|
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, commonly known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) or simply the Teamsters, is one of the largest labor unions in the United States. A teamster was originally a person who drives a team of oxen or, later, a horse-drawn wagon, and such laborers made up the original core of the union at the start of the 20th century.
Early history
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was officially formed in 1903 in Niagara Falls, New York, as the merger of several different groups representing teamsters, two of which were Team Drivers International Union (TDIU) and Teamsters National Union. The United States had no labor laws until the 1935 Wagner Act. The group expanded to include truck-drivers in the 1920s, and grew during the hard times of the Great Depression when it was involved in several militant strikes in the 1930s including the Minneapolis General Strike and was active in the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Its membership skyrocketed with the post-war boom as the automobile, food-processing and transportation industries grew rapidly. By 1949, its membership had topped one million. In the 1940s the union, under pressure from the federal government, purged many of its more radical organizers and, like much of the union movement, the IBT became much more conservative in the 1950s, adopting a business unionism model.
In 1957 the Teamsters were expelled from the AFL-CIO. At the 1957 IBT convention held in Miami Beach, Florida, Jimmy Hoffa was elected president of the union, which then had 1.5 million members. In the next two decades, Hoffa's legal troubles and union ties to organized crime signaled a long period of decline. The 1959 Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), the first United States labor laws to regulate the internal structures of unions, was largely driven by the public perception of corruption within the Teamsters, and collusion between union bosses and employers.
Recent history Like most American unions, the IBT has seen a decline in membership over the past 20 years. As a result of a grassroots movement to democratize the union, Ron Carey won control of the IBT in the early 1990s with the support of Teamsters for a Democratic Union defeating James P. Hoffa, Jr, the son of Jimmy Hoffa for the presidency of the Teamsters. Shortly afterward in 1997, the union initiated a large and successful strike against UPS. The postal services department by that time had become the largest division in the union. Carey was removed from the union's leadership by the government shortly thereafter, over allegations that union funds had been used improperly to support the Democratic Party. In the election to succeed Carey, James P. Hoffa became president of the Teamsters on March 19, 1999, and took the union in a more moderate direction.
Strikes
Organization
General President
Departments - Communications Department
- Office of Corporate Affairs
- Education Department
- Government Affairs Department
- Human Rights Commission
- Disaster Relief Fund
- The James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund
- Legal Department
- Organizing Department
- Research Department
- Department for Retiree Affairs
- Safety and Health Department
- Office of Strategic Initiatives
General Secretary-Treasurer
Departments - Accounting and Budget Department
- Affiliates Records Department
- Information Systems Department
- International Auditors
Membership
Divisions - Airline Division
- Bakery and Laundry Conference
- Brewery and Soft Drink Conference
- Building Material and Construction Trade Division
- Carhaul Division
- Dairy Conference
- Freight Division
- Industrial Trade Division
- Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Division
- Newspaper, Magazine and Electronic Media Worker
- Parcel and Small Package Division
- Port Division
- Public Services Trade Division
- Rail ConferenceRail Conference
- Tankhaul Division
- Trade Show and Convention Centers Division
- Warehouse Division
Related legislation
See also - American Federation of Labor (AFL) - Samuel Gompers
- solidarity, anti-trust law, labor law
- employment contract, work week, overtime, minimum wage, price controls
- stock market crash of 1929, World War I, World War II, war bond
- Canadian Trades and Labour Congress
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan
- PATCO air traffic controllers union
- DRIVE (Democrat, Republican, and Independent Voter Education) - Political Action Committee (PAC)
- National Master Freight Agreement, master agricultural agreement
- Labor union
- labor movement
- List of trade unions
External links - Teamsters Online (http://www.teamsters.org/)
- Teamsters for a Democratic Union (http://www.tdu.org/)
|
There are 1 more (non-authoritative) comments on this page
Feeds |
Contact