Teamsters - eNotes

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Teamsters

http://www.enotes.com/topic

Teams

International Brother

Founded 1903

Members 1,402,878 (20

Country United States a

AffiliationChange to Win

Labour CongreKey people James P. Hoffa

Officelocation

Washington, D

Website www.teamster

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approximately 1.4 million meBrotherhood of Teamsters, Cis a member of the Change to

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Country nd Canada

AffiliationFederation and Canadian

sKey people , General President

Officelocation

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ood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union 1903 by the merger of several local and resents a diverse membership ofblue-collahe public and private sectors. The union ha

bers in 2008.[1] Formerly known as the Inauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of AWin Federation and Canadian Labour Con

Teamsters

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Founded 1903

Members 1,402,878 (2008)[1]

Country United States and Canada

AffiliationChange to Win Federation and Canadian

Labour CongressKey people James P. Hoffa, General President

Officelocation

Washington, D.C.

Website www.teamsters.org

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Contents

1 Historyo 1.1 Early historyo 1.2 Organizing and growth during the Great Depression

o 1.3 World War II and the post-war periodo 1.4 The influence of organized crimeo 1.5 The rise, fall and disappearance of Jimmy Hoffao 1.6 Decentralization, deregulation and drifto 1.7 Internal and external challengeso 1.8 Recent history

2 Political donations 3 Strikes 4 Organization

o 4.1 General Presidento 4.2 Membershipo 4.3 Divisions

5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

History

Early history

TheAmerican Federation of Labor (AFL) had helped form local unions of teamsterssince 1887. In November 1898, the AFL organized the Team Drivers' InternationalUnion (TDIU).[2][3] In 1901, a group of Teamsters in Chicago, Illinois, broke from theTDIU and formed the Teamsters National Union.[2] The new union permitted onlyemployees, teamster helpers, and owner-operators owning only a single team to join,unlike the TDIU (which permitted large employers to be members), and was moreaggressive than the TDIU in advocating higher wages and shorter hours.[2] Claimingmore than 28,000 members in 47 locals, its president,Albert Young, applied for

membership in the AFL. The AFL asked the TDIU to merge with Young's union to form anew, AFL-affiliated union and the two groups did so in 1903, creating the InternationalBrotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).[3] Cornelius Shea was elected the new union's firstpresident.[2][3] Shea's election was a tumultuous one. Shea effectively controlled theconvention because the Chicago localsrepresenting nearly half the IBT'smembership[4]were united in their support for his candidacy. Shea was opposed byJohn Sheridan, president of the Ice Drivers' Union of Chicago. Sheridan and George
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Innes, president of the TDIU, accused Shea of embezzlement in an attempt to preventhis election.[5] Shea won election on August 8, 1903, by a vote of 605 to 480. Edward L.Turley of Chicago was elected secretary-treasurer and Albert Young generalorganizer.[6][7]

The union, like most unions within theAmerican Federation of Labor (AFL) at the time,was largely decentralized, with a number of local unions that governed themselves

autonomously and tended to look only after their own interests in the geographicaljurisdiction in which they operated.[8][9][10] The Teamsters were vitally important to thelabor movement, for a strike or sympathy strike by the Teamsters could paralyze themovement of goods throughout the city and bring a strike into nearly everyneighborhood.[4] It also meant that Teamsters leaders were able to demand bribes inorder to avoid strikes, and control of a Teamsters local could bring organized crimesignificant revenues. During Shea's presidency, the entire Teamsters union wasnotoriously corrupt.[11][12][13] Noted labor historian John R. Commons famouslyconcluded that during this time, the Teamsters were less a union and more a criminalorganization.[14]

Several major strikes occupied the union in its first three years. In November 1903,Teamsters employed by the Chicago City Railway went out on strike. Shea attempted tostop sympathy strikes by other Teamster locals, but three locals walked out andeventually disaffiliated over the sympathy strike issue.[15]A sympathy strike in supportof 18,000 striking meat cutters in Chicago in July 1904 led to riots before the extensiveuse ofstrikebreakers led Shea to force his members back to work (leading to thecollapse of the meat cutters' strike).[11][16][17] In the midst of the strife in 1904, Sheawas re-elected by acclamation on August 8, 1904, at the Teamsters convention inCincinnati, Ohio.[17] Under his leadership, the union had expanded to nearly 50,000members in 821 locals in 300 cities, making the Teamsters one of the largest unions in

the United States.

[11]

In 1905, 10,000 Teamsters struckin support oflocked out tailorsat Montgomery Ward, and eventually more than 25,000 Teamsters were on the picketline.[18][19][20] But when local newspapers discovered that Shea was living in a localbrothel, kept a 19-year-old waitress as a mistress, and had spent the strike hostingparties, public support for the strike collapsed and the strike ended on August 1,1905.[18][20][21][22] Despite the revelations, Shea won re-election on August 12, 1905, bya vote of 129 to 121.[23]

Shea was re-elected again in 1905 and 1906, although significant challenges to hispresidency occurred each time.[24] Shea's first trial on charges stemming from the 1905Montgomery Ward strike ended in a mistrial.[25] However, during the 1906 re-election

Shea had promised that he would resign the presidency once his trial had ended.[26] Buthe did not, and most union members withdrew their support for him.[26] Daniel J. Tobinof Boston was elected Shea's successor by a vote of 104 to 94 in August 1907.[27]
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Organizing and growth during the Great Depression

Tobin was president of the Teamsters from 1907 to 1952. Although he faced oppositionin his re-election races in 1908, 1909 and 1910, he never faced opposition again untilhis retirement in 1952.[28]

The Teamsters began to expand dramatically and mature organizationally under Tobin.

He pushed for the development of "joint councils" to which all local unions were forcedto affiliate. Varying in geographical and industrial jurisdiction, the joint councils becameimportant incubators for up-and-coming leadership and negotiating master agreementswhich covered all employers in a given industry. Tobin also actively discouraged strikesin order to bring discipline to the union and encourage employers to sign contracts, andfounded and edited the union magazine, the International Teamster.[8][9][10][29][30] UnderTobin, the Teamsters also first developed the "regional conference" system (developedby Dave Beckin Seattle), which provided stability, organizing strength, and leadershipto the international union.[9]

Tobin undertook longjurisdictional battles with many unions during this period. Fierce

disputes occurred between the Teamsters and the Gasoline State Operators' NationalCouncil (an AFL federal union of gas station attendants), the InternationalLongshoremen's Association, the Retail Clerks International Union, and the Brotherhoodof Railway Clerks.[9][31] The most significant disagreement, however, was with theUnited Brewery Workers over the right to represent beer wagon drivers. While theTeamsters lost this battle in 1913, when the AFL awarded jurisdiction to the Brewers,they won when the issue came before the AFL Executive Board again in 1933, when theBrewers were still recovering from their near-elimination during Prohibition.[9][28][32][33]

The raids and new member organizing in the 1930s led to significant membershipincreases. Teamster membership stood at just 82,000 in 1932. Tobin took advantage of

the wave of pro-union sentiment engendered by the passage of the National IndustrialRecovery Act, and by 1935 union membership had increased nearly 65 percent to135,000. By 1941, Tobin had a dues-paying membership of 530,000making theTeamsters the fastest-growing labor union in the United States.[9]

One of the most significant events in union history occurred in 1934. A group of radicalsin Local 574 in Minneapolisled by Farrell Dobbs, Carl Skoglund, and the Dunnebrothers (Ray, Miles and Grant), all members of the Trotskyite Communist League of

Americabegan successfully organizing coal truck drivers in the winter of 1933.[34]

Tobin, an ardent anti-communist,[35] opposed their efforts and refused to support their1933 strike.[34] Local 574 struck again in 1934, leading to several riots over a nine-day

period in May.[34] When the employers' association reneged on the agreement, Local574 resumed the strike, although it ended again after nine days when martial law wasdeclared by Governor Floyd B. Olson.[34]Although Local 574 won a contract recognizingthe union and which broke the back of the anti-union Citizens Alliance in Minneapolis,Tobin expelled Local 574 from the Teamsters. Member outrage was extensive, and in

August 1936 he was forced to recharter the local as 544.[9][31][34][36] Within a year thenewly formed Local 544 had organized 250,000 truckers in the Midwest and formed theCentral Conference of Teamsters.[9][31][34][36]
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Extensive organizing also occurred in the West. Harry Bridges, radical leader of theInternational Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), was leading "themarch inland"an attempt to organize warehouse workers away from shippingports.[9][37]Alarmed by Bridges' radical politics and worried that the ILWU wouldencroach on Teamster jurisdictions, Dave Beck formed a large regional organization(the Western Conference of Teamsters) to engage in fierce organizing battles andmembership raids against the ILWU which led to the establishment of many new locals

and the organization of tens of thousands of new members.[9][38]

But corruption became even more widespread in the Teamsters during the Tobinadministration. By 1941, the union was considered the most corrupt in the UnitedStates, and the most abusive towards its own members. Tobin vigorously defended theunion against such accusations, but also instituted many constitutional andorganizational changes and practices which made it easier for union officials to engagein criminal offenses.[39]

World War II and the post-war period

By the beginning ofWorld War II, the Teamsters was one of the most powerful unionsin the country, and Teamster leaders influential in the corridors of power. Unionmembership had risen more than 390 percent between 1935 and 1941 to 530,000.[9] InJune 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed General President Dan Tobin to bethe official White House liaison to organized labor, and later that year chair of the LaborDivision of the Democratic National Committee.[9][40] In 1942, President Rooseveltappointed Tobin special representative to the United Kingdom and charged him withinvestigating the state of the labor movement there.[41] Tobin was considered threetimes for Secretary of Labor, and twice refused the postin 1943 and 1947.[42] OnSeptember 23, 1944, Roosevelt gave his famous "Fala speech" while campaigning in the

1944 presidential election. Because of Roosevelt's strong relationship with Tobin andthe union's large membership, the President delivered his speech before the Teamsterconvention.[9]

Nonetheless, Teamsters members were restive. Dissident members of the unionaccused the leadership of suppressing democracy in the union, a charge PresidentTobin angrily denied.[43] Over the next year, Tobin cracked down on dissidents andtrusteed several large locals led by his political opponents.[44]

During World War II, The Teamsters strongly endorsed the American labor movement'sno-strike pledge. The Teamsters agreed to cease raiding other unions and not strike for

the duration of the national emergency. President Tobin even ordered Teamstersmembers to cross picket lines put up by other unions. Nevertheless, the nationalleadership sanctioned strikes by Midwestern truckers in August 1942, Southern truckersin October 1943, and brewery workers and milk delivery drivers in January 1945.[30][45]

The Teamsters did not, however, participate in the great post-war wave of labor strikes.In the two years following the cessation of hostilities, the Teamsters struck only threetimes: 10,000 truckers in New Jersey struck for two weeks; workers at UPS struck
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nationwide for three weeks; and workers at Railway Express Agency struck for almost amonth.[46]

Teamsters leaders strongly opposed enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act and repeatedlycalled for its repeal. President Tobin, however, was one of the first labor leaders to signthe non-communist affidavit required by the law.[47]

The great wave of organizing which the union engaged in during the Great Depressionand the war significantly boosted the political power of a number of regional Teamstersleaders, and the leadership of the union engaged in a number of power struggles in thepost-war period. By 1949, the union's membership had topped one million.[48] DaveBeck (elected an international vice-president in 1940) was increasingly influential in theinternational union, and Tobin attempted to check his growing power but failed.[9] In1946, Beck successfully overcame Tobin's opposition and won approval of anamendment to the union's constitution creating the post of executive vice-president.Beck then won the 1947 election to fill the position.[29] Beck also successfully opposedin 1947 a Tobin-backed dues increase to fund new organizing.[49] The following year,Beck was able to demand the ouster of the editor ofInternational Teamster magazine

and install his own man in the job.[50]

In 1948, Beck allied with his long-time rival Jimmy Hoffa and effectively seized controlof the union. He announced a raid on the International Association of Machinists local atBoeing. Although President Dan Tobin publicly repudiated Beck's actions, Beck hadmore than enough support from Hoffa and other members of the executive board toforce Tobin to back down.[51] Five months later, Beck won approval of a plan to dissolvethe union's four divisions and replace them with 16 divisions organized around each ofthe major job categories in the union's membership.[52] In 1951, Tom Hickey, reformistleader of the Teamsters in New York City, won election to the Teamsters executive

board. Tobin needed Beck's support to prevent Hickey's election, and Beck refused togive it.[53]

On September 4, 1952, Tobin announced he would step down as president of theTeamsters at the end of his term.[54]At the union's 1952 convention, Beck was electedGeneral President and pushed through a number of changes intended to make it harderfor a challenger to build the necessary majority to unseat a president or reject hispolicies.[55]

The influence of organized crime

Beck was elected to the Executive Council of the AFL on August 13, 1953, but hiselection generated a tremendous political battle between AFL President George Meany,who supported his election, and federation vice presidents who felt Beck was corruptand should not be elected to the post.[56] Beck was the first Teamster president tonegotiate a nationwide master contract and a national grievance arbitration plan,[57]

established organizing drives in the Deep South[58] and the East,[59] and built the
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current Teamsters headquarters (the "Marble Palace") in Washington, D.C. on LouisianaAvenue NW (across a small plaza from the United States Senate).[60] But hisintervention in a construction and a milk strike (both centered on New York City), andrefusal to intervene in a Northeastern trucking strike created major political problemsfor him.[61] Perceiving Beck to be weak, Jimmy Hoffa began challenging Beck on variousunion decisions and policies in 1956 with an eye to unseating him as General Presidentin the regularly scheduled union elections in 1957.[62]

Infiltration by organized crime dominated the agenda of the Teamsters throughout the1950s. The Teamsters had suffered from extensive corruption since its formation in1903.[11][12][13]Although the more extreme, public forms of corruption had beeneliminated after General President Cornelius Shea was removed from office, the extentof corruption and control by organized crime increased during General President Tobin'stime in office (1907 to 1952).[9][12][22][63] In 1929, the Teamsters and unions in Chicagoeven approached gangster Roger Touhy and asked for his protection fromAl Caponeand his Chicago Outfit, which were seeking to control the area's unions.[64] Evidence ofwidespread corruption within the Teamsters began emerging shortly after Tobinretired.[65] In Kansas City, corrupt Teamsters locals spent years seeking bribes,

embezzling money, and engaging in extensive extortion and labor rackets as well asbeatings, vandalism and even bombings in an attempt to control the construction andtrucking industries.[22][66] The problem was so serious that the U.S. House ofRepresentatives held hearings on the issue.[67]

Hoffa's attempt to challenge Beck caused a major national scandal which led to twoCongressional investigations, several indictments for fraud and other crimes againstBeck and Hoffa, strict new federal legislation and regulations regarding labor unions,and even helped launch the political career ofRobert F. Kennedy. Believing he neededadditional votes to unseat Beck, in October 1956 mobster Johnny Dio met with Hoffa in

New York City and the two men conspired to create as many as 15 paper locals

[68]

toboost Hoffa's delegate totals.[69][70] When the paper locals applied for charters from theinternational union, Hoffa's political foes were outraged.[62][71]A major battle broke outwithin the Teamsters over whether to charter the locals, and the media attention led toinquiries by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Permanent Subcommittee onInvestigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations.[72] Beck andother Teamster leaders challenged the authority of the U.S. Senate to investigate theunion,[73] which caused the Senate to establish the Select Committee on Improper

Activities in Labor and Management a new committee with broad subpeona andinvestigative powers.[74] Senator John L. McClellan, chair of the select committee, hiredRobert F. Kennedy as the subcommittee's chief counsel and investigator.[75]

The Select Committee (also known as the McClellan Committee, after its chairman),exposed widespread corruption in the Teamsters union. Dave Beck fled the country fora month to avoid its subpoenas before returning.[76] Four of the paper locals weredissolved to avoid committee scrutiny, several Teamster staffers were charged withcontempt of Congress, and union records were lost or destroyed (allegedly on purpose),and wiretaps were played in public before a national television audience in which Dioand Hoffa discussed the creation of even more paper locals.[77] Evidence was unearthed
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of a mob-sponsored plot in which Oregon Teamsters unions would seize control of thestate legislature, state police, and state attorney general's office through bribery,extortion and blackmail.[78] Initially, members of the union did not believe the charges,and support for Beck was strong,[79] but after three months of continuous allegations ofwrong-doing many rank-and-file Teamsters withdrew their support and openly called forBeck to resign.[80] Beck initially refused to address the allegations, but broke his silenceand denounced the committee's inquiry on March 6.[81] But even as the committee

conducted its investigation, the Teamsters chartered even more paper locals.[82]

In mid-March 1957, Jimmy Hoffa was arrested for allegedly trying to bribe a Senate aide.[83]

Hoffa denied the charges, but the arrest triggered additional investigations and morearrests and indictments over the following weeks.[84]A week later, Beck admitted toreceiving an interest-free $300,000 loan from the Teamsters which he had neverrepaid, and Senate investigators claimed that loans to Beck and other union officials(and their businesses) had cost the union more than $700,000.[85] Beck appearedbefore the select committee for the first time on March 25, 1957, and invoked his Fifth

Amendment right against self-incrimination 117 times.[86] The McClellan Committeeturned its focus to Hoffa and other Teamsters officials, and presented testimony andevidence alleging widespread corruption in Hoffa-controlled Teamster units.[70][87]

Several historic legal developments came out of the select committee's investigation.The scandals uncovered by the McClellan committee, which affected not only theTeamsters but several other unions, led directly to the passage of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act) in1959.[88] The right of union officials to exercise their Fifth Amendment rights wasupheld and a significant refinement of constitutional law made when the U.S. SupremeCourt reaffirmed the right of union officials to not divulge the location of union recordsin Curcio v. United States, 354 U.S. 118 (1957).[89]

Rank-and-file anger over the McClellan Committee's revelations eventually led Beck toretire from the Teamsters and allowed Jimmy Hoffa to take over. Immediately after histestimony in late March 1957, Beck won approval from the union's executive board toestablish a $1 million fund to defend himself and the union from the committee'sallegations.[90] But member outrage at the expenditure was significant, and permissionto establish the fund rescinded.[91] Member anger continued to grow throughout thespring,[92] and Beck's majority support on the executive board vanished.[93] Beck wascalled before the McClellan Committee again in early May 1957, and additional interest-free loans and other potentially illegal and unethical financial transactions exposed.[94]

Based on these revelations, Beck was indicted for tax evasion on May 2, 1957.[95]

Beck's legal troubles led him to retire and Hoffa to win election to the union presidency.Support for Beck among the membership evaporated.[96] Beck announced on May 25 hewould not run for re-election in October.[97] The announcement created chaos amongthe union leadership,[98] and despite additional indictments Hoffa announced he wouldseek the presidency on July 19.[99] Rank-and-file support for Hoffa was strong,[100]

although there were some attempts to organize an opposition candidate.[101] Hoffa'sopponents asked a federal judge to postpone the election, but the request was grantedonly temporarily and Hoffa was duly elected General President of the union on October
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4, 1957.[102] Beck offered to retire early to allow Hoffa to take control of the union inDecember.[103]A federal district court barred Hoffa from taking power unless he wasacquitted in his wiretapping trial.[104] The ruling was upheld by a court of appeals, butthe trial ended in a hung jury on December 19, 1957, and Hoffa assumed thepresidency on February 1, 1958.[105]

The worsening corruption scandal led the AFL-CIO to eject the Teamsters. AFL-CIO

President George Meany, worried that corruption scandals plaguing a number of unionsat the time might lead to harsh regulation of unions or even the withdrawal of federallabor law protection, began an anti-corruption drive in April 1956.[106] New rules wereenacted by the labor federation's executive council that provided for the removal of vicepresidents engaged in corruption as well as the ejection of unions consideredcorrupt.[107] The McClellan Committee's investigation only worsened the disputebetween the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters.[108] In January 1957, the AFL-CIO proposed anew a rule which would bar officers of the federation from continuing to hold office ifthey exercised their Fifth Amendment rights in a corruption investigation.[109] Beckopposed the new rule,[110] but the Ethical Practices Committee of AFL-CIO institutedrule on January 31, 1957.[111] The Teamsters were given 90 days to reform,[112] but

Beck retaliated by promising more raids on AFL-CIO member unions if the union wasousted.[113] Beck's opposition prompted a successful move by Meany to remove Beckfrom AFL-CIO executive council on grounds of corruption.[114]After extensive hearingsand appeals which lasted from July to September 1957, the AFL-CIO voted onSeptember 25, 1957, to eject the Teamsters if the union did not institute reforms within30 days.[115] Beck refused to institute any reforms, and the election of Jimmy Hoffa(whom the AFL-CIO considered as corrupt as Beck) led the labor federation to suspendthe Teamsters union on October 24, 1957.[116] Meany offered to keep the Teamsterswithin the AFL-CIO if Hoffa resigned as president, but Hoffa refused and the formalexpulsion occurred on December 6, 1957.[117]

The Teamsters were not the only corrupt union in the AFL-CIO by any means. Anotherwas the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represented stevedoresin most East Coast ports. The Teamsters had long desired to bring all shipping andtransportation workers into the union, so that no product could be moved anywhere inthe U.S. without it being touched by Teamsters hands. As the ILA came underincreasing attack for permitting corruption in its locals, President Beck sought to bringthe ILA into the Teamsters.[118] The AFL ousted the ILA in September 1953, and formedthe International Brotherhood of Longshoremen-AFL (IBL-AFL) to representlongshoremen on the Great Lakes and East Coast.[119] The Teamsters planned to raidthe expelled union, and may even have hoped to seize control of the IBL-AFL.[120] Beck

undertook a campaign to bring the ILA back into the AFL in early 1955,[121] but theelection of mob associateAnthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio as an ILA vice presidentforced Beck to end the effort.[122] But even as Beck backed away from any ILA deal,Jimmy Hoffa secretly negotiated a major package of financial and staff aid to the ILAand then went public with the deal forcing Beck to accept it as a fait accompli or riskembarrassing Hoffa.[123] The AFL-CIO threatened to expel the Teamsters if it aided the
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ILA.[124] Beck fought Hoffa over the ILA aid package and won, withdrawing the offer tothe ILA in the spring of 1956.[125]

The ILA was not the only union the Teamsters sought to merge with. The unionattempted to merge with the Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers in 1955, but the effortfailed.[126] The union also sought a merger with the Brewery Workers, but the smallerunion rejected the offer.[127] When the overture failed, the Teamsters raided the

Brewery Workers, leading to fierce protests by the CIO.[128]

Raiding by the Teamsters was such a serious issue that it prompted the AFL and CIO,which had attempted to sign a no-raid agreement for years, to finally negotiate andimplement such a pact in December 1953.[129] President Beck initially refused to signthe agreement, and threatened to take the Teamsters out of the AFL if forced to adhereto it.[130] Three months after the pact was signed, the Teamsters agreed to submit tothe terms of the no-raid agreement.[131] Shortly thereafter, the AFL adopted Article 20of its constitution, which prevented its member unions from raiding one another.[132]

The union's affection for raiding led it to initially oppose the AFL-CIO merger in January1955, but it quickly reversed itself.[133]

The rise, fall and disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

Hoffa achieved his goal of unifying all freight drivers under a single collective bargainingagreement, the National Master Freight Agreement, in 1964. Hoffa was a skillfulstrategist who used the grievance procedures of the agreement, which authorizedselective strikes against particular employers, to police the agreement or, if Hoffathought that it served the union's interest, to drive marginal employers out of the

industry. The union won substantial gains for its members, fostering a nostalgic imageof the Hoffa era as the golden age for Teamster drivers. Hoffa also succeeded whereTobin had failed, concentrating power at the international level, dominating theconferences which Beck and Dobbs had helped build.

In addition, Hoffa was instrumental in using the assets of the Teamsters' pension plans,particularly the Central States plan, to support Mafia projects, such as the developmentof Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s. Hoffa was, moreover, defiantly unwilling toreform the union or limit his own power in response to the attacks from Robert F.Kennedy, formerly chief counsel to the McClellan Committee, thenAttorney General.Kennedy's Department of Justice tried to convict Hoffa for a variety of offenses over the

1960s, finally succeeding on a witness tampering charge in 1964, with key testimonyprovided by Teamsters business agent Edward Grady Partin ofBaton Rouge, Louisiana.

After exhausting his appeals, Hoffa entered prison in 1967.

Hoffa installed Frank Fitzsimmons, an associate from his days in Local 299 in Detroit, tohold his place for him while he served time. Fitzsimmons, however, began to enjoy theexercise of power in Hoffa's absence; in addition, the organized crime figures aroundhim found that he was more pliant than Hoffa had been. While President Nixon's pardon
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barred Hoffa from resuming any role in the Teamsters until 1980, Hoffa challenged thelegality of that condition and planned to run again for presidency of the union, butdisappeared in 1975 under mysterious circumstances. He is presumed dead, althoughhis body has never been found.

Decentralization, deregulation and drift

Under General President Frank Fitzsimmons, authority within the Teamsters wasdecentralized back into the hands of regional, joint council, and local leaders. While thishelped solidify Fitzsimmons' own political position in the union, it also made it moredifficult for the union to act decisively on policy issues. Fitzsimmons also moved theunion's political stands slowly to the left, supporting universal health care, an immediateend to theVietnam War, urban renewal, and community organizing. In 1968,Fitzsimmons and United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther formed theAlliance forLabor Action, a new national trade union center which competed with the AFL-CIO. The

Alliance dissolved in 1972 after Reuther's death. While the Teamsters won rich national

master contracts in trucking and package delivery in the 1970s, it did little to adapt tothe changes occurring in the transportation industry.

A major jurisdictional battle with the United Farm Workers (UFW) broke out in 1970,and did not end until 1977. The Teamsters and UFW had both claimed jurisdiction overfarm workers for many years, and in 1967 had signed an agreement settling theirdifferences. But decentralization of power within the union led several Teamster leadersin California to repudiate this agreement without Fitzsimmons' permission and organizelarge numbers of field workers. His hand forced, Fitzsimmons ordered Teamsterscontract negotiators to re-open the handful of contracts it had signed with California

growers.

[134]

The UFW sued, the AFL-CIO condemned the action, and many employersnegotiated contracts with the Teamsters rather than with the UFW.[135] The Teamsterssubsequently signed contracts (which many denounced as sweetheart deals) with morethan 375 California growers.[136][137]Although an agreement giving UFW jurisidctionover field workers and the Teamsters jurisdiction over packing and warehouse workerswas reached on September 27, 1973, Fitzsimmons reneged on the agreement within amonth and moved ahead with forming a farm workers regional union inCalifornia.[138][139] The organizing battles even became violent at times.[140] By 1975, theUFW had won 24 elections and the Teamsters 14; UFW membership had plummeted to

just 6,000 from nearly 70,000 while the Teamsters farmworker division counted 55,000workers.[136][138] The UFW signed an agreement with Fitzsimmons in March 1977 in

which the UFW agreed to seek to organize only those workers covered by the CaliforniaAgricultural Labor Relations Act, while the Teamsters retained jurisdiction over someagricultural workers, who had been covered by Teamsters Local Union contracts prior tothe formation of the UFW.[141]

In October 1973, Fitzsimmons ended the long-running jurisdictional dispute with theUnited Brewery Workers, and the Brewery Workers merged with the Teamsters.[142]
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In 1979 Congress passed legislation that deregulated the freight industry, removing theInterstate Commerce Commission's power to impose detailed regulatory tariffs oninterstate carriers. The union tried to fight deregulation by attempting to bribe SenatorHoward Cannon ofNevada. That attempt not only failed, but resulted in the convictionin 1982 ofRoy Williams, the General President who had succeeded Fitzsimmons in1981. Williams subsequently resigned in 1983 as a condition of remaining free on bailwhile his appeal proceeded.

Deregulation had catastrophic effects on the Teamsters, opening up the industry tocompetition from non-union companies who sought to cut costs by avoidingunionization and curbing wages. Nearly 200 unionized carriers went out of business inthe first few years of deregulation, leaving thirty percent of Teamsters in the freightdivision unemployed. The remaining unionized carriers demanded concessions inwages, work rules, and hours.

Williams' successor, Jackie Presser, was prepared to grant most of these concessions inthe form of a special freight relief rider that would cut wages by up to 35 percent andestablish two-tier wages. Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which had grown out of

efforts to reject the 1976 freight agreement, launched a successful national campaignto defeat the relief rider, which was defeated by a vote of 94,086 to 13,082.

The pressure on the freight industry and the national freight agreement continued,however. By the end of the 1990s the National Master Freight Agreement, which hadcovered 500,000 drivers in the late 1970s, dropped to less than 200,000, withnumerous local riders weakening it further in some areas.

Internal and external challenges

The decline in working conditions in the freight industry, combined with long-simmeringunhappiness among members employed by the United Parcel Service, led to thedevelopment of two nationwide dissident groups within the union in the 1980s:Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), an assemblage of a number of local efforts,and the Professional Drivers Council, better known as PROD, which began as a publicinterest group affiliated with Ralph Nader that was concerned with worker safety. Thetwo groups merged in 1979.

TDU was able to win some local offices within the union, although the InternationalUnion often attempted to make those victories meaningless by marginalizing the officeror the union. TDU acquired greater prominence, however, with the election reforms

forced on the union by the consent decree it had entered into in 1989 on the eve oftrial on a suit brought by the federal government under the Racketeer Influenced andCorrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

The decree required the direct election of International officers by the membership, asTDU had been demanding for years leading up to the decree, to replace the indirectelection by delegates at the union's convention. While the delegates at the union's 1991
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convention balked at amending the Constitution, they ultimately capitulated underpressure from the government.

That consent decree might not have been possible, however, if it had not been for thetestimony ofRoy Williams, who described, in an affidavit he gave the government inreturn for a delay of his imprisonment, his own dealings with organized crime as theSecretary-Treasurer of a local union in Kansas City and as an officer of the International

Union. The decree also gave the government the power to install an IndependentReview Board with the power to expel any member of the union for "conductunbecoming to the union", which the IRB proceeded to exercise far more aggressivelythan the Teamsters officials who had agreed to the decree had expected.

While the government was pursuing a civil case against the union as an entity it wasalso indicting Presser, who had succeeded Williams as General President, for embezzlingfrom two different local unions in Cleveland prior to his election as President. Presserresigned in 1988, but died before his trial was scheduled to begin. He was succeededby William J. McCarthy, who came from the same local that Dan Tobin had led eightyyears earlier.

The Independent Review Board (IRB) is a three-member panel established toinvestigate and take appropriate action with respect to "any allegations of corruption,""any allegations of domination or control or influence" of any part of the Union byorganized crime, and any failure to cooperate fully with the IRB.[143]

Recent history

Ron Carey won a surprising victory in the first direct election for General President inthe union's history, defeating two "old guard" candidates, R.V. Durham and Walter

Shea. Carey's slate, supported by TDU, also won nearly all of the seats on theInternational Executive Board.

Carey acquired a fair amount of influence within the AFL-CIO, which had readmitted theTeamsters in 1985. Carey was close with the new leadership elected in 1995,particularly Richard Trumka of the United Mine Workers of America, who becameSecretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO under John Sweeney. Carey had also swung theTeamsters support behind the Democratic Party, a change from past administrationsthat had supported the Republican Party. The new administration set out to break fromthe past in other ways, making energetic efforts to head off a vote to oust the union asrepresentative ofNorthwest Airlines' flight attendants, negotiating a breakthrough

agreement covering carhaulers, and supporting local strikes, such as the one againstDiamond Walnut, to restore the union's strength.

The Carey administration did not, on the other hand, have much power in the lowerreaches of the Teamster hierarchy: all of the large regional conferences were run by"old guard" officers, as were most of the locals. Disagreements between those twocamps led the old guard to campaign against the Carey administration's proposed duesincrease; the Carey administration retaliated by dissolving the regional conferences,
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calling them expensive redundancies and fiefdoms for old guard union officers. andrearranging the boundaries of some joint councils that had fought against the duesincrease.

The opposition responded by uniting around a single candidate, James P. Hoffa, son ofJames R. Hoffa, to run against Carey in 1996. Hoffa ran a strong campaign, trading onthe mystique still attached to his late father's name and promising to restore those days

of glory. Carey appeared, however, to have won a close election.

Shortly afterward in 1997, the union initiated a large and successful strike against UPS.The parcel services department by that time had become the largest division in theunion.

Carey was removed from the union's leadership by the IRB shortly thereafter, whenevidence that individuals in his office had arranged for transfer of several thousanddollars to an outside contractor, which then arranged for another entity to make anequivalent contribution to the Carey campaign. Carey was indicted for lying toinvestigators about his campaign funding but was acquitted of all charges in a 2001

trial.

In the 1998 election to succeed Carey, James P. Hoffa was elected handily. He becamepresident of the Teamsters on March 19, 1999, and took the union in a more moderatedirection, tempering the union's support for Democrats and attempting to come toterms with powerful Republicans in Congress.

The union has merged in recent years with a number of unions from other industries,including the Graphic Communications International Union, a printing industry union,and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and Brotherhood of Locomotive

Engineers, both from the railway industry.

On July 25, 2005, the Teamsters disaffiliated from theAFL-CIO and became a foundingmember of the new national trade union center, the Change to Win Federation.[144]

In 2009, UPS, many employees of which are members of the Teamsters, lobbied tohave language added to the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 (H.R. 915) to change howUPS and FedEx compete with one another. In response, FedEx launches a large, onlineadvertising campaign aimed at UPS and the Teamsters, called 'Stop the Brown Bailout'.

Political donations

The Teamsters Union is one of the largest labor unions in the world, as well as the 11thlargest campaign contributor in the United States. While they supported RepublicansRonald Reagan and George H.W. Bush for President in the 1980s, they have begunleaning largely toward the Democrats in recent years; they have donated 92% of their$24,418,589 in contributions since 1990 to the Democratic Party. Though the unionopposed former Pres. George W. Bush's agenda to open US highways to Mexicantruckers, it did previously support Bush's platform for oil drilling in theArctic National
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Wildlife Refuge.[145] On July 23, 2008, however, Hoffa announced the union'swithdrawal from the coalition favoring drilling there. Speaking before environmentalistsand union leaders assembled to discuss good jobs and clean air, Hoffa said, "We arenot going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing -- not here and notin the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."[146]

The Teamsters Union endorsed Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic Nomination on

Feb. 20, 2008.[147]

Strikes

Following is a partial list of strikes which played a significant role in the history of theTeamsters union:

1905 Chicago Teamsters' strike - 103 days, 25,000 Teamsters walked out, 21lives lost

1934 Minneapolis strike - Four deaths occurred during this 97-day labor dispute,which turned into a general strike and led to the organization of interstate

truckers 1967 United Parcel Service - 180 day strike turns into a lockout of 643 drivers 1985 National Automobile Transporters Association - 19 days 1985 Watsonville cannery strike - 18 months 1991 Midwest Motor Express, Bismarck, North Dakota - 32 months 1995 Ryder System (September 7 - October 10) 1997 United Parcel Service - 15 days (August 4 - August 19) 1999-2002 Overnite Transportation - 1,096 (October 24, 1999-October 25,

2002); documented in the filmAmerican Standoff

Organization

General President

1903 Cornelius Shea 1907 Daniel J. Tobin 1952 Dave Beck 1957 Jimmy Hoffa 1973 Frank Fitzsimmons 1981 George Mock(interim) 1981 Roy Williams

1983 Jackie Presser 1988 Weldon Mathis (interim) 1989 William J. McCarthy 1991 Ron Carey 1998 James P. Hoffa
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Membership

1933 75K (depression era low) 1935 146K 1949 1M 1957 1.5M 1976 2M

1987 1M+ 2003 1.7M 2004 1.4M

Divisions

Airline Division Bakery and Laundry Conference Brewery and Soft Drink Conference Building Material and Construction Trade Division Carhaul Division Dairy Conference Express Division Freight Division Graphic Communications Conference Industrial Trade Division Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Division Newspaper, Magazine and Electronic Media Worker Parcel and Small Package Division Port Division Public Services Trade Division

Rail Conference Tankhaul Division Trade Show and Convention Centers Division Warehouse Division Waste Division

See also

2009-2010 Federal Aviation Administration ReauthorizationAct Teamsters Canada

Notes

1. 1.0 1.1 Office of Labor-Management Standards. Employment Standards

Administration. U.S. Department of Labor. Form LM-2 labor Organization AnnualReport. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Teamsters NationalHeadquarters). File Number: 000-093. Dated March 31, 2009.

2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Sloane, Hoffa, 1991.3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Taft, The A.F. of L. in the Time of Gompers, 1957.
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4. 4.0 4.1 Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State,

and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925, 1987.5. Sheridan and Innes alleged that Shea had billed locals in Massachusetts $9.61

for services while charging the national union $19.44 for the same services."Drivers Bolt Meeting," Chicago Daily Tribune,August 9, 1

Documents

Teamsters - eNotes