TEAMSTERS UNION

byname of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, formerly (until 1940) International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America (IBT) largest labour union in the United States, representing truck drivers and workers in related industries (such as aviation). The union was formed in 1903 when the Team Drivers International Union (1899) merged with the Teamsters National Union (1902). Local deliverymen using horse-drawn vehicles remained the core membership until the 1930s, when intercity truck drivers rose to predominance. From 1907 to 1952 the union was headed by Daniel J. Tobin, who built it up from 40,000 members in 1907 to more than 1,000,000 members by 1950. By 1940 it was already the nation's largest union. Presidents Dave Beck (195257) and James Hoffa (195771) converted the Teamsters into a strongly centralized union capable of negotiating nationwide freight-hauling agreements. The union's size and its ability to bring shipments of essential commodities to a virtual halt gave it great bargaining power. But it also provided some officials with abundant opportunities for violently coercing small employers and profiting, in consort with organized crime, from the manipulation of union pension funds. Disclosures of corruption in their leadership led to the Teamsters' expulsion from the American Federation of LaborCongress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in 1957 after almost 60 years of membership in the AFL. Between 1957 and 1988 three of the Teamsters' presidentsBeck, Hoffa, and Roy L. Williamswere convicted of various criminal charges and sentenced to prison terms. After his release from prison, Hoffa, who had clear links to organized crime, disappeared in 1975, presumably murdered. The Teamsters Union was readmitted to the AFL-CIO in 1987. In 1988 the Justice Department filed a civil racketeering suit against the union, but the suit was settled out of court in 1989. In 1992, given their first chance to directly elect their national leaders, members chose for president Ron Carey, the candidate supported by the reformist Teamsters for a Democratic Union. The Teamsters' membership among truck drivers declined after deregulation of the American trucking industry in the early 1980s encouraged the growth of nonunion companies, but the Teamsters gained many new members through their efforts to organize workers in various clerical, service, and high-technology occupations.