History of the Teamsters Union (Maj 2024)
Teamsters Union, förnamn till International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, tidigare (fram till 1940) International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America (IBT), den största privata sektorns arbetarunion i USA, som representerar lastbilsförare och arbetare i närliggande branscher (som luftfart).
Frågesport
Världsorganisationer: fakta eller fiktion?
Världshälsoorganisationen är en specialiserad filial av USA: s regering.
Facket bildades 1903 när Team Drivers International Union (1899) slogs samman med Teamsters National Union (1902). Lokala leveranörer som använde hästdragna fordon förblev kärnmedlemskapet fram till 1930-talet, då de ersattes av intercity truckförare. Från 1907 till 1952 leddes facket av Daniel J. Tobin, som ökade medlemskapet från 40 000 1907 till mer än 1 000 000 år 1950. Det hade blivit landets största union 1940. Presidenterna Dave Beck (1952–57) och James Hoffa (1957–71) formade Teamsters till en starkt centraliserad fackförening som kan förhandla över landsomfattande godstransportavtal. Presidenten Ron Carey (1992–99) och James P. Hoffa (1999–), son till en tidigare president, fokuserade på jobbsäkerhet och familjefrågor.
The union’s size, along with the threat of halting shipments of essential goods, gave the Teamsters great bargaining power. But the union’s magnitude also provided some officials with opportunities for violently pressuring small employers or profiting, in consort with organized crime, from the manipulation of union pension funds. In the wake of corruption disclosures implicating Teamster leadership, the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) expelled the union in 1957—after almost 60 years of membership in the AFL.
Between 1957 and 1988, three of the Teamsters’ presidents—Beck, the elder Hoffa, and Roy L. Williams—were convicted of various crimes and sentenced to prison terms. After his release from prison, Hoffa disappeared in 1975; many believe he was killed by members of organized crime. 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 as president Carey, the candidate supported by the reformist group Teamsters for a Democratic Union. While Teamster representation of truck drivers declined with the growth of nonunion trucking companies in the 1980s, the union gained many new members through its efforts to organize workers in clerical, service, and technology occupations.
In 1997 the Teamsters galvanized media attention and public support when their strike against United Parcel Service (UPS) stopped the delivery of thousands of packages worldwide. The strike centred on the extensive use of part-time employees by UPS. In the agreement negotiated with UPS, the Teamsters won 10,000 new full-time jobs over the course of the five-year contract. In later years the Teamsters became increasingly dissatisfied with the AFL-CIO, especially its inability to increase union membership. In 2005 the Teamsters disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO and, with several other unions, helped establish the Change to Win coalition.
