International Brotherhood of Teamsters – Wikipedia

The main administration of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in the northwest of Washington, D.C.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters ( IBT , German, for example, “International Brotherhood of the Fuhrers”), for short only called “Teamsters”, is the union of the transport workers and the largest individual union in the USA based in Washington, D.C. And has also been working in Canada with the headquarters in Laval since 1992.

The IBT , formerly also known under International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (as of 2004) has around 1.4 million members -paying members and 400,000 pensioners and is therefore also one of the largest individual unions worldwide.

Initially, the “Teamsters” were only one union for truck drivers, but expanded to the general transport union and today extend into the food industry. So you are z. B. also the responsible union at the logistical giant UPS.

The union is part of the Change to Win union group today after leaving the former umbrella organization “AFL-CIO” with some other unions in 2005.

Founder [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The roots of the “Teamsters” go back to the colonial times when the drivers of the horse team were still unorganized. Her life was hard and the job was unsure.

The motorization did not change that either. On the contrary: Around 1900 the typical Teamster worked 12–18 hours a day on every seven days a week and earned about $ 2 a day. He not only expected to transport the cargo, but z. B. also for the transport damage.

In 1901, some disappointed and angry drivers formed the “Team Drivers International Union” (TDIU), which quickly became 1,700 members. A strike in San Francisco was almost similar to a general strike later and was able to end victoriously. Nevertheless, members split off again in the following years and justified, among others. The “Teamsters National Union” (TNU). One dispute was in particular whether a team was able to employ himself.

Samuel Gompers, the chairman of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), worked towards this division and organized a meeting of all groups in Niagara Falls (New York) in August 1903.

The gathered agreed and Cornelius Shea from the “TDIU” became the first president of the new “International Brotherhood of Teamsters” (IBT).

The new union was initially difficult to advance, because occupational safety laws did not yet exist, while the company side could always rely on various anti-cartel laws. A industrial action was to be taken literally in that time. The strike of the Teamsters in 1905 at the “Montgomery Ward Company” lasted over 100 days, caused $ 1,000,000 in costs and 21 people were killed. In addition, the “Teamsters” in this strike lost because they had nothing to oppose the buffed and unscrupulous tactics on the entrepreneur side.

Work was carried out to remedy these weaknesses. In 1907 the young and more dynamic Daniel J. Tobin from the “Local 25” from Boston was appointed the new president.

Stagnation 1907–1929 [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Daniel “Dan” J. Tobin had the longest term of office of all Presidents of the Teamsters. The weakness in all unions at that time was a tendency of the respective branches (“local”) not to look beyond their own horizon. The Teamsters also did not use their national presence at first and the national connection remained weak; Especially according to the said disastrous result of the strike from 1905.

Tobin tried to change this, but failed. In particular, he did not succeed in asserting himself against the United Brewery Workers, the “beer drivers” in order to put the teams on a broader basis. The discussion about the employee representative was lost in 1913 because the umbrella organization “AFL” did not participate.

He also tried to stop different “locals” if they seemed too radically to him. In general, American unions were strictly “anti -communist”. This attitude was far away from more subtle European distinctions. At that time, American unions were also expressly not industrial unions, but rather to equate a guild in terms of character, which was delimited against outsiders as a wage cartel.

From this delimitation from simple workers on the one hand and their own fragmentation on the other hand, Tobin was not able to develop a successful strategy and therefore failed due to the further development of the union, since he failed to achieve any form of monopoly for the union.

Great depression and prohibition [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The number of members received a large thrust from the great depression, which joined the black Friday of 1929. In 1933, the “Brewers”, who had successfully resisted in 1913, joined the Teamsters because they wanted to avoid their impending resolution, which was caused by the prohibition.

In particular, Jimmy Hoffa, a young agent in “Local 299” (Detroit), managed to win the long -distance drivers as members. Hoffa was a “maker” in character, who spent a third of his time in the office. As z. B. wanted to switch a “teamster” group to a competing union, underwrite Hoffa with brute force.

Both the Teamsters and the organized crime in the United States took a strong upswing through prohibition. Since the illegal and legal transport of alcohol was always met, it was obvious to expand the connections between the two groups.

From the point of view of the gangsters from New York, the members of which had also hired on the union side in the industrial struggles, it was the opportunity to influence transportation. This gave the gangsters access to logistical solutions in order to be able to handle their smuggling with more risky and economical. Later even entire cargo loads disappeared, as z. B. Vincent Mangano had successfully practiced in the port of New York City. A “central” collaboration was not necessary; Members of the Teamsters gave the tips to the Mobster, which – in addition to the individual rewards – ensured that only organized union members were employed. This “collaboration” was then taken up by Jimmy Hoffa and applied centrally.

In the meantime, Dave Beck organized the drivers on the west coast. For this he used the “locals” from Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. Here, too, he was very successful to recruit the long -distance drivers in order to get to the previously independent freight forwarders through them, which transported most of the agricultural products.

Tobin had nothing to oppose these successes and his influence was in influence. In 1952 Tobin was replaced by Dave Beck as President (and Jimmy Hoffa as Vice President), who influenced the base.

Criminal connections [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The good connection Hoffas to Cosa Nostra had come about by chance: his former girlfriend Sylvia fight , with which he had lived for four years, married a little mafioso and finally became the girlfriend of Frank Coppola .

This good contact was important for Hoffa because the Mobsters had so far always been on the side of the companies. The brawls in New York – e.g. B. the so -called “Labor Slugger Wars” are still legendary. Hoffa was able to convince Frank Coppola in 1937 and thus the mafia to stay in the industrial struggles. Hoffa and the “Teamsters” won their strike and the union was able to win around 4,000 new members through this success.

In order to become President of the “IBT”, Hoffa accepted a number of so -called “paper locals”. These were branches of the union that were controlled by the mafia. Johnny Dioguardi, a member of the Lucchese family from New York, was responsible for this. In addition, in other “locals”, various “rackets” or other members of the mafia often practiced actual control or were housed in so-called “no-show jobs”; d. that is, they were on the wage list of the respective branch, but were never personally present in any form or did union work.

In addition, z. B. Anthony “The Ducks” Corallo, Boss der Lucchese-Familie , settle in the “Local 239” in New York City who only existed on paper. In this way, around 69,000 US dollars were skimmed out of the trade union fund every month.

James Squillante, who was one of the killers of Albert Anastasia, was known as “King of the Garbage Collection Racket”. The infiltration of the garbage workers by the mafia in New York City ran parallel to the development at the TeamSTers union as a whole-to which the garbage workers belonged-and began in 1955 when the garbage workers organized themselves through the “Local 813” of the union, which from the 1960s was dominated by James Failla from the Gambino family. ^[first]

Of course, the criminal processes within the union (“Labor Rackeeteering”) did not go unnoticed and the “McClellan-Committee” began to examine corruption in the unions, especially with the teams. Dave Beck had to clear the presidential chair. The Teamsters were excluded from the “AFL” due to the allegations of corruption. The way for Jimmy Hoffa was free and he was named president in Miami Beach in 1957.

The cooperation with the mafia intensified under Hoffa. When she had to leave Cuba in 1959 after the Cuban Revolution, she set up in Florida and helped the teamster to be established in Miami in Miami. Hoffa had sent Rolland McMaster to Florida for this, who did the task together with Dave Yaras and Barney Baker. Yaras was a follow -up by Sam Giancana, who in turn was a racket from Al Capone.

Hoffa established a mafia management style that did not stop at order murder. Frank Sheeran completed special tasks of this kind for Hoffa, who worked allegedly as a driver in a team of the Teamsters.

The “Golden 1960s” [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The greatest achievement of Hoffas was the “National Master Freight Agreement” from 1964, which covered all union members into a uniform agreement nationwide. In order to secure this, Hoffa not only drove the expansion of the Teamsters horizontally (in the area), but, following the production chain, also diagonal and vertical. Hoffa no longer needed to be considerate of the “AFL” because of the in 1957 expulsion; In response to the Teamster expansion, this founded some of its own industry divisions in order to be able to counteract Hoffa’s activities.

With targeted strikes or hard action against “price breakers”, Hoffa consolidated this new monopoly position of the Teamsters. He also dominated the “Conferences”, the regional gatherings of the assigned “locals”, which had once been built up among others with the help of Dave Beck.

In 1960 it was also possible to found the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF), in which the funds from 25 states flowed for their union members as a pension system. In view of these successes, these years are considered the “golden age” of the teams. By 1976, the number of members rose from around 1.5 to 2 million.

However, through the presence of the Mobsters, this fund was wide open in the “locals” as a means of funding for lubricating funds and bribery. In principle, fund manager Roy Lee Williams was under direct control by Nick Civella from Kansas City (Missouri); The managing director was a friend of Hoffa: Allen Dorfman, whose stepfather Paul Dorfman was a close ally of Hoffa. By the mid -1970s, the construction of numerous casinos in Las Vegas was financed by straw men; such as B. Allen Glick; under control of the Cosa Nostra stood. Hoffa, who personally benefited from these processes, could not or did not want to stop this escalation of the criminal entanglement. He was also increasingly under legal pressure.

Robert F. Kennedy firmly expected Hoffa in 1957 and declared the teams into a main enemy of the state. When he became an American Minister of Justice in 1961, in March 1962 he organized a second trial against Hoffa, which initially failed because Hoffa had bribed the jury. However, this bribery became public and only under the help of legal tricks Hoffa was able to avoid a conviction for three years. He was finally convicted of thirteen years in prison, which he had to compete in 1967. His union then appointed him “President for Life”.

Frank Fitzsimmons was installed as a “governor” for Hoffa, who also came from the Hoffa- “Local 299”.

As early as December 23, 1971, Hoffa was released by the new US President Richard Nixon on probation. The condition of this deal was that Hoffa gave up his presidency and did not seek it again for another ten years. However, Hoffa started collecting votes for a recovery shortly after his release.

But the bosses of the Cosa Nostra had apparently got used to the weak floral president Fitzsimmons in the almost three years of his absence and did not want the dominant Hoffa again as president. Jimmy Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975 from the parking lot of the “Machus Red Fox” restaurant in Bloomfield Hills north of Detroit; His body has not been found to this day.

The decline [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Weak president [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Jimmy Hoffa had let the American mafia to the union, and this had supported him for the presidential office, but Hoffa always acted at eye level with the furniture and-in the extended sense of this term-is now considered such. In a final argument about this fact with Anthony Provenzano, which led to a break between the two, he even hit a bottle on the head.

Even his successor Frank Fitzsimmons was still determined by Hoffa. In the absence during the detention, the Cosa Nostra Free hand with the teamsters. The three subsequent presidents, Roy Williams, Jackie Presser and William J. McCarthy were used by the Mobsters.

The number of members reached its peak in 1976, but that was still the consequences of Jimmy Hoffa’s work.

When an illegal money courier from Las Vegas at Kansas City airport was grasped on February 14, 1979 with two $ 40,000 packages, a number of successful house searches began. The complex of Las Vegas, Mafia casinos and TeamSTERS pension funds was blown up. Fitzsimmons withdrew in 1981 and thus escaped a legal conviction of his “Blankoscheck” policy. Roy Williams, one of the fiduciary of the abused Central States Pension Fund, became his successor.

This presidency only took a short time because Roy Williams was involved in the bribes against Senator Howard Cannon from Nevada, so he had to give up his office in 1983 and was convicted in 1985. In 1986 Joseph Aiuppa, Jackie Cerone, Joseph Lombardo, Angelo Lapietra, Milton J. Rockman and Carl Deluna were convicted of two million US dollars for the financial skull of casinos in Las Vegas. ^[3]

deregulation [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Cannon was the chairman of the “Senate Commerce Committee”, which was just dealing with the deregulation of the transport industry and would have also broken the monopoly of the team states, which then happened.

Although the senator did not respond to bribery, this process initially meant the end of his political career. The bill was not stopped.

Jackie Presser tried through the introduction of a second tariff. that is, so-called “relief rider” (temporary or support drivers), with a discount of 35 percent, they could be used to maintain national cohesion. But a new group within the teamsters, the “Teamsters for a Democratic Union”, started a campaign against the “Relief Rider” regulation and was able to bring them back to 13,082 votes with 94,086.

Jackie Presser’s only presentable success remained the resumption in the AFL-CIO united since 1955. The Teamsters were excluded from the AFL in 1957.

The law on deregulation had a major impact on the union. The monopoly was broken, the transport prices broke, since unorganized drivers have now also received broad access to the market. 30 percent of the relatives of the “Freight Division” of the Teamsters became unemployed. Almost 200 transport companies that were previously indicated for trade union had to give up their business in the first years after the introduction.

Changes [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Essentially, the resistance within the teamsters increased by founding the “Teamsters for a Democratic Union”. In particular, she was concerned with changing the electoral process within the union. So far, the president was chosen by the delegates from the individual “locals”. Due to the infiltration of individual branches and the existence of the “Paper Locals”, the mafia checked a large part of the votes for a presidential election.

In 1984 the FBI was able to record a conversation between Roy Williams, Jackie Presser and Mafiosi Anthony Salerno (“Fat Tony”) and John Trolone (“Peanuts”); Jackie Presser himself was an informant of the FBI.

In this conversation, William J. McCarthy said that a mafia boss needs to be needed before he could continue in the Teamsters. Although the New York Times reported on this conversation in 1988, McCarthy became president of the Teamsters in 1989. This was not a good starting point to relieve the union of existing allegations of the connection between the mafia and the union.

In view of this “presidential finding” by the mafia for the first time, a court had the election of the President of the Transport worker union in 1991. In this election by 1.6 million members, McCarthy lost to Ron Carey, who had presented himself as a reform candidate.

Teamstergate [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Under Ron Carey there was a successful strike against the management of the logistics giant UPS, but there was certainly circles in the union who deflected this success and preferred to see him replaced by a ‘devoter’ president.

Nevertheless, Carey managed to assert himself against James P. Hoffa, the son of Jimmy Hoffa for a second term. However, there were financial impurities that became known as team stergies.

The name “Teamstergate” had been created by the Republican Randy Chamberyer when, among other things. A transfer of money between the 1996 election campaign Bill Clinton and the election campaign by Ron Carey, who was aiming for his re -election as union president. It was about a sum of $ 885,000, which had apparently flowed from the union to the Clinton Gore team’s campaign fund. In addition, money is said to have been used for his own election campaign. In any case, the re -election of Ron Carey was canceled by a court and, as expected, James Hoffa prevailed in a new election, from which he was excluded, who started the presidency on March 19, 1999.

Allegations of having used union funds were also in the room with James P. Hoffa, but they were obviously classified as less relevant. Ron Carey had always asserted his ignorance at the events and was acquitted on October 12, 2001. In view of the total circumstances, the suspicion of a targeted campaign against Carey cannot be completely excluded.

Change to win [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The best known action by the current President James P. Hoffa, who has also been called “Jim” on the union’s homepage since spring 2006, is the leak from the previous umbrella organization. The Teamsters union today belongs to the union group “Change to Win” after leaving the “AFL-CIO” together with some other unions in 2005 and founded a new umbrella organization.

President [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Member development [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

• 1933: 75,000
• 1935: 146,000
• 1949: 1,000,000
• 1957: 1,500,000
• 1976: 2,000,000
• 1987:> 1,000,000
• 2003: 1,700,000
• 2004: 1,400,000
• 2008: 1,400,000

Sub -organizations [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

The Teamsters organize their members in the following industries with the following sub -departments:

• James B. Jacobs: Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement . New York 2006. University Press. ISBN 0-8147-4273-4.

1. ↑ James Jacobs: Mobsters, unions, and feds: the Mafia and the American labor movement , New York University Press, 2006
2. ↑ Teamsters for LaRouche From Dennis King (English)
3. ↑ „Blood Threat“ , Time.com from February 3, 1986