CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARY Cidof CONGRESS TABLE of CONTENTS

77-71 E

THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TE A MST ERS- AN HISTORICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICA L REVIEW

LR 5 D C

WILLIAM WHITTAKER CIR Analyst in Labor Economics Economics Division

March 11. 1977. CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARY ciDOF CONGRESS TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction...... 1

Historical Sketch of the Teamsters...... 3

Bibliographical Sketch of the Teamsters...... 24 THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS: AN HISTORICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Introduction:

For the past quarter century, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has been under almost continous investigation by some public body--either in

the executive or legislative branches of the Government. As 1977 opens, a new round of inquiries and legal actions involving the Teamsters appears to be under way. Committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have announced their intention to look into the administration of the Brother- hood. Simultaneously, actions are underway involving the Departments of

Justice, Labor, and Treasury. Past Teamster President, James R. Hoffa, who

disappeared in 1975, remains unaccounted for. Inside the teaming crafts, two

dissident groups are actively working to reform the IBT: the insurgent "Team-

sters for a Democratic Union" and the "Professional Drivers Council for Safety

and Health" or PROD. Each has set forth its own program for change within the

Brotherhood while PROD has been active in the legislative and regulatory field

as well. Within this general context, a review of the history of the Union and

of the available literature concerning it would seem to be in order.

It has been seventy-four years since the International Brotherhood of

Teamsters was organized. At Niagara Falls, New York, in August 1903, dele-

gates representing the two major rival groups within the teaming crafts, the

Team Drivers International Union (TDIU) and the insurgent Teamsters National

Union (TNU), met in an amalgamation convention to form a new brotherhood, the

IBT. Total membership of the combined unions at that time was listed at 32,000.

Today, membership of the IBT is in excess of two million. The Teamsters is the

i CRS - 2

largest trade union in the world, is generally conceded to be the most powerful and, by many, is considered to be the most controversial.

Since the formation of the Brotherhood in 1903, five men have presided over the IBT as chief executive officer: Cornelius P. Shea (1903-1907),

Daniel J. Tobin (1907-1952), Dave Beck (1952-1957), James R. Hoffa (1957-1971) and Frank E. Fitzsimmons (1971- ). Below the first level of Teamsters leadership, there has been a multitude of national and regional or local IBT officers--each differing from the other in style, philosophy, patterns of con- ducting labor-management relations and degree of power. Similarly, each local union of Teamsters may differ from each other local. Some locals appear to be more concerned with trade union democracy, with a broader struggle for socio- economic justice, with political involvement, etc., than others. Not all Team- sters are drivers. The organizational field of the IBT is diverse. Equally diverse are the specific economic interests of the various locals. Thus, it may well be misleading to speak of "the Teamsters" as a monolithic organization.

Historically, however, there has been a tendency to look at the union in terms of the administration of its international president. Thus, observers have spoken almost interchangeably of "the Teamsters" and, through various periods, of Shea or of Tobin or of Beck, etc. This may not be entirely appropriate.

The original teamster federation was chartered in 1899 directly under the auspices of the American Federation of Labor. Throughout its history, the

Teamsters has been of major importance within the house of organized labor-- though the IBT wa's expelled from the AFL-CIO in late 1957 and remains, now, an CRS - 3

independent union outside of the AFL-CIO. Within the national economic structure, too, the IBT has exercised a substantial force not only because of the size of the Brotherhood and the strength of its leadership but also because of its strategic position in transportation and related services. Almost any other trade union or industry can be helped or hindered in the collective bargaining process by the position taken by the Teamsters.

Although the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has received substantial attention from the press, the history of the Union remains generally neither well nor widely known. Academic writers, with two or three exceptions, have dealt with the IBT only in a cursory manner while treating broader subject areas. There follows, here, a brief historical overview of some of the high- lights of Teamster history and a survey of available literature dealing with the Union. Of necessity, the historical sketch is general and merely suggestive of the personalities, the successes and failures, the periodic contests with secessionists and dissenters, the assorted problems faced by the Brother- hood and the wide range of activities which together constitute the history of the IBT. The bibliographic essay attempts, in a general way, to survey some of the strengths and weaknesses in published materials dealing with the

Teamsters. An annotated bibliography concerning the IBT is available upon re- quest.

Historical Sketch of the Teamsters:

Like many other American trade unions, the early organizations of team sters (hackmen, draymen, stablemen, etc.) were formed at the local level in re- CRS - 4

sponse to particular industrial relationships or socio-economic problems. Dur-

ing most of the 19th Century, there was no national organization in the teaming

crafts--nor was there any national organization within management. For the

most part, these 19th Century local unions were short-lived, unstable and free

from the system and order which would come to characterize the later business 1/ unionism. Nor was strong leadership generally forthcoming.

Late in the century, however, strong local unions did develop in the major

industrial centers--Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Philadelphia, etc.--

and, while these unions would later federate, they maintained a large measure

of local autonomy which was jealously guarded. Indeed, the battle over local

autonomy versus centralization of authority continues to the present within the

IBT. From these local unions, predating the International Brotherhood of Team-

sters proper, came many of the leaders of the later national organization--men

(for the teaming crafts were predominantly male) such as: Cornelius P. Shea,

Daniel J. Tobin, John English and John Gillespie of Boston; Michael Casey and

John McLaughlin of San Francisco; Edward Turley, Thomas Farrell and Thomas L.

Hughes of Chicago.

In 1898, a body of teamsters appealed to Samuel Gompers, president of the

American Federation of Labor, for assistance in creating a national federation

1/ No entirely adequate history of the early teaming crafts has been written. The more useful published sources are Robert Leiter, The Teamsters Union: A Study of Its Economic Impact (New York: Bookman Associates, Inc., 1957) and Donald Garnel, The Rise of Teamster Power in the West (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972). See also Robert M. Robinson, "A History of the Teamsters in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1850-1950," unpub- lished Ph. D. dissertation in economics, University of California, Berkeley, 1951.

I CRS - 5

1/ of the teaming crafts. Under AFL auspices, on January 27, 1899, a charter was issued to the Team Drivers International Union (TDIU). Headquarters for the new federation was established in Detroit, the first executive officers being John Callahan of Kansas City and George Innis of Detroit. Commencing with a membership of 1,700 in 1899, the TDIU had grown to 13,800 members by

1902. The first teamster journal (that of the TDIU) commenced regular publication early in 1901.

The first of many schisms within the national teaming federation occurred in 1902 when dissident Chicago locals broke away from the TDIU and formed the insurgent Teamsters National Union (TNU). Aside from the matter of personalities, two causes have traditionally been suggested for the split. First, the per capita tax, paid by locals to the international union, was raised from 5 2/ cents per month to 25 cents per month by the 1901 TDIU convention. Second, a dispute arose over membership qualifications and restrictions, i.e., should a teamster who owned and operated several teams of horses still be classed a

1/ The American Federation of Labor was founded in 1881. Concerning the origins of the AFL and of the modern trade union movement in America, see Samuel Gompers, Seventy Years of Life and Labor (2 vols.), (Philadelphia: E.P. Dutton, 1925); Philip Taft, The A. F. of L. in the Time of Gompers (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957) and The A. F. of L. from the Death of Gompers to the Merger (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959); and Stuart Bruce Kaufman, Samuel Gompers and the Origins of the American Federation of Labor, 1848-1896 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1973).

2/ In terms of union assessments, there are normally two forms: the "per capita," a set assessment for each member paid by the locals to the international union, and regular union dues paid by each member to his local. Generally, local dues are established by the local union (although, in the IBT, there has been a minimum standard set throughout the international union) while the "per capita" is set by the periodic conventions of the international union. CRS - 6

"worker" and be eligible for membership. With the encouragement of the AFL and under the direct auspices of the Federation, a unity or amalgamation convention 4 was held by delegates from the TDIU and the TNU at Niagara Falls, New York, in

August 1903. While all of the hostilities and jealousies within the teaming craft were not abated, a new national organization, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), did emerge. Cornelius Shea of Boston was elected IBT Presi- dent; Edward L. Turley, of Chicago, Secretary-Treasurer; and a new international headquarters was established at Indianapolis.

During the early era of the IBT, teamsters were literally men who worked

with teams of horses. Within the broad classification of "teamsters," however,

there was a series of sub-divisions of the craft: drivers of coal wagons, of milk wagons, of ice wagons; local draymen of various sorts; hack drivers; etc.

Definitions of jurisdiction were dependent upon the distance one man with a heavily loaded wagon might travel in one day. Over-the-road hauling (Jong dis-

tance hauling) was essentially left to the railroads until after World War I.

Local cartage drivers merely collected freight from local shippers and deposit-

ed it at rail or port terminals. It was these local cartage drivers who made

up the great bulk of the early IBT. Overall, a relatively small percentage of

team drivers were members of the union and, prior to the Great War, the IBT was

engaged in a constant struggle to maintain its membership and existence.

Jurisdictional disputes between the Teamsters and other AFL unions arose

almost as soon as the IBT was formed and, in some crafts, notably in the brew- CRS - 7 t

ing industry, persisted for decades. Not without a certain justification,

other craft unions feared the encroachment of the Teamsters upon their fields

of recruitment.

If the men who drove the horses were members of the IBT, it was argued

by the Brotherhood, was it not logical that the stablemen who cared for the

horses should also be members of the Teamsters? The same reasoning then carried

over to the warehousemen who loaded and unloaded wagons driven by Teamsters.

This concept of vertical organization quickly developed even further. Since

the workers inside the plants--dairy processors, bakers, brewery workers, re-

tail clerks, dispatchers, clerical workers in select establishments-were

economically dependent upon the outside workers, the men driving the trucks

(or wagons), should they not all fall within the jurisdiction of the Brother-

hood? Would negotiations over contracts not be simpler with fewer work stoppages

if only one union were involved? And, from the union perspective, would there

not be greater bargaining leverage? The argument was extended in the other dir-

ection as well. If the Teamsters hauled produce from the fields to other Team-

sters who processed food products, ought not the men and women who picked the

crops in the fields also be organized under the IBT? As AFL Treasurer John B.

Lennon observed in 1903, "There is no industry today that can successfully 1/ carry on their business if the teamster lays down his reins."

During the spring of 1905, while Cornelius Shea and others were yet strug-

gling to bring the teaming crafts together, the IBT entered into a strike in

Chicago--an outgrowth of a labor dispute involving other crafts. For several

1/ Lennon is quoted in The International Teamster, November 1903, p. 4. CRS - 8

years, teamsters organizations in Chicago had been the focal point of turbu- lence in the labor-management field and, in some respects, the strike of 1905 was merely the culmination of a series of disputes. In the strike of 1905, 1/ however, the Chicago Teamsters were "utterly defeated and crushed." From the perspective of the Union, the strike was an unmittigated disaster. Presi- dent Shea and several other leaders were indicted for conspiracy under the laws of Illinois--the cases, with considerable expense and publicity adverse to the craft, dragging on for several years prior to an acquittal of the co-defendants.

In public relations terms, the IBT became synonymous with industrial violence

and disorder. Within the union, doubts, suspicions and hostilities were kin-

dled and old jealousies resurfaced. For the next several years, IBT convention

delegates hurled recriminations at each other, squabbled over the payment of

legal fees growing out of the Chicago cases and neglected more serious organi-

zational matters. In 1906, at Chicago, the annual convention broke apart, quite

publically--a secessionist movement developing around certain locals in Chicago,

New York and elsewhere. Further, for peculiar local reasons, important San

Francisco Bay Area locals also moved outside the Brotherhood. The financial

resources of the IBT were severely strained and the image of President Shea was indelibly stained. Although Shea was re-elected in 1906, he was defeated

at the Boston convention a year later by fellow Bostonian, Daniel J. Tobin.

1/ Leiter, op. cit., p. 25. Concerning the 1905 strike in Chicago, see John R. Commons, "Types of American Labor Organization--The Teamsters of Chicago," Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1905, pp. 400-433; and John Cummings, "The Chicago Teamsters' Strike--A Study in Industrial Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, September 1905, pp. 536-573. CRS - 9

As one consequence of the Chicago strike, Tobin and his associates appear to have adopted a more sober and cautious attitude about strikes in general and about sympathy strikes in particular.

The long administration of Daniel J. Tobin (1907-1952) was a period of careful building within the IBT. During the early years, Tobin toured the country battling secession, attempting to settle local disputes and, when time permitted, fostering organization. With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1914, there was an initial economic slump in the United States--followed by an industrial boom. For the IBT, the war years were a period of drawing together. Dissention eased within the organization. Membership increased sharp- ly. The institutional structure of the union was perfected into a form that would persist at least until the late 1930's. The Tobin administration was marked by constant, slow, methodical growth.

The 1920's and 1930's were a period of rapid change and of upheaval for the Teamsters--and for labor generally. The Great Depression with the concomi- tant army of the unemployed, the bank failures, et. al., hit hard at the IBT-- though Tobin was quick to affirm that none of the Brotherhood's funds had been lost through bad investments or through bank closings. There was a great insta- bility within the membership: men moving in and out of locals, local unions collapsing and being restructured. There was also technological change to con- front the IBT: the decline of the horse and the rise of motorized vehicles.

Over-the-road trucking grew substantially between the wars, cutting deeply into rail freight and falling under interstate regulations. This meant both new CRS - 10

fields to be organized and integrated within the IBT and a more sophisticated

interrelationship between the trucking industry generally and the Federal

Government. The mid-1930's saw also the rise of the Congress of Industrial

Organization (the CIO) as a rival to the older craft-oriented AFL. The result was near open warfare between certain of the AFL unions and the younger, perhaps more aggressive CIO bodies. On the West Coast, the IBT was pitted against

the Longshoremen of Harry Bridges over control of the dockside warehouses. The

battle spread inland as other CIO unions joined in the frey and, during 1937

and 1938, Bridges and Seattle Teamster official Dave Beck emerged as national

figures in labor-management relations. In Minneapolis, in 1934, General Drivers

Local 574 (IBT) became a center of organizational activity--and of Trotskyite

propaganda. Tobin, a Catholic and anti-Communist (which, to Tobin, meant anti-

Trotskyite as well), accelerated his long-standing war on subversives within

his Union. In Chicago and certain other areas, jurisdictional questions (inter

alia), led to industrial violence and to extortion. Tobin found himself fight-

ing a running battle with crime, both organized and unorganized (not infre-

quently, in dissident locals), which threatened the integrity of the Brother-

hood. During the 1930's and again in the 1940's, Congress explored the entire

field of labor-management relations, unfair labor practices and links between

crime and both management and labor. There followed anti-racketeering legis-

lation, notably the Hobbs Act.

Overall, the Tobin Administration (for the Teamsters) was a period of sus-

tained growth and of conservative "bread and butter" trade unionism. A Democrat, CRS - 11

Tobin advised and supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and provided the support of his Union to the Democratic Party--though not unreservedly nor without dissent within the Brotherhood, both from the left and from the right. Tobin opposed strikes, both in principle and as a tactic, endorsing business unionism and the free enterprise system.

With the passing of the years, the men who had earlier worked with Shea and Tobin began to disappear from the scene and were replaced by younger men, often from among Tobin's aides--though not exclusively so. By the 1940's, the annual conventions had begun a marked growth, the numbers of delegates greatly expanding. Many of these delegates were young, newcomers to the IBT and to trade unionism. They had not fought the early battles for the establishment of the Union; rather, their battles were organizational and their most recent experiences, the Depression and World War II. The degree to which authority within the IBT was centralized in the person of Tobin remains a subject for academic speculation but it is clear that regional leaders, the younger leaders, had begun to emerge by the 1930's and to develop power bases of their own.

Here, one might digress to look briefly at the emergence of three men who would play important roles in the subsequent history of the IBT: Dave Beck,

Farrell Dobbs, and James R. Hoffa.

Dave Beck, who would eventually follow Tobin in office as IBT General

President, was born in Stockton, California, in 1894. During early childhood, he moved with his parents to Seattle where he and his mother worked for a laundry. In 1917, Beck became a charter member of the Seattle Laundry and Dye CRS - 12

Drivers Local 566 (IBT), but, almost immediately thereafter, he entered the

Naval Aviation Service as a machinists' mate and served in England during

World War I. Returning to Seattle after the war, Beck found the trade union movement fragmented, the result in part of the Seattle general strike of 1919,

and, with fellow Teamsters Harry Dail and Frank Brewster, commenced to re-

build labor solidarity. Concurrently, Beck began to rise within the Teamster

hierarchy.

In 1925, the IBT convention was held in Seattle and Dave Beck served as

de facto host. It was Beck's first Teamster convention and his first national

exposure. A man of immense ability, both as an organizer and in the management

of trade union affairs, his influence gradually spread over the entire Pacific

Coast. Increasingly, Beck worked in tandem with West Coast Teamster organizer

Michael Casey of San Francisco and, with the death of Casey, Beck moved forward

as the dominant figure in Teamster affairs in the Far West. With the AFL clash

with the emergent CIO in the West, Beck became the chief AFL bulwark against

the intrusion of the new industrial unionism upon jurisdictions claimed for the 1/ western craft unions. He pushed for the organization of the over-the-road

drivers and set up, within the IBT and over the initial opposition of Tobin,

the regional Western Conference of Teamsters--a pattern later followed by other

sections of the country. Gradually, Beck came to work closely with Tobin.

He co-hosted the IBT conventions in Portland (1935), in San Francisco (1947)

and in Los Angeles (1952). After 1940, Beck became a dominant force at IBT

1/ Richard L. Neuberger, "Labor's Overlords: Harry Bridges--Dave Beck," The American Magazine, March 1938, pp. 16-17, 166-170. CRS - 13

conventions frequently chairing the powerful Committee on the Constitution.

In 1947, he was named by Tobin to the newly created post of Executive Vice

President and, thus, became effectively next in line for the presidential

succession.

Minneapolis paralleled Seattle as a focal point of Teamster activity dur-

ing the 1930's. In the Twin Cities area, General Drivers Local 574 led an

organizational campaign which, ultimately, laid the foundation for Teamster

organization throughout the Central States. Among the leaders of Local 574 was a young Missourian, educated in Minneapolis, named Farrell Dobbs. Dobbs,

together with a group of Teamster associates--the Dunne Brothers (Miles, Vincent

and Grant) and Carl Skoglund--had been strongly influenced by Trotskyite phi-

losophy. In 1934, a series of strikes broke out in Minneapolis (over the ob-

jections of President Tobin), beginning with a walkout by coal teamsters in

February. By late summer, labor-management hostility had resulted in a com-

plete trucking tie-up, open warfare in the streets of Minneapolis and the dis-

patch of troops by Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson. By the conclusion of the

strike(s), Dobbs and his colleagues had won national notoriety and a new sta-

tus in Mid-West IBT circles. They had also learned the strategic importance

of controlling truck terminals which might, in turn, be used as a means for or-

ganizing over-the-road drivers. Leap-frogging from terminal to terminal, the

Dobbs group pressed for area-wide bargaining, uniform wages and working condi-

tions and, with others, founded the regional North Central District Driver's

Council in 1937. In large measure, the work of Dobbs in the Mid-West paralleled

that of Beck on the West Coast and advanced the regionalization of the IBT. CRS - 14

Understandably (because of philosophy and tactics), strains developed between

Tobin and Dobbs, though the latter now had a firm base of support within the

Brotherhood. By 1940, however, Dobbs had severed his ties with the IBT to pur- sue in his view, the more important work of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)-- as organizer, editor and, in 1948 as SWP candidate for President of the United

States.

In Detroit, a young Teamster, James R. Hoffa, appears to have been influenced by the organizational techniques (if not by the political philosophy) of

Farrell Dobbs. Born in Brazil, Indiana, in 1913, Hoffa migrated to Michigan following the death of his father from a miner's respiratory ailment. By 1930,

Hoffa was employed as a freight handler at a Kroger grocery warehouse where, at seventeen, he organized and led his first (and successful) strike. By 1931,

Hoffa was in command of AFL Federal Local Union 19341. In 1934, having carried the Local into the IBT, he became a full-time organizer for IBT Joint Council

43. By 1937, moving up through the ranks, Hoffa had become president of Detroit

IBT Local 299 and, with Dobbs, was actively involved in the organization of the

North Central States Drivers' Council. When Dobbs retired, Hoffa moved forward to fill the vacuum. In 1952, he was elected an International Vice President of the IBT and, in 1953, president of the Central Conference of Teamsters.

With the retirement of IBT President Daniel Tobin in 1952, Dave Beck was elected as his successor. The IBT convention that year voted to move the headquarters of the Union from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. Passage of the Taft-

Hartley Act (1947), among other matters, convinced organized labor of the necessity for a closer watch upon the Congress and a deeper commitment to political CRS - 15

action. Beck, a Republican and a "free enterprise" advocate, aligned himself

with the Eisenhower Administration. Within the Brotherhood, he sought to

streamline procedures, to make the Union more efficient and more effective.

Building upon his experience in the West, Beck pushed for the creation of area

conferences for the East, Mid-West and South. He also strengthened the National

Trade Divisions (groups of locals organized along industrial or functional

lines), a practice which had been commenced earlier during the Tobin era at

Beck's urging. He vastly expanded the jurisdictional concepts of the IBT--yet

another carryover from his Seattle and Far-West experience. And, though he

clashed on the matter with General Secretary-Treasurer John English (a Tobin

associate), Beck sought to reorganize the Union's finance and investment poli-

cies and to introduce a more business-like approach to union management.

Over the years, the Congress had, on several occasions, considered a ma-

jor investigation of improper activities within the labor-management field.

During the mid-1950's, under the direction of Senator John McClellan (D-Arkansas), 1/ an extensive inquiry was finally launched. As the result of disclosures

brought out by the McClellan Committee and of the rising opposition from

younger Teamsters, anxious to assume roles of greater power in the direction

of the IBT, Beck did not seek re-election in 1957. After a bitter campaign,

1/ In 1956, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations began to look into the practices of the IBT. Early in 1957, for internal reasons within the Senate, the committee was restructured as the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Senator John * McClellan (D-Arkansas) serving as chairman and Senator Irving M. Ives (R-New York) as vice chairman. For convenience, throughout this account, the Committee will be referred to simply as the McClellan Committee. See John L. McClellan, Crime Without Punishment (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1962). CRS - 16

closely watched both by the McClellan Committee and by the IBT rank-and-file,

James Hoffa was overwhelmingly elected to succeed Beck as chief executive of the Teamsters. Subsequently, Beck was convicted of misuse of union funds and of income tax violations and served a brief term in the Federal penitentiary at

McNeill Island, Washington.

During the fall of 1957, prior to the IBT convention, a dissident body of thirteen rank-and-file members of the Union challenged the manner in which delegates to the convention had been selected. A period of intense legal maneu- vering followed. The convention was allowed to proceed and Hoffa, indeed, was elected IBT General President. In the wake of the convention, however, as a. condition by which Hoffa might assume office, the Brotherhood entered into.a consent decree under which Federal Judge F. Dickinson Letts arranged for the appointment of a Board of Monitors (1958-1961). The Board, under the general direction of Judge Letts, would oversee the management of the Union. Specific

responsibilities of the several parties--of the Hoffa administration, of the

Board of Monitors and of Judge Letts--were less than precise. The appointment

of the Board of Monitors was, itself, largely without precedent. The effective-

ness of the Board of Monitors, other than as a harassing device aimed at the

Teamster leadership, remains somewhat speculative. It did, however, succeed

in placing the first Hoffa administration under something of a cloud.

Although Beck, a primary target of the early McClellan Committee hearings, had retired, the investigation by the Congress into the affairs of the IBT con-

tinued. After the election of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States

in 1960, Robert Kennedy (an aide to Senator McClellan during the Senate hearings CRS - 17

concerning the Teamsters) was appointed Attorney General. With the backing of his brother in the White House, the younger Kennedy brought the weight of the Department of Justice into the Teamster investigation, creating a special investigative unit that was known informally as the "Hoffa Squad." Meanwhile, in late 1957, the IBT was expelled from the AFL-CIO for unethical practices-- much of the thrust of the accusations against the Brotherhood coming apparent-

ly from the McClellan Committee disclosures. Thus, cut off from fraternal association with other trade unions and beset by constant and continuing investigation both by the McClellan Committee and, after 1961, by the Department of Justice, there developed within the IBT leadership and among a significant portion of the rank-and-file a sense of having become the victim of a "vendetta."

In 1961 and again in 1966, Hoffa was re-elected General President of the

International Brotherhood of Teamsters. By the latter year, however, it appeared

likely that he would ultimately be faced with a jail sentence; and, to provide

legally for an interim president for the Union, should Hoffa's appeals be de- nied, the IBT Constitution was amended to provide for the office of General

Vice President. Hoffa's old friend and personal choice, Frank E. Fitzsimmons of Local 299 of Detroit, was elected to the post without opposition. In March of 1967, Hoffa was formally confined at the Federal penitentiary at Lewisburg,

Pennsylvania--convicted of "jury tampering, fraud, and conspiracy in the dis- t 1/ position of union benefit funds." Under alleged pressure from the Nixon

1/ Gary M. Fink (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders (West- port, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1974), p. 160. CRS - 18

administration, Hoffa resigned all of his Teamster positions in mid-1971 as 1/ a prior condition to commutation of his sentence.

Aside from the contribution of Senator McClellan and his associates on the Committee, much of the thrust for the investigation into the affairs of the Teamsters had come from Robert Kennedy--both in his early position with the McClellan Committee and, later, as Attorney General. By 1968, action against the Teamsters had largely fallen into abeyance. Hoffa was in prison.

Beck was in retirement. Robert Kennedy was dead, the victim of an assassin.

The advent of the Nixon Administration brought with it personnel changes within the Department of Justice. The attention of the Congress began to focus upon other matters.

The late 1960's and early 1970's saw the political rehabilitation of the

International Brotherhood of Teamsters. During the several investigations, a rather strong antagonism had developed between Hoffa and the Kennedy's. Thus, the IBT failed to support the Kennedy candidacies of 1960 and 1968 and followed the Beck pattern of associating the Union politically with the Republicans.

When Hoffa was confined at Lewisburg in 1967, he was replaced by General Vice

President (and interim president) Frank Fitzsimmons, also a Republican. Re- lations between Fitzsimmons and Richard Nixon appear to have been especially cordial. During the summer of 1971, President Nixon commuted the sentence of

James Hoffa (a thirteen-year term) and the former president of the Brotherhood was granted his freedom on at least two conditions: that he resign his various positions within the IBT and that he promise not to involve himself with the

1/ James Hoffa (as told to Oscar Fraley), Hoffa: The Real Story (New York: Stein and Day, Publishers, 1975), pp 207-218. CRS - 19

Brotherhood at least until 1980. The prohibition against involvement in union affairs closed the door to Hoffa's return to power within the Brotherhood and, several weeks later, the IBT convention met in Miami Beach and elected 1/ Fitzsimmons to a full term as General President.

Indicative of the changing position of the Teamsters, perhaps, was the flow of visitors from official Washington for the 1971 IBT convention. On

June 21, 1971, President Nixon visited convention headquarters in Miami Beach, met privately with Fitzsimmons and spent about 45 minutes with the IBT General

Executive Board inter-alia. He reportedly assured the latter group: "The door to my office is always open to President Fitzsimmons and that is the way it 2/ should be." Secretary of Labor James Hodgson addressed the convention in person, noting: "I know you may have felt a little isolated from some of the main stream in the past, but I think this is changing. Doors are opening in the Labor Department and other agencies and the White House, and we in the

Labor Department mean to do our best to keep them open." Then, with a dramatic gesture, Hodgson turned to Fitzsimmons: "Speaking of the President

[Richard Nixon], he handed me a message to bring to you, Fitz, and I would like to read it now." In a "Dear Frank" letter, President Nixon referred to the IBT as a "cornerstone of the American economic structure" and concluded:

"The confidence that I have in your future course, reinforced by our useful

1/ A.H. Raskin, "Art Buchwald suggested jokingly that Hoffa be made Secretary of Transportation. Said Jimmy Hoffa: 'Why not?"' The New York Times Magazine, December 3, 1972, pp. 44-45, 49, 52-72. See also, Hoffa, Hoffa: The Real Story, op. cit., pp. 213-218.

2/ The International Teamster, July 1971, p. 5. CRS - 20

discussions, assures me that by working together we can make steady advances in our common objectives." Secretary Hodgson, turning back to the delegates added, "....in these days when hard work and high standards are coming under attack in some areas, it's good to meet with professionals who keep their 1/ standards high."

Hodgson was not alone among Administration visitors to the IBT convention. Among others from Washington were: Under Secretary of Labor Laurence H.

Silberman; Peter G. Nash, Solicitor of the Department of Labor and General

Counsel-designate of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); Curtis Counts,

Director, Federal Mediation and Concilliation Service; W.J. Usery, then Assis-

tant Secretary of Labor for Labor-Management Relations; NLRB members John Fanning

and Gerald Brown; Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yitzhak Rabin; and

several Members of Congress. In a strong appeal to the delegates, one

Congressman urged: "James Hoffa is not only a labor leader, he is also a civil rights leader, a human rights leader, a spokesman for the poor and disen-

franchised and a humanitarian." Then, he added, Frank Fitzsimmons is "a man 2/ of equal stature" who "has already shown his great ability and integrity."

As IBT General Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Flynn noted, referring to the atten-

tion from the Nixon Administration: "That kind of recognition of our Union 3/ is progress in any league."

1/ Proceedings of the Convention of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Miami Beach, July 6, 1971, pp. 131-133. Hereafter cited as IBT-Proc.

2/ IBT-Proc., July 7, 1971, pp. 347-348.

3/ IBT-Proc., July 6, 1971, p. 142. CRS - 21

Fitzsimmons, like Hoffa, had worked his way up- through the ranks. A na- tive Pennsylvanian, he had early relocated in Michigan. Leaving school at seventeen, he moved through a series of jobs ending up, by 1934, as a truck driver and a member of IBT Local 299 (Hoffa's Local). In 1937, he was appointed business agent for the Local by Hoffa and was elected vice president of the Local in 1940. In 1961, he was elected International Vice President of the Teamsters, moving on to interim president of the IBT in 1967 and being elected to a full term in 1971.

As the IBT moved toward its 21st convention in June of 1976, the Brother- hood appeared to be strong and well. Teamster membership was in excess of two million. There were over 800 local unions and, perhaps, 40,000 labor- management agreements for which the Teamster leaders were responsible. The official IBT journal, The International Teamster, possessed a circulation of

1,886,000 (the most widely circulated labor publication in the world) and an 1/ estimated readership 5,000,000. In response to a long expressed need, a

Canadian Conference of Teamsters had been created with Edward Lawson, Vancouver,

B.C., at its head. The recent merger of the IBT with the Brewery and Soft

Drink Workers had ended a jurisdictional dispute as old as the Brotherhood itself. A new National Master Freight Agreement was a source of pride to the Fitzsimmons administration. At large, organization seemed to be moving forward.

There were, however, certain problems confronting the IBT leadership as the Las Vegas sessions opened. The so-called "David and Goliath" struggle be-

1/ The International Teamster, July 1976, p. 1. A

CRS - 22

tween Cesar Chavez, of the United Farm Workers, and the Teamsters had, with

or without justification, brought forth a generally negative reaction from

much of the liberal press which was critical of Teamster tactics and objec-

tives. In late March 1976, the NBC Nightly News aired a five-part series

on the Teamsters. John Chancellor, in introducing the first segment, refer-

red to the continuing battle for control of the IBT (the dissent within the

Union) and noted: "At stake is the enormous power of the Teamsters, the

country's largest and toughest labor union. This series of special investi- 1/ gative reports will focus on that power, and its potential for corruption."

Some suggested that the reports were not entirely free from bias and the

IBT made formal protest--but without immediate redress. Dissent, present

during the sessions at Miami in 1971, had become institutionalized in the

"Professional Drivers Council for Safety and Health" or PROD. In May of 1976,

PROD issued a book-length study titled, Teamster Democracy and Financial Re-

sponsibility? Allegation strewn and highly quotable, the PROD report received

wide publicity and the press, seemingly hostile and in search of a good story,

kept the Teamsters leadership busy denying the accusations of PROD and others.

In the weeks immediately preceding the convention, two other events occurred.

Fitzsimmons and other IBT leaders received subpoenas to testify concerning

various Teamster-related matters. Various executive agencies had expressed in-

terest in the management of Teamster pension fund investments. In the Senate,

the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations issued a staff report critical of

1/ Transcript of NBC Nightly News, March 22, 1971. CRS - 23

certain practices of IBT Local 295 in New York City--with the clear indication that further disclosures would follow. The Nixon-Fitzsimmons alliance was at an end. As the IBT delegates approached the Convention Center on June 14, they 1/ were confronted with a PROD-inspired picket line.

Nor were the leadership's problems over once the sessions 'commenced.

Fitzsimmons' opening day suggestion that the dissidents could "Go to Hell" was pounced upon by the press. U.S. Labor Secretary Usery's greeting to the delegates that, although he was not a member of their union, "I belong to this club because I believe in it," produced a round of editorial and congressional comment generally suggesting that the Secretary had been, at a minimum, indis- crete in his remarks. Adding an air of mystery to the entire proceeding was the yet unsolved disappearance of James Hoffa just a year earlier. Finally, cast over all, was the shadow produced by a quarter century of hearings and the ceaseless stories in the periodical press suggestive of much but, often, proving little.

At the 1976 convention, Fitzsimmons was re-elected for a second full term as General President of the IBT. Ray Schoessling of Chicago, out of the brewery workers, was elected to a full term as General Secretary-Treasurer. The two men received substantial increases in annual salary--to $156,250.00 and 2/ $125,000.00 respectively. Meanwhile, the dissidents regrouped and, follow-

1/ John Herling's Labor Letter, Inc., June 19, 1976.

2/ Bureau of National Affairs, Daily Labor Letter, June 14, 1976, pp. A-12 to A-16; June 15, 1976, p. A-17; and June 16, 1976, pp. A-15 to A-16. CRS - 24

ing an insurgent convention at Kent State in the fall of 1976, set forth a new reform program under the organizational title, "Teamsters for a Democratic Union"-- 1/ the PROD remaining actively in the field as a separate body.

Bibliographical Sketch of the Teamsters:

For nearly a quarter of a century, the International Brotherhood of

Teamsters, Chauffers, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (IBT) has been under more or less continuing investigation by agencies in the public sector: by the Departments of Labor and Justice, by the Internal Revenue Service and by several committees of the Congress. The Teamsters and their leaders--

Dave Beck, James Hoffa, Frank Fitzsimmons--have made headlines in the public press for a generation. So have those outside of the Union actively concerned with its rectitude--Senator John McClellan, his associates, and the staff of the "McClellan Committee," Robert Kennedy, Carmine Bellino and Walter Sheridan.

In 1957, the IBT (with several other unions) was expelled from the AFL-CIO, a major and dramatic step in the history of American labor. From 1958 to 1961, the Union was placed under the supervision of a court-arranged "Board of

Monitors"--something of a deviation from prior labor-management practice.

There have been allegations of labor-management collusion, infiltration of the Brotherhood by organized crime, a variety of criminal prosecutions--some successful, some not--and the disappearance of a former IBT president (James R.

Hoffa) without a trace. On the other hand, observers have charged that the investigations were. a "vendetta ," a violation of the civil rights of the

Teamster leaders and politically motivated. Columnists and investigative re-

1/ Jerry Bornstein, "Transforming the Teamsters," The Progressive, December 1976, pp. 47-48. CRS - 25

porters have vied with each other in support of their respective points-of-

view. For over a decade, there has been the drama of the David and Goliath

struggle between the IBT and the United Farm Workers. In Alaska, IBT Local

959, under the leadership of Jesse Carr, has caught the public's attention

while development of the Alyeska Pipe Line has created something approaching

boom conditions. More recently, attention has focused again upon the

management of the various Teamster pension funds. The IBT is, perhaps,

the most written about trade union in the world.

This does not mean that the history of the Teamsters is either well or

widely know. In the early 1950's, prior to the McClellan Committee investi-

gations, one could safely affirm that "no impartial or thorough survey of it 1/ [the IBT] had ever been made."~ The situation has changed little. Two sur-

veys of the Union have appeared: Robert Leiter's The Teamsters Union: A Study darr. of Its Economic Impact (New York, 1957) and Sam Romer's The International

Brotherhood of Teamsters: Its Government and Structure (New York, 1962).

Each is brief, general in its treatment and, essentially, dependent upon the

work of prior writers. While both Leiter and Romer have conducted primary

research in certain areas, they have both, of necessity, relied heavily upon

secondary sources. Romer's work, published fifteen years ago, is the most re-

I 4r cent overview of the history and structure of the IBT. There are other spe-

cialized studies--a few books, a few articles--but there is nothing currently

available which presents a solid, thoroughly researched history of the Union.

1/ Robert Leiter, Economic Achievements of the Teamsters Union, pamphlet issued by IBT Local 688, St. Louis, Missouri, January 26, 1958. M

CRS - 26

Writers dealing with the Teamsters fall into several initially distinct,

then integrated, categories. Among them, one might note: (1) the press--of

whatever persuasion, labor and management reports and journals, television fea-

tures, magazines of thought and opinion; (2) the economic scholars--concerned

with statistics, contract negotiations, the structure of the transportation in-

dustry, wage and hour calculations; (3) the lawyers--dealing basically with ci-

vil liberties and labor law; (4) the hagiographers and muckrakers--professional

spokesmen for or against, as the case may be, the leaders of labor or of busi-

ness, idolators or detractors of the investigators and the investigated; and

(5) the historians--drawing upon independent research and from all of the above,

sometimes without due discrimination, and producing a synthesis or overview.

To date, where the Teamsters are concerned, the great bulk of written documen-

tation has been produced by the press, by the hagiographers and muckrakers.

The first serious look at the Teamsters appears to have been the article

by John R. Commons, "Types of American Labor Organization--The Teamsters of

Chicago," Quarterly Journal of Economics (May 1905), written just as the

great Chicago strike of 1905 was getting underway. In nature, the Commons

article is a preliminary study of Teamster organization to be built upon by

subsequent scholars. Unfortunately, later scholars have not ventured beyond

Professor Commons' work; so that, taken together with essays by Ray S. Baker,

"Capital and Labor Hunt Together," McClure's Magazine (September 1903), and

John Cummings, "The Chicago Teamsters' Strike--A Study in Industrial Democracy,"

Journal of Political Economy (September 1905), the Commons study remains the

basic interpretation of the early Teamsters movement in Chicago--a critical

period in the Union's history. CRS - 27

From 1905 forward, the omissions in the written history of the IBT are massive. Cornelius P.Shea, IBT President from 1903 to 1907--from the forma-

tion of the Union at Niagara Falls through the Chicago strike (1905) and its

aftermath, has disappeared from scholarly view though his contribution to the

early history of the Teamsters, for better or worse, was substantial. Neither

Solon De Leon's The American Labor Who's Who (New York, 1925) nor Gary M. Fink's

Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders (Westport, Conn., 1974) makes

even passing mention of Shea. Generalists, however, persist in speaking ill

of him, basing their judgements largely upon a hostile public press.

Although Daniel J. Tobin served forty-five years as IBT President, there

does not appear to be a single, scholarly article specifically about the man,

his views, his faults, his quality and pattern of leadership, etc. This has

not prevented writers such as Wellington Roe, Juggernaut: American Labor in

Action (Philadelphia, 1948), without visible documentation, from affirming

that Tobin "and his tight little clique have run the Teamsters' union with a

stern disregard for the opinions of much of its membership." Roe refers to 1/ the Tobin administration as a "dictatorship over the union"~ while Murray

Morgan, in Skid Road: An Information Portrait of Seattle (New York, 1951),

with equal assurance and a similar lack of footnotes, tells us:. "In each

-city or area the local boss ran things pretty much his own way, though it was

advisable for the satraps to make an occasional low bow in the direction of 2/ Indianapolis, where lived Dan Tobin ...

1/ Wellington Roe, Juggernaut: American Labor in Action (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1948), p. 62.

2/ Murray Morgan, Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle (New York: The Viking Press, 1951), p. 265. 4

CRS - 28

Both scholars and-popular writers, in a similar manner, have been criti-

cal of Tobin for his supposed failure to root out racketeering among dissident

teamsters in Chicago during the 1930's. Barbara W. Newell's Chicago and the

Labor Movement: Metropolitan Unionism in the 1930's (Urbana, 1961) appears to

be the single scholarly work to deal with this question. Although she does

not appear to have made significant use of Teamster sources, Professor Newell

cautiously suggests that the IBT leadership (including Tobin) cooperated with

the public authorities in an effort to end gangsterism within the United

Teamsters--an independent Chicago teaming union actively hostile to Tobin's 1/ IBT. While professional discipline may restrain a scholarly judgement,

journalists are somewhat freer. Sam Romer, a reporter for the Minneapolis

Tribune, notes flatly:

"He [Tobin] was highly regarded for his personal honesty, but he did

not dare to lance the boils of corruption and racketeering which fester-

ed under his administration and sorely tried his successors. It took

the machine-gun assassination of an international vice-president and

the wounding of a general organizer to bring Tobin into Chicago in 1932,

but all he did was stamp his approval on a plan already worked out by 2/ public officials and he made no real effort to clean up the mess."

Although Romer has given Tobin's position in rather strong terms, he has

not offered documentation. Who regarded highly Tobin's personal honesty?

1/ Barbara Warne Newell, Chicago and the Labor Movement: Metropolitan Unionism in the 1930's (Urbana: The University of Illinois Press, 1961), pp. 94-114.

2/ Sam Romer, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters: Its Government and Structure (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1962), pp. 33-34. CRS - 29

What happened to the vice president and the general organizer and why? Did

Tobin merely "stamp his approval on a plan already worked out by public officials?" What was the role of the independent United Teamsters in the affair?

What might one find the the files of the IBT or the Department of Justice or the Illinois State's Attorney? Romer simply moves on to other topics.

Of Tobin's associates--Thomas L. Hughes, General Secretary-Treasurer of the IBT from 1905 to 1941; Tobin's close aides John Gillespie and John F.

English; the early leaders of the Teamsters in the Far West Michael Casey,

John McLaughlin and John O'Connell--almost nothing is known. Casey, alone, has received scholarly attention and then, only of a very general sort by historians dealing broadly with the Union. Edward Turley, the first General Secretary-

Treasurer of the IBT (1903-1905) has disappeared totally from history.

Dave Beck has received vastly greater attention than his predecessor, Tobin, but in terms of quality of coverage he has fared little better. In 1938, an

Oregon journalist, Richard Neuberger (later United States Senator from Oregon), wrote an article, "Labor Overlords--Bridges and Beck," for The American

Magazine (March 1938) and followed it up with a book, Our Promised Land (New

York, 1938). Popular, informally written, the Neuberger studies made no pre-

tense of being other than what they were--the personal reportage of a free

lance writer about a land of which he was intensely proud. "Only the Far West," 1/ Neuberger wrote, "could produce a labor leader like Dave Beck."~ But for the historical interpretation of Dave Beck and the western Teamsters, Neuberger's work was of great importance.

1/ Richard L. Neuberger, Our Promised Land (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938), p. 182. CRS - 30

During an interview in 1938, Beck explained to Neuberger "that he ran the Teamsters' Union just like a big business." Neuberger reacted starkly.

"And with that brief statement, uttered so vauntingly," he recalled, "I felt

I understood Dave Beck. I knew what made him tick. The most powerful A. F. 1/ of L. leader west of the Mississippi would like to be a business man."

The image of Dave Beck, business unionist, stuck--bolstered by Beck's periodic

speeches and articles.

Not without affection for Beck but certainly without care for detail,

the journalist continued his account. "The hard-slugging, swift-attaching

'goon squad' of the Teamsters' Union is a legend as well as an accomplished

fact throughout the Far West. Not many of Beck's foes escape knowledge of.its 2/ merciless fury," Neuberger affirmed. Again, warming to the theme of labor

violence, Neuberger moved to perpetuate the legend. "A galaxy of teamster

business agents, secretaries, muscle men, stooges, and 'goons' are in country

jails and rural lockups in the State of Oregon," he noted in a statement

broad even by journalistic standards. "Scattered all through the picturesque

Willamette Valley, from Portland south into the orchard area, dozens of truck 3/ drivers and their allies have been arrested."~ Turning to the conflict be-

tween Beck and Harry Bridges of the CIO, Neuberger notes: "Few situations have had so many elements calculated to antagonize the general public. There

is Beck, obese, domineering, and crafty. His 'goon squad' is full of thugs,

1/ Ibid., p. 188-189.

2/ Ibid., p. 184. Emphasis added.

3/ Ibid., p. 212. Emphasis added. CRS - 31

prize fighters, and other plug-uglies." He goes on to talk of "a hord of

teamster beat-up gangs," of "terrorism and racketeering" and of "the tyran- 1/ nical Beck and his pugilistic 'goons.'

Neuberger's regional studies have reached far beyond the confines of the

Pacific Northwest. Romer, in his more serious work, recalls that Beck "told 2/ an interviewer in 1938" that he ran his office "just like a business."~ While

the comment originated with Neuberger in a neutral way--and Romer cites

Neuberger's Our Promised Land, it was passed along by Romer as criticism. One

might argue that Romer has balanced the journalism of Neuberger against the

scholarship of Leiter, whom he also cites, were it not that Leiter, in turn 3/ cites the work of Neuberger as a source for his interpretation of Beck.

Similarly, the Neuberger style and much of its substance has been carried

on, through many editions, in Murray Morgan.'s popular Skid Road. For histor-

ians of Pacific Northwest labor, a now standard source is Revolution in Seattle:

A Memoir (New York, 1964) by labor journalist Harvey O'Connor. O'Connor's

work focuses upon the era of World War I and the Seattle general strike of

1919--though he brings his narrative up to more recent times and, in the pro-

cess, takes several swings at Beck. For the earlier period, O'Connor was a

personal observer; but, having left Seattle about 1924, prior to Dave Beck's

rise to power, he has found it necessary to rely upon others for his assess- I ment of the Teamster chief--citing both Neuberger's Our Promised Land and

Morgan's Skid Road.

1/ Ibid., pp. 262-263. 2/ Romer, op. cit., pp. 34-35. 3/ Leiter, ap. cit., p. 295. CRS - 32

The Neuberger/Morgan perspective on Beck has been carried a step further in a pair of articles by Seattle Journalist, Joe Miller, "Labor's New Strong

Man," The New Republic (August 1, 1949) and "Dave Beck Comes Out of the West,"

The Reporter (December 8, 1953), and in an unsigned article in Fortune, "Beck's

Bad Boys" (December 1954)--each of which is cited by Leiter among his sources.

The Miller article from The Reporter and a Time cover article on Beck, "The

Herdsman" (November 29, 1948)--the latter strongly in the Neuberger/Morgan tra- dition, are cited by Donald Garnel in his scholarly study, The Rise of Teamster

Power in the West (Berkely, 1972). Garnel, who has written the most comprehen- sive study to date of the western Teamsters and of Beck, has researched very broadly but includes among his sources Neuberger's Our Promised Land and Leiter's

The Teamsters Union--the latter, in turn, relying upon Neuberger's work.

Journalists and scholars work under quite different professional standards. Their purposes are different, to some degree, as are the economics and time limitations of their respective fields. Yet, they interact upon each other. In the case of Dave Beck (and, more broadly, of the Teamsters), there has developed a curiously circular and, perhaps, unhealthy intermixing of popular journalism and historical scholarship in which, to paraphrase Neuberger, the legend has become its own accomplished fact.

In San Francisco in 1947, confronted by a hostile press, Tobin admonished the delegates to the IBT convention that "when you read something that is not complimentary, just understand that the other fellow who writes those things 1/ has to make a living too." The journalistic requirement to sell a story (or

1/ Proceedings of the Convention of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, San Francisco, August 13, 1947, p. 286. CRS - 33

a newspaper) may well influence both style and content in labor reporting.

A strike, labor-management strife, industrial violence, massive layoffs,

scandals--make more exciting copy than do more mundane accounts of quietly

negotiated contracts, peaceful collective bargaining, properly functioning

grievance procedures, diligent trade unionists and the prompt payment of pen-

sion benefits to retirees. As Dave Beck once noted: "It is always easier to

talk about wrong ideas, wrong methods and wrong policies than it is accurately 1/ to suggest right ideas, right methods, and right policies."

Labor reporting has its own special style--as does society or sports re-

porting. No matter how restrictive a trade union constitution may be, it is 2/ routine to refer to labor leaders as "labor czars"~ or to term an individual 3/ 4/ a "labor baron"~ or "boss".- Equally, it is standard practice, on the one

hand, to hold federation executives accountable for improprieties in the affi-

liated locals while, on the other hand, a violation of local union autonomy,

however noble the purpose, is likely to be branded tyranny and bossism. Ref- 5/ 6/ erences to "professional bullyboys" or to "goon squad" and "plug-uglies"

pass without the requirement of precise definition.

Nor is lack of precision confined to the secular press. Labor journalist,

John W. Edelman, recalling his days as a CIO organizer, notes:

1/ Dave Beck, "What Labor Wants," The American Legion Magazine, May 1947, p. 11. 2/ See Harold Seidman, Labor Czars: A History of Labor Racketeering (New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 1938). 3/ Joe Miller, "Dave Beck Comes Out of the West," The Reporter, December 8, 1953, p. 8, editor's introduction. 4/ Fred J. Cook, "The Hoffa Trial," The Nation, April 27, 1964, p. 417. 5/ Morgan, op. cit., p. 248. 6/ Neuberger, Our Promised Land, p. 262. CRS - 34

'... . learned that the fledgling CIO had formed a local in a bakery

in which the Teamsters already had a "sweetheart" contract. The em-

ployer had complained to the Teamsters, and the Teamsters had given

the word to 'get Edelman.'

"So for several weeks I lived in a hotel room in Philadelphia.

The only time that I saw my family was in the North Philadelphia rail-

road waiting room where they came to visit me--and to bring me fresh 1/ clothes and laundry. It wasn't very romantic."

The story is good drama, but Edelman is curiously short on detail. Was the labor-management agreement in question really a "sweetheart" contract or just good bargaining? What was meant by "get Edelman?" There are no names, places, firms identified--and, thus, it is impossible to verify or to refute the charge of Edelman (now deceased); but, inevitably, it adds yet one more twist to the legend of the Teamsters.

Labor writers have shown a peculiar concern with the physical character- istics and appearance of trade union leaders. Neuberger refers to the "squishy- 2/ 3/ muscled" Beck with "his domelike head and soft shoulders." Again, he comments upon the "squat-shouldered, beefy-jowled teamster organizer" from Seattle who

"expansively waved a fat hand around his carefully appointed, dark-paneled 4/ office" during their 1938 interview, and notes that Beck is "obese and pudgy."

Morgan, in turn, suggests that Beck "is vain about his appearance and resents especially the adjective 'pudgy' which hostile editorialists overwork in des-

1/ John W. Edelman, Labor Lobbyist: The Autobiography of John W. Edelman (Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1974), pp. 142-143. 2/ Neuberger, Our Promised Land, p. 212. 3/ Ibid., p. 183. 4/ Ibid., p. 182. CRS - 35

1/ cribing him." In a distinctly pejorative tone, Readers Digest staffer

Lester Velie describes Frank Fitzsimmons as a "phlegmatic, pumpkin-faced 2/ 66-year-old with a heavy belly." Senator John McClellan, in his review of the Senate investigation of the Teamsters, recalls the "pompous" Beck with an "almost supercilious voice" while, he notes, Hoffa presented his testimony in an "insolent rumble." The Senator continues: "Time after time, the chunky man with the powerful, lumpy face and the thick forearms and heavy, blunt hands [Hoffa] would sit in the witness chair as the voice grated out the toneless answers: 'I don't remember . . . . I can't recall . . . . I for- 3/ get . . . p.'

A literary style, frequently used in dealing with the Teamsters, is the expose. In such works, writers, very carefully, suggest or allude to corrupt, barbarous, offensive behavior--dealing often in sweeping generalizations, inu- endo, guilt by association--and then, remarkably, neglect to provide the reader with substantiating notes or other visible documentation. While writers of exposes are not bound by the restraints of scholarly discipline, their articles and books not infrequently are cited in the footnotes or bibliography of serious writers and may well impact upon the content or interpretation in scholarly works.

In 1938, Harold Seidman's book, Labor Czars: A History of Labor Racke- teering, appeared. In a chapter titled, "Does the A.F. of L. Want Racketeer- ing?" Seidman observed:

1/ Morgan, op. cit., p. 270. 2/ Lester Velie, "The Mafia Tightens Its Grip on the Teamsters," The Reader's Digest, August 1974, p. 101. 3/ McClellan, op. cit., pp. 4-5. CRS - 36

"Five additional vice-presidents [of the AFL] represent unions in

which racketeering has appeared, and few of them have shown any

inclination to reform their own unions. Vice-President Daniel Tobin

is president of what is perhaps the most racketeer-ridden union in

the United States today, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The teamsters' locals are the backbone of the poultry, trucking,

cleaning and dyeing, and laundry rackets. Not once has Tobin ex-

tended his aid to rank and filers in their fight on teamsters'

officials of the ilk of 'Tootsie' Herbert."

Then, enumerating a list of trade union leaders that he considered venial,

Seidman charged that Tobin and the others "can, if they so desire, out-vote the other members of the executive council of the A.F. of L. nine to seven.

In view of this fact, it is not surprising that the executive council has dis- 1/ played little interest in checking the growth.of union corruption." Seidman offers no substantiating documentation and only the most limited bibliography. 2/ The IBT's General Executive Board considered the possibility of suit. But such suits are hard to win and a victory may be of dubious worth, the real battle being fought not in the courts but in the press.

The expose has found a ready market in the periodical press. In a June

1954 article, "How Welfare Funds Are Looted," in The Reader s Digest, Lester

Velie notes:

1/ Seidman, op. cit., pp. 254-255. 2/ Minutes of the General Executive Board (IBT), June 14, 1938, reprinted in Proceedings of the Convention of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, September 9, 1940, pp. 86-87. CRS - 37

"A new and heartless racket, involving the earnings of thousands of

American workers, is being uncovered today by Congressional commit-

tees, federal grand juries and local prosecutors. They have discov-

ered that millions of hard-earned dollars intended to ease the 'lives

of wage earners and their families are, instead, providing lives of

ease for get-rich-quick union racketeers and gangsters. This money

is being boodled from the new and vastly rich union employer welfare 1/ funds."

Velie discusses the Hoffa record ("arrested 20 times, mostly on assualt char-

ges, and once was sentenced to two years' probation on an extortion-conspiracy 2/ charge"), discusses IBT pension fund investment practices, "creeping corrup- 3/ tion," the "union tycoon who uses his power to amass great wealth,"~ etc..

For the next twenty-three years, Velie continued his series of articles

exposing alleged corruption in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the

essays appearing one after another in the pages of The Reader's Digest. Among

them are: "The Ordeal of Edward Chevlin" (February 1955), an account which

"spotlights a perverted form of unionism in which union bosses exploit their 4/ own members;" "Racket in the Juke Box" (November 1955), which advises that

"Mobsters aided by corrupt union locals have invaded the two-billion-dollar 5/ vending-machine industry"--an account pointing directly to the Teamsters;

T 1/ Lester Velie, "How Welfare Funds Are Looted," The Reader's Digest, June 1954, p. 127. 2/ Ibid., p. 128. 3/ Ibid., p. 131. 4/ Lester Velie, "The Ordeal of Edward Chevlin," The Reader's Digest, February 1955, p. 1. 5/ Lester Velie, "Racket in the Juke Box," The Reader's Digest, November 1955, p. 65. CRS - 38

and "The Strange Saga of James Hoffa, Banker" (August 1962). In the latter,

Velie drops the names of Albert Anastasia, "onetime chief executioner of

Murder, Inc.," and Bugsy Siegel and recounts the tale of "the ill-fated

Gus Greenbaum, who was found with his wife, trussed up and butchered like

a steer," while he discusses the actuarial soundness of the Central States 1/ Pension Fund. Through the years, the Velie essays have continued to appear: 2/ "The Mafia Tightens Its Grip on the Teamsters" (August 1974); "Why Jimmy 3/ Hoffa Had To Die" (December 1976) and "Can the Rank and File Clean Up the 4/ Teamsters?" (January 1977).

In 1958, Velie summarized his thoughts and findings about corruption in

the trade union movement (and other matters) in his book, Labor U.S.A.. His 5/- study "makes no attempt to be all-inclusive" and "isn't a history." In

addition to contemporary sources, Velie has turned to Leiter's account, noting

that it offers "some valuable chapters on the union's early history and on the 6/ economics of the trucking industry, but glosses over the scandals." In his

book, as in his articles, Velie's footnotes are sparce--given the controversial

nature of the subject matter he treats. A brief essay on research techniques

and materials appears in the first edition. When a substantially revised ver-

sion of the work appeared in 1964, Labor U.S.A. Today, the essay on sources

1/ Lester Velie, "The Strange Saga of James Hoffa, Banker," The Reader's Digest, August 1962, pp. 81-85. 2/ Velie, "The Mafia Tightens Its Grip on the Teamsters," op. cit., pp. 99-103. 3/ Lester Velie, "Why Jimmy Hoffa Had To Die," The Reader's Digest, December 1976, pp. 237-257. 4/ Lester Velie, "Can the Rank and File Clean Up the Teamsters," The Reader's Digest, January 1977, pp. 54-58. 5/ Lester Velie, Labor U.S.A. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. XV. 6/ Ibid., p. 295. CRS - 39

was omitted and Velie very frankly noted that his aim was to provide a book 1/ "that might interest, say, an intelligent newspaper reader." The problem,

however, is that the average newspaper reader, not being in a position to do

primary research, is dependent upon the judgement and integrity of writers

who specialize as does Velie. In the absence of visible documentation, that

dependence is, essentially, blind. A new volume by Velie dealing with the

Hoffa disappearance is scheduled for publication early in 1977.

In substance, the expose may be correct or it may be totally in error.

The data presented may be accurate or they may be pure fabrication. Without

footnotes (in some substantial form), the reader has no basis for evaluation.

What is meant by "rackets" or "mobsters" or "the Mafia?" When are the names

of crime figures really relevant; when are they employed merely to embellish

a story? In the expose, as a literary type, these questions almost defy an-

swer. The expose is not scholarship. It is not intended to be. But it does

impact upon scholarship.

On the other hand, the investigative pieces of Fred J. Cook in The Nation,

"The Hoffa Trial" (April 27, 1964) and "Taps, Bugs & Spies: Anything to Get

Hoffa" (February 20, 1967), also offer little documentation. While Cook pre-

sents in some detail the activities of the so-called "Hoffa Squad" and the

"vendetta" to bring down James Hoffa, one is largely dependent upon the inte-

grity of the writer--given the absence of visible sources and cross-documentation.

The essays of Velie and Cook and others, whatever their merit--even pro-

voking important questions as they may, are now a part of the bibliographic

1/ Lester Velie, Labor U.S.A. Today (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1964), p. X.

a CRS - 40

record and students and shapers of public policy have to contend with them.

Citations both to Velie and to Cook appear in other words, both popular and

scholarly. In each case (and especially so in the case of Velie because of

the extended years over which he has written and the wide audience to which

his articles have appealed), the authors and their works have become a part

of the story itself.

It may well be impossible to write a serious, scholarly, documented his-

tory of the ties between labor, management and "the underworld." Paul Jacobs,

associated with the Fund for the Republic, notes that "unlike government,

business or the unions, there are so few ex-radical comrades in the underworld,

able to have some perspective on it . . . no one in the modern underworld

writes his memoirs." And, Jacobs adds: "There is a general disposition on

the part of writers sympathetic to the stated aspirations of the unions, to 1/ ignore the underworld's presence even if they are aware of it." Historians

(and other academicians) may not be especially well suited for research in

this area. They lack the power of subpoena and are dependent upon the volun-

tary cooperation of the subjects of their investigation--be they businessmen,

politicians, trade union leaders or members of "the underworld."

Two recent academic studies are representative of this dilemma. Philip

Taft's Corruption and Racketeering in the Labor Movement (Ithaca, 1970) draws

upon a lifetime of scholarly research and direct contacts with labor-management

relations. While insightful and useful in setting a theoretical context for

the further study of the question, Taft's essay does not pretend to develop

specific data. John Hutchinson's The Imperfect Union: A History of Corruption

1/ Paul Jacobs, "Hoffa and the Underworld," Dissent, Autumn, 1959, pp. 437-438. CRS - 41

in American Trade Unions (New York, 1970) is far more ambitious. It presents a broad, general overview of corruption in the labor-management field through long periods of time and involving many different unions. It is both tedious and inconclusive. For those chapters which deal with the IBT, there is no indication that significant Teamster sources were consulted. Rather, Hutchinson appears to have relied upon Leiter, the several studies by Ralph and Estelle 1/ James and the hearings of the McClellan Committee.

If journalists and scholars have fallen, perhaps, somewhat short in their investigations of the Teamsters and, more broadly, of labor-management relations, public officials and congressional committees that have worked in this area have not emerged without criticism. Public bodies, certainly, are not engaged primarily in scholarly endeavor. They are not bound by the normal rules of scholarship. Similarly, witnesses who appear before the investigative committees, though they may be under oath, may not be privy to the complete truth about any given subject of questioning. Or, for their own purposes witnesses may not wish to speak fully and frankly--though the subject may be one of intense public interest. Writers, whether popular or scholarly, have not always been careful to make precise qualifications when citing or quoting from testimony given before an investigative body. The result, on occasion, has left the committe itself open to criticism--perhaps unfair criticism.

In his study, Labor Today: The Triumphs and Failures of Unionism in the

United States (Boston, 1964) B.J. Widick suggests: "Critics of Hoffa are at

l/ See Ralph C. James and Estelle D. James, Hoffa and the Teamsters: A Study of Union Power (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1965). The husband and wife industrial economics/industrial relations team has written numerous articles on aspects of IBT history and practice, generally focusing upon the Hoffa era. a

CRS - 42

a considerable disadvantage in spite of the widespread publicity given to his

unscrupulous activities." He continues: "Too many of his public critics have

a long record of anti-unionism that makes suspect their charges and motives.

These critics include members of the Senate committee which investigated him, 1/ who could scarcely expect a friendly reception in most labor circles."

Paul Jacobs adds: "Quite apart from Robert Kennedy's obvious obsession with

the pursuit of Hoffa, what was primarily lacking in the McClellan Committee was

a sense of judgement. As a result, the real problems of the American trade

unions have become obscured by masses of sensational triviality, dredged up 2/ by the committee staff." In spite of the serious character and important

purpose of the work of the McClellan Committee, Sam Romer, whose study is the

most recent overview of the history of the Teamsters, has charged that the

Committee, "like other congressional committees before it, conducted a one- 3/ sided inquiry and often was more interested in headlines than perspective."

Again, one must ask, are such charges fair and just and documentable?

The work of the McClellan Committee and of the Department of Justice, as-

it relates to the Teamsters, has been the subject of substantial literary atten-

tion, much of it highly partisan. For the Teamster position, Hoffa's own

accounts, The Trials of Jimmy Hoffa: An Autobiography (Chicago, 1970) and

Hoffa: The Real Story (New York, 1975), and the essays of Fred Cook, cited

above, are representative. The case for the Committee and for the Department

is stated directly and with force in Robert Kennedy's The Enemy Within (New

1/ B.J. Widick, Labor Today: The Triumphs and Failures of Unionism in the United States (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1964), pp. 146-147. 2/ Jacobs, op. cit., p. 437. 3/ Romer, op. cit., p. 102. CRS - 43

York, 1960), John McClellan's useful Crime Without Punishment (New York, 1962) and Walter Sheridan's The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hoffa (New York, 1972). The contribution of Clark Mollenhoff must be viewed in a somewhat different context. While he functioned as a reporter, he was also an active participant in the events that he was reporting. As he points out in his account, Tentacles of Power: The Story of Jimmy Hoffa (Cleveland, 1965), he served as a conduit between Secretary of Labor James Mitchell and the Committee and may have been, from his perspective, in large measure responsible for initiating the Teamster 1/ investigation from the start.

Scholarly research concerning the history of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, taken in the broadest sense, is substantial but incomplete. Given the several barriers to effective research about the IBT, it is unlikely that the gaps will be filled any time soon. The basic research has not been done.

The data are not now available.

1/ Clark R. Mollenhoff, Tentacles of Power: The Story of Jimmy Hoffa (Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1965), pp. 122-139. CRS - 44

Table 1

CHANGES IN THE EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP OF THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHER OF TEAMSTERS

General Secretary- Date General President Treasurer Cause of Change

1903 Cornelius Shea, Edward Turley, of Boston of Chicago

1905 Thomas L. Hughes, Turley defeated for re-election of Chicago by Hughes.

1907 Daniel J. Tobin, Shea defeated for re-election by of Boston Tobin.

1941 John M. Gillespie, Hughes died in office, 2/19/41. of Boston Gillespie appointed to complete term.

1946 John F. English, Gillespie died in office, 1/12/46, and of Boston English appointed to complete Hughes- Gillespie term. Elected to full term commencing in 1947.

1952 Dave Beck, of Tobin retired as President Emeritus. Seattle Beck elected as his successor.

1957 James R. Hoffa, Beck retired as President Emeritus. of Detroit Hoffa elected as his successor.

1967 [Frank Fitzsimmons) Hoffa sentenced to prison, Fitzsimmons, as General Vice Presi- dent, assumed office in Hoffa's place, March 1967.

1969 Thomas E. Flynn English died in office, 2/3/69. of Chicago Flynn appointed to complete term and elected to a full term in July 1971.

1971 Frank Fitzsimmons, Hoffa resigned as IBT President, of Detroit June 1971, Fitzsimmons assuming full presidential responsibilities and being elected to a full term in July 1971.

1972 Murray W. Miller, Flynn died in office, 3/9/72 and of Dallas Miller was appointed to complete term.

1976 ------Ray Schoessling, Miller retired in January of 1976. of Chicago Schoessling appointed to complete term and elected to full term in June 1976. a'-4J ('i 0 r1 I . 0

Historical Statistics Concerning the International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Table 2 a

Percent of Increase in Consumer Price Reported Percent of Ann usI Percent of Index Between Dates Average Annual Increase in Salary 1Sr Increas.. in Consumer of Changes in Date of Place of IST Annual Salary 13? President's Secretarv- Sec.-Treas.'% Price Index Executive Salaries Convention Convention - Membershioa - .. mi"Z" 2/ President Salay 4/ Treasurer -m am a ]f 19&7s1001 President Sec.-Trees. Aug. 3-13, 1903 Niagara Falls 32,000 $1,600 $1,800 0- 27 Aug. 1904 Cincinnati 56,241 0 0 27 Aug. 7-15, 1905 Philadelphia 46,164 0 0 27 Aug. 6-13, 1906 Chicago 37.525 0 0 27 Aug. 5-13, 1907 Boston 34,905 0 0 28 Aug. 3-8, 1908 Detroit 35,229 2,400 33.3 2,400 33.3 27 0 0 Aug. 1-6, 1910 Peoria 36,643 0 0 26 Aug. 7-12, 1912 Indianapolis 42,159 0 0 29 Oct. 4-9, 1915 Sam Francisco 52.169 4,000 66.7 4,000 66.7 30.4 12.6 12.6 [April. 19181 1/ 74,359 5,000 25 5,000 25 45.1 48.4 48.4 Oct . 4-9. 1920 Cleveland 112,453 9,000 s0 9,000 to 60.0 33.0 33.0 Sept . 14-16, 1925 Sattle 78.969 15,000 66.7 15,000 66.7 52.5 -12.5 -12.5 Sept. 8-12, 1930 Cincinnati 66,209 20,000 33.3 20,000 33.3 50.0 -4.8 -4.8 Sept. 9-13, 1935 Portland 146,035 3,- 0 0 41.1 Sept. 9-14, 1940 VashingtonD.C. 456,589 30,000 50 30,000 50 42.0 -16.0 -16.0 Aug. 11-15, 1947 Ban Francisco 890.664 0 0 66.9 Oct. 13-17, 1952 Les Angeles 1,120.245 50,000 66.7 50,000 66.7 79.5 89.3 69.3 9/30-10/5, 1957 Miami Beach 1,399,938 0 0 4.3 July 3-7, 1961 Miami Beach 1,700,992 75,000 50 0 69.6 12.7 July 4-7, 1%6 Misai Beach 1,772,194 100,000 33.3 75,000 50 97.2 8.5 22.3 July 5-, 1971 Miami Reach 1,830,000 125,000 25 100,000 33.3 121.3 24.8 24.8 Jwe 14-17, 1976 Los Vegas 2,000,000 ca.3/ 156,250 25 125,000 25 164.9 (Jwe) 35.9 35.9

1/ The salary of the I3T General President of the General Secretary-Treasurer and C Table is taken from a CRS report by William raised by retroactive , meeting C. were $1,000.00. to April 1917, at the of the Wbittaker, Establishment IT-Comeral 3, The action, designed to meet the "The of Salary Scale for Lwecutive beard, April 1918. Executive Officers of the international demae of wartime ausual not motherhood inflation, was but was oppesed by the 1920 of Teamsters: Perepectivee nd Castest," camvesties-the letter 05 January appevimg the actions of the for the interim years 25. 1977, l8pp. 1915 to 1920.

2/ MembershLp statistics are taken fram Robert D. Leiter, he Teamsters Unies: A ut*d of Its Reesemit !Wt (New York: boobsen Associates, lac., 1975), pp. 33 d H. Liter has relied upon data provided by the AFL and the U3T. For the years 1957. 191 164 and 1971, statistics have been drawn fram The International Teamster for October 1957, p. 30. August 191. p. 50, August 1966, p. 43,aMATgust 1971. p. 14. Annual averages for the years 1%6 through 1971 are based on data current for November of the year previous. Some years, mebership peaked at a fiAure higher than the annual average. Further, variations occur in listing .f membershi-p statistics. figures bere should be regarded as approxiestions.

3/ Proceedings for the 1976 IST convention are not yet generally available. Msmership statistics for 1976 are a rough approxisation.

4/ Mathematical calculations have been prepared by Denwis Roth, Analyst in Labor economics and Relations, Econouics Division, CRS.