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Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union (Working Class in American History)

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One sign of the decreased power of organized labor in American politics since 1960 is the ways in which conservative politicians have charged unions with corruption and faced little opposition in doing so. Professor Witwer explores some of the historical bases for this trend in this excellent monograph, using as his case study the Teamsters Union, an organization most Americans probably view as synonymous with labor boss cynicism and disregard for the working man's welfare.

_Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union_ focuses on three time periods -- the first decade of the twentieth century, the 1930s and the 1950s to highlight the various "environmental" factors leading to corruption in the Teamsters Union. Dr. Witwer stresses these environmental factors over some older accounts of union financial peccadillos which tended to stress the moral cuplability of union leaders. Professor Witwer disagrees with those more traditional narratives, arguing that economic and social factors inherent in the Teamsters position in the national economy were far more significant. For example, men transporting good by wagon, lorry or truck (depending on the era) tended to work with small entrepreneurs in such areas as diary products, ice, and fruit and vegetable provisioning -- economic activities with severe competition and incentives to undercut prices of rivals to survive. Later in the twentieth century, interstate companies transporting goods long distance looked to stablize transport rates to raise profits. In either case, the incentive to collude to set prices often included partnerships with unions such as the Teamsters. The Teamsters would refuse to transport goods with businesses that refused to enter into pricing agreements with relevant business assoications. Over time, however, the importance of the Teamsters to these monopolistic practices, combined with their key positions in a growingly national economy, made them irresitable targets for organized crime who themselves were looking to muscle in on profitable legitimate economic enterprises. Juicy pension and retirement funds garnered by favorable collective bargaining agreeements made the temptations even greater.

In explaining these complicated historical processes, Dr. Witmer enters into all manner of scholarly debates. For example, many leftist historians view Teamster leaders such as Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa as "business unionists" concerned only with lining their own pockets and creating a docile rank-and-file concerned only with shorter hours and higher pay. _Corruption and Reform_ rightly argues that though this took away the social insurgency potential of this important union, the efforts to improve the lives of the rank-and-file in the brutal Darwinian American capitalistic system was justified. Similarly, rank-and-file members viewed "corruption" differently than conservative politicans and businessmen. Corruption to the rank and file didn't necessarily embrace "aggressive" unionizing tactics such as secondary boycotts, or even financial hanky-panky on the part of officials, so long as the basic ability of the union to preserve worker dignity and financial comfort continued. Workers did tend to object though to corruption which hurt the ability of unions to bargain collectively and gain benefits for workers and their families.

In making these arguements, Dr. Witwer runs the risk of serving as an apologist for corruption and cynicism. What makes this book so good, though, is his ability -- in my opinion -- to score union leaders for their corruption. He devotes one chapter to the malfeasence of Dave Beck and three to the often extortionate practices of Hoffa. He then shows that reformers attempted to end the decades-long practices of felonious pecuniary activity by reforming their union via secessionist movements. In doing so, rebellious rank-and-filers drew upon a rich tradition in Teamster history. They generally failed until the federal government created mandatory trusteeships in the 1980s and 1990s, but Dr. Witwer puts an effective kabosh -- again in my opinion -- to those journalists and scholars in the past who have argued that docile workers were either too stupid or cynical to protest against the likes of Hoffa and his organized crime cronies.

So what about the issue I started this review with? Professor Witwer indicates throughout that conservative politicans, businessmen and journalists were always willing to give broad interpretations to the word "corruption." Using a broad consensus that its not right to commit extortion or shake down people or bribe officials, conservative groups excelled at linking these corrupt practices with behavior that wasn't -- secondary boycotting (protected, I believe, by both federal statute and the First Amendment) and organizational boycotting. He shows Senator John McClellan (Dem-Arkansas) as a man who used broad terms like "crime" and "corruption" and folded them within deeper anxieites over internal subversion and communist power in the 1950s to introduce legislation cutting back on New Deal pro-labor statutes. Dr. Witwer's book, in short, is yet another example of the power and diabolical brilliance of southern conservatives in the halls of Congress to effectuate a conservative socio-political agenda decades before Ronnie Reagan emerged from California ... tanned, rested and ready.

Yet another reason to purchase this excellent and balanced book.

This book is a really superb piece of labor history. It is well written and the details are presented in a clear and concise manner. It endeavors to focus on intra-union efforts to reform the Teamsters unions; efforts which the author believes have been neglected by historians. It also argues that the militancy and power of the Teamsters has been the primary concerns of its enemies in the American establishment rather than the corruption of its leadership.

Witwer starts off with the beginnings of the Teamsters union. The Teamsters brought significant improvements in the wages and hours of drivers. For instance in Chicago, Witwer, citing the early 20th century labor economist John Commons, notes that milk drivers in a union's local had their average weekly hours reduced to 52 from 80 to 100 hours prior to the union contract.

The Teamsters were strongest in Chicago, where they were often used to enforce cartel agreements among transport employers. They also used their fists to enforce picket lines and engaged in secondary strikes and boycotts. A Teamsters strike in 1905 left about 21 people dead and the Employers Association in Chicago worked hand in glove with the Cook County District Attorney's office to use the courts to try to destroy the union. Witwer shows how the Cook County DA was unable to find enough evidence to press charges against the union. The Grand Jury was forced to content itself not by pressing formal charges but by issuing denunciations of Teamsters leader Cornelius Shea for visiting brothels. The ability of the Teamsters to take over the streets of Chicago by striking and using their fists was also denounced as un-American.

A big part of the book deals with corruption within the union which had become a noticeable problem by the 1930's. Entrepreneurial organized crime began to discover the potential of union treasuries at the end of the 1920's and began to use threats and violence to force their way into control of unions. Witwer gives examples of mafia infiltration into Teamsters locals in New York City. In one milk drivers local, small milk company owners used the criminal organization of Jacob Bernoff to enforce a cartel agreement among themselves. The Teamsters local became the device with which to enforce this arrangement. In one instance members of a large local Teamsters union in New York were able to brave intimidation and engineer the replacement of their leaders who were backed by a waterfront mob boss, John Dunn. In another New York local, reform efforts against a mob backed leadership failed miserably. Witwer explores the reasons why the fight against corruption failed in the one case but not the other.

Witwer examines internal Teamster correspondence to show how Dan Tobin, who was president of the Teamsters from 1907 to 1952, tried to deal with corruption in his organization. Tobin and his right hand man Michael Cashal showed considerable fear regarding the threats made by mobsters against the Teamsters national leadership's efforts to clean up the union. Teamster leaders in recent years had been murdered for opposing mob elements in various locals. Tobin wrote to the leaders of the two main garment workers federations in the US, David Dubinsky and Sidney Hillman, for advice as to how to combat corruption. They had problems with the mob in their own organizations and advised him that not a whole lot could be done. The presence of the mafia was an important source of stability and strength in these industries. Moreover in fighting corruption within the union, one's life could be in danger.

Witwer extensively discusses the Senate McCLellan committee, which from 1957 to 1959, focused on corruption within unions. The committee seemed to focus most of its attention on the Teamsters. Jimmy Hoffa of course, had brought organized crime for the first time into the inner sanctum of the national Teamster leadership. Witwer shows that members of the Committee seemed to focus not so much on Hoffa's enablement of mafia use of his organization for embezzlement and extortion but on the economic and political power of the Teamsters. Goldwater argued that corruption was only a symptom of the excessive power of unions in American life. The Committee's chief counsel Robert Kennedy portrayed virtually the entire Teamsters organization as infested with corruption from top to bottom, a gross exaggeration according to Witwer. Kennedy and other committee members indulged in much paranoid rhetoric regarding the ability of the Teamsters to control the American economy. The Committee argued that the presence of organized crime within industries was almost entirely the fault of unions. Employers were portrayed as having organized crime forced upon them by unions. Of course there had long been cases of employers who had initiated relationships with criminal elements in order to control competition within their industries. In any case, in 1959, congress passed the Landrum-Griffin Act which, while giving union members a few tools to fight corruption and autocracy by their leaders, also tightened restrictions on strike activities.

Witwer discusses the efforts within the Teamsters to resist Hoffa, which he feels have been greatly underappreciated by historians. He shows how members of a mob ridden local in Chicago were able to brave violent retribution and successfully succeed from the Teamsters while an anti-Hoffa leader in Cincinnati, James Luken took his local out of the Teamsters, in spite of intimidation from Hoffa's goons. The fourth largest local within the Teamsters, located in Philadelphia, seemed also likely in the early 60's to defy the thuggery of Hoffa's goons and succeed from the Teamsters. However Hoffa eventually stopped this rebellion using the carrot and the stick. First he threatened that he would convince truck operators to close the job site where the local's members worked. Then he acceded to some of their reform demands but the local remained mob dominated through the late 80's.