CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARY Cidof CONGRESS TABLE of CONTENTS

14 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, delegates 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 power- ful 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 struc- ture, 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 bar- gaining 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 sugges- tive 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 publi- cation 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.

Load more