How do you tell if that activist working alonside you is in the fight
for the good of the many, or is waiting for the moment they can step
on your face in their climb to the top?
I looked up good old Dave Beck, one time president of the Teamsters
International(1952-1957). Here's some snippets that track the move
from activist to dictator.
As an aside, I remember the "takeover" of the Boeing machinists by the
Teamsters. The Machinists were effectively broken and Boeing quickly
instituted an "Open Shop" policy. The interference of the Teamsters
set the employees back many years. And later the Teamsters tried to
muscle in on the Farm Workers in California, attempting to move Caesar
Chavez out, greatly weakening that Union's effectiveness.
.
Carl Jaarvis
***
As Beck's influence rose, Tobin attempted to check his growing power but failed.
Beck was elected a vice-president of the Teamsters in 1940, and he
began to challenge Tobin for control of the union. In 1947, Beck
marshaled his forces
and defeated a proposed dues increase to fund new organizing.
In 1942, Beck began a six-year campaign to seize control of the
International Teamster newsmagazine. He ousted its editor and won the
executive board's
approval to install his own man in the job in 1948.
In 1946, Beck successfully campaigned to amend the union's
constitution to create the post of executive vice-president. He
subsequently won the 1947 election
to fill the position.
In 1948, Beck essentially supplanted Tobin as the real power in the
Teamsters union. On April 22, 1948, the
Machinists
(which was not a member of the
American Federation of Labor,
or AFL) struck
Boeing
in Seattle. On May 28, Beck announced that Teamsters would seek to
organize the workers at Boeing, and formed Aeronautical Workers and
Warehousemen Helpers
Union Local 451 to raid the Machinists. Beck and Boeing officials made
a secret agreement in which Boeing would hire members of Local
451—essentially hiring
Teamsters as scabs and strikebreakers. After as many as a third of the
Machinists had joined the Teamsters, the Machinists agreed to return
to work without
a contract. Beck's actions were nearly universally condemned by
members of the AFL Executive Council. The AFL Executive Council met in
August 1948 to take
action against Beck. The day before the meeting, Tobin privately told
associates that he would repudiate Beck. But at a secret meeting that
afternoon,
Beck and his followers on the West Coast confronted Tobin with a fait
accompli: Beck had allied with his long-time enemy Jimmy Hoffa. He now
had more than
enough votes on the Teamsters executive board to overrule Tobin if he
tried to fire Beck. At the AFL meeting the next day, Tobin was forced
to defend Beck's
actions. Unwilling to embarrass an AFL vice president and create a
confrontation with the Teamsters, the AFL Executive Council condoned
the Teamster raid
on the Machinists.
Five months later, Beck won approval of a significant reform of the
union's internal structure. Instead of the four divisions which
existed under Tobin,
Beck proposed 16 divisions organized around each of the major job
categories in the union's membership. Although nearly 1,000 Teamster
leaders attended
the conference in which the restructuring was debated and approved,
Tobin did not.
In 1951, Tobin's tenuous hold on the Teamsters was further exposed
when Tom Hickey, reformist leader of the Teamsters in New York City,
won election to
the executive board. Tobin had needed Beck's support to prevent
Hickey's election, and Beck refused to give it.
Presidency
On September 4, 1952, Tobin announced he would step down as president
of the Teamsters at the end of his term. But as the mid-October
Teamster convention
neared, Tobin and his supporters formed a draft movement designed to
subvert Beck's control of the delegates. Beck retaliated by publicly
supporting the
draft movement, but privately threatening to strip Tobin of his
pension and benefits should he lose an election.
At the convention which opened on October 14, the 77-year-old Tobin
was paid well to vacate the presidency. His pay was increased from
$30,000 to $50,000
and the executive board was authorized to pay him this salary for
life. Beck submitted a resolution asking Tobin to stay on as
president, but forced Tobin
to refuse. As further humiliation, Tobin nominated Beck for president.
He was elected by acclamation. Beck pushed through a number of changes
intended
to make it harder for a challenger to build the necessary majority to
unseat a president or reject his policies.
