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INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS

INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS began on 27 January 1899, when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) issued a charter to the 1,700 members of the Team Drivers International Union (TDIU).While today "teamsters" are associated with trucks, the term originally referred to those who drove "teams" of horses. Organizations other than TDIU still represented teamsters, including the Teamsters National Union, which included team owners as well as drivers, and Chicago's International Team Drivers Union, which formed in 1903 to exclude owners. Competing unions met in 1903 at Niagara Falls, New York, and formed the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).A bloody defeat, suffered while supporting a tailor's strike at Chicago's Montgomery Ward Company in 1905, weakened the new union. The 1907 IBT convention elected the president of Boston's Local Union 25, Daniel J. Tobin, as general president, a position he retained for forty-five years.

Early Growth and Transformation of the Teamsters

The Teamsters grew slowly, adding new job categories, and in 1909 changed its name to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen, and Helpers. The IBT prospered because it represented both the disappearing horse-and-wagon workers, as well as the truck drivers who were replacing them. This led to some internal conflict, but the conversion was very gradual. In 1920 there were scarcely 1,000 to 2,000 trucks in the United States, and the Teamsters continued to focus on local businesses that delivered such goods as coal, ice, meat, and laundry. In 1920, Tobin affiliated the IBT with the Canadian Trades and Labour Congress. The Great Depression that followed the 1929 stock market crash initially hurt the IBT, and membership reached a low of 75,000 in 1933.However, during the latter half of the 1930s, both the trucking industry and the Teamsters experienced major growth spurts, due in large part to labor and commerce regulations passed by the federal government. Labor laws controlled wages, hours, and working conditions, and ensured the right to bargain collectively. The most significant of these laws was the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (also called the Wagner Act).Equally significant for the Teamsters was the passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1935, which gave the Interstate Commerce Commission authority to regulate the trucking industry. In 1937 the IBT again altered its name, becoming the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America. The Teamsters' 277,000 members made it the largest union in the AFL, and there were more than 70,000 trucks on U.S. roads in 1938.In that supportive political climate the Teamsters were very powerful, and a sympathetic strike by the IBT lent Teamster power and strength to weaker unions.

Teamsters' Boom Years in the 1940s and 1950s

The post–World War II economic boom created further IBT growth, and membership exceeded one million in 1950.The political climate became less friendly, as Congress restricted labor's power with the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (usually called the Taft-Hartley Act).At the 1952 convention, Dan Tobin announced his retirement as president. The number of Teamsters continued to climb under new president Dave Beck, who settled a twenty-five-state contract in 1955 covering all over-the-road and local freight companies. The number of trucks increased greatly in 1956, when the federal government created the Interstate Highway System. The IBT continued to support workers through sympathetic

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strikes, refusing to pick up or deliver goods anywhere there was a work stoppage. This power brought intense scrutiny and backlash from businesses and increasing government hostility. A Senate investigation into racketeering and corruption led to the IBT's expulsion from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in 1957.Teamster member-ship reached 1.5 million at the 1957 convention, when James P.(Jimmy) Hoffa was elected president. In 1959, Congress passed the antiunion Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act).The law prohibited sympathetic strikes, significantly reducing the Teamsters' ability to assist less powerful unions. The Senate in the late 1950s also convened the McClellan Committee, which investigated corruption in the IBT. Dave Beck went to prison in 1962 for larceny and income tax violations.

Union Decline and Evolution of the New Teamsters

Hoffa negotiated the first National Master Freight Agreement in 1964, covering 400,000 Teamsters employed at more than 16,000 trucking companies. Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering in 1963, began a prison term in 1967, and resigned as IBT president on 22 June 1971.He was released from prison later in 1971 and was attempting to reenter union politics when he mysteriously disappeared in 1975.Teamster membership passed the two million mark in 1976.Deregulation of the trucking industry began in 1980, which created a steady decline in Teamster membership. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s attacks by business and government, along with economic globalization, severely impacted the labor movement, and the Teamsters. IBT President Roy Williams was convicted of bribing a U.S. senator in 1982, and President Jackie Presser was indicted for embezzling union funds. The IBT sought shelter under the AFL-CIO umbrella, and rejoined the organization in 1988.IBT President William McCarthy signed a 1989 consent decree settling a federal government racketeering suit, and a court-appointed trustee supervised the first direct election of union officers in 1991.Won by Ronald R. Carey, a former United Parcel Service (UPS) worker and New York City local union president, the union again changed its name, reverting to the original International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Carey won reelection in 1996 and led a successful national strike at UPS in 1997, providing a boost to the sagging labor movement. One significant national issue Carey addressed was the use of part-time workers. The victory was short lived, as the government overseer controlling the union ruled that Carey participated in a plan to funnel dues money into his 1996 reelection campaign. Carey was barred from running in a special election, and James P. Hoffa Jr., son of the former IBT leader, became president. By 1998 membership stabilized at 1.4

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million members. By that date only 16 percent of the "new" Teamsters were truck drivers, and the union represented a diverse assortment of workers such as policemen, teachers, school principals, nurses, airline pilots, and zookeepers. Even the character dressed in the Mickey Mouse costume in Disney World is a Teamster.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brill, Steven. The Teamsters. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

La Botz, Dan. Rank and File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union. New York: Verso, 1990.

Romer, Sam. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters: Its Government and Structure. New York: Wiley, 1962.

Sloane, Arthur A. Hoffa. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991.

John Cashman

See also Labor; Trade Unions.