Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), formerly known by the name International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, is one of the largest labor unions in the United States. The union's name and logo reflect its origins as a craft union when founded in 1903: a teamster was originally a person who drove a team of oxen, a horse-drawn or mule-drawn wagon or a muletrain (in the latter case, he was also known as a muleteer).

Related Topics:
Labor union - United States - Craft union - 1903 - Oxen - Horse - Mule

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The union expanded, however, beyond those narrow craft boundaries with the development of automotive transport, organizing "over-the-road" highway drivers, warehouse workers and dairy employees in the 1930s. The union expanded its jurisdiction even further after World War II, particularly after its expulsion from the AFL-CIO in 1957, raiding other unions' jurisdictions and organizing manufacturing, service and public sector workers.

Related Topics:
1930s - Jurisdiction - World War II - AFL-CIO - 1957

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The Teamsters developed, at the same time, a close relationship with organized crime at the International Union level and in a number of locales. That history of organized crime involvement in union affairs led the federal government to spend years prosecuting Jimmy Hoffa and his successors and to sue the union in 1988 to impose federal supervision over much of the union's day-to-day operations and its internal election procedures. That intervention, coupled with organizing at the rank-and-file level by dissidents within the union, led to the election of Ron Carey as General President in 1991. He was succeeded in 1998, after being expelled from the union in the wake of a scandal over misuse of union funds for his 1996 reelection campaign, by James P. Hoffa, the son of Jimmy Hoffa.

Related Topics:
Jimmy Hoffa - Ron Carey - 1991 - 1998 - 1996 - James P. Hoffa

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