Reforming the Chicago Teamsters: The Story of Local 705, and: Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters Union (review)

These two books represent a refreshing attempt to place the issue of Teamster corruption in a broader cultural and historical context and explore efforts by reformers to make their union a more democratic and rank-and-file oriented institution. David Witwer traces the evolution of Teamster corruption and reform initiatives from the union's inception through the 1960s, while Robert Bruno offers a case study of a large Teamster local in Chicago that fought during the 1990s to implement and sustain a reform agenda.

Witwer roots Teamster corruption in a fiercely competitive industrial environment that was susceptible to infiltration by criminal elements and receptive to collusive employer-union arrangements. One of his most crucial findings is that during periods of rapid union growth (1897-1905, the 1930s, and the 1950s), labor's opponents defined corruption expansively in an explicit attempt to discredit militant but legal union action by linking it to public unease over perceived threats to social order and stability. For example, in the 1930s, employers capitalized on widespread fears about racketeering and portrayed militant Teamster strikes and secondary boycotts as anti-social, criminal uses of the union's newly gained power. By the 1950s, the McClellan Committee offered "a political interpretation of corruption" that depicted Jimmy Hoffa's bold exercise of Teamster power as a domestic analogue to the external threat posed by Communism.

In contrast to other observers who have characterized the Teamster rank and file as apathetic about corrupt leadership as long as it delivered good contracts, Witwer discovers a consistent interest in reform among Teamster members. Whether it was secession movements at the turn of the century or attempts to decertify or disaffiliate from the union in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia four decades later, small pockets of rank-and-file Teamsters repeatedly displayed a willingness to oppose corrupt leadership. Witwer concludes that these efforts were complicated by the entrenched presence of organized crime elements and the ability of increasingly centralized national union leadership to isolate and contain reform movements. He is persuasive in describing the sophisticated effort by labor's enemies to successfully manipulate the corruption issue. At times, however, this focus obscures the Teamster leadership's own culpability in embracing corrupt and undemocratic practices that undermined the union's social standing and moral legitimacy.

The issue of union democracy is central to Robert Bruno's analysis. He begins his study of reform in Chicago-based Local 705, the second largest local union in the Teamsters, with the observation that "only democratic processes and rank-and-file activism can create a worker organization that fulfills the highest ideals of trade unionism." In their quest for democracy, the reformers in Chicago who ousted their corrupt leadership benefited from circumstances largely unavailable to their predecessors: support from a cohesive national reform effort (Teamsters for a Democratic Union), direct government intervention, and a trusteeship imposed by new Teamster president Ron Carey. A combination of veteran rank-and-file activists and liberal outsiders then emerged to steer Local 705 in a more democratic, participatory direction. The new leadership also brought tangible gains to the members: a more aggressive approach to grievance handling, solid improvements at the bargaining table, a revived organizing program that relied on member involvement, and closer ties to other unions and community organizations.

The unity of the reform leadership unraveled, however, as a result of "ideological conflict, differences on how to relate to the employer, and simple personal animosity." Bruno carefully outlines the ensuing descent into factionalism that culminated in a fierce contest for control of the union. He is encouraged by the triumph of the faction led by Gerald Zero, whom he describes as the Local 705 leader most committed to a participatory vision. Although his account of the struggle over the future of reform...