters during a brief exchange outside his house on Wednesday.

“They can suck Dick,” he said about the union, “and you can get out of here.”

The Teamsters refused to comment on the matter.

News themezone learned that Cytovic told Teamsters that he had previously worked as organizer of the International Union of Service Employees, another power in the labor movement. Seiu declined to comment.

Anadolu through Getty Images

The hiring of Cytovic in one of the largest and most powerful American unions emerged publicly for the first time in an anonymous position of Reddit last month. Someone who identified himself as an employee at the Teamsters headquarters said he learned of Charlottesville’s trip of his new co -worker after looking for his name on Google. The poster said they informed their findings to a manager, and Cytovic was fired.

On Tuesday, John Palmer, a member of the Teamsters Executive Board, shared on Facebook a letter he had sent to the president of the union, Sean O’Brien, asking critical questions about hiring, including the way in which the background verification was made. Palmer is a vocal critic of O’Brien who announced a career against the titular president in the 2026 elections of the union.

“When we hire someone in the international, they examine people and at least three or four people are needed,” Palmer told News themezone, referring to the main union, instead of their local affiliates. “I can’t talk to the research process.”

Cytanovic has maintained since the days immediately after the Charlottesville rally that “is not the racist angry [people] See in that photo. “He said he was attracted to the demonstration in large part to defend the statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Read as a symbol of white and European heritage.

“I hope that people recognize that being part of the alternative right does not make me an evil Nazi, and that being pro-blade at this time is dangerous, and being pro-white does not mean that it is unknown any other thing,” he told Nevada’s. Channel 2 news After the rally.

That article described Cytaovic as a “White Nationalist self -proclaimed”, a label that resigned in 2019 interview With The Beaver, a publication in the London School of Economics, where Cytovic was studying for a master’s degree at that time.

“I thought that white nationalism at that time was American nationalism, which was proud of our history without condemning,” he said. “Without being an atomized individual, being part of a broader community. I am ethnically American.”

Cytanovic also said that he and other rally participants are to blame for the death of Heather Heyer, the counterprotester who was killed when a extreme right -wing protester led to a car to a crowd on the weekend of the rally.

“Cause pain. There is nothing I can do to change that now,” he said.

The viral image of Cytovic 2017 has been persecuted professionally and academically for years, long before its short time with the Teamsters.

As Christopher Mathias de News themezone reported in 2021, Cytovic joined the Nevada National Guard, but it was quickly torn off Before attending basic training. Although he had approved criminal controls and fingerprints, a guard spokesman said Cytaovic was expelled due to his “affiliations.”

Before that, other students from the University of Nevada, Reno, had pressed for their expulsion, although the school administration resisted such calls by land of freedom of expression. However, Cytovic finished resignation From his work with a campus companion service that offers free trips to students at night.