The most notorious union in the United States, the Teamsters have been at the center of controversies regarding the power of organized labor. In the years after the Second World War, the Teamsters became the nation’s largest labor organization. At the same time, the union’s leaders attracted attention because of their associations with organized crime.

This notoriety helped justify new efforts to halt union-organizing campaigns.

Founded in 1899 as a national union for men working on horse-drawn wagons, the organization began to evolve dramatically in the 1930s. Ambitious new leaders, such as Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa, pioneered new organizing techniques that harnessed the strategic power of the interstate truckers. Eager for new members these leaders ignored traditional craft and jurisdictional distinctions to organize a wide range of workers. The union grew to be the nation’s largest and its membership became increasingly diverse.

Actively organizing among the unskilled workforce of the country especially in the South, the Teamsters became an interracial organization. By the early 1960s, it included some 200,000 African American members, about 20 percent of all the blacks belonging to organized labor. Women workers joined in large numbers as well, especially as the union began aggressively to organize warehouse and cannery operations. Seeking to attract and hold such members, the Teamsters’ leadership promised them equal wages and fair treatment. At the local level, however, where white male members adhered to the dominant prejudices of the day, discrimination frequently occurred.

Known for its aggressive and ambitious organizing, the union also became famous for its alleged links with organized crime. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters from 1957 to 1971, openly proclaimed his friendship with a number of wellknown gangsters, although he insisted that those associations did not influence his leadership. Most people assumed that Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975 followed a dispute with the Mafia that led to his abduction and murder. In Hoffa’s wake, the next four successors to the union’s presidency all reputedly had connections with organized crime. In one case, Jackie Presser (president 1983–8) served as an undercover FBI informant, while at the same time campaigning to gain the assistance of the Mafia in achieving the union’s presidency.

Beginning in the 1950s, critics of organized labor focused attention on the Teamsters in order to raise questions about the power of organized labor. The combination of the union’s aggressive organizing activities and the allegations of organized-crime influence made it an inviting target. A sensational investigation conducted by the Senate’s McClellan Committee (1957–9) linked together the power of the Teamsters, the misconduct of some of its officers and the dangers of organized crime to justify new legal restrictions on all union activity. The resulting legislation, the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959), was known as the “law to get Jimmy Hoffa.” In fact, Hoffa’s notoriety offered organized labor’s opponents the chance to create a law that further hampered union organizing efforts across the board.