30 year split ends Teamsters union rejoins AFL-CIO

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Teamsters' Jackie Presser rejoined AFL-CIO to avoid government take-over.

At the October AFL-CIO convention in Miami, delegates from 89 unions mended a 30-year split with the Teamsters union. They unanimously approved the return of the 1.7 million-member Teamsters to the AFL-CIO.

The union federation expelled the Teamsters in 1957 for "unethical practices" and for refusing to answer charges of being under "corrupt influences." Since that time, the Teamsters have faced repeated criminal investigations by the government.

But these probes were never designed to clean up the Teamsters nor to rid the union of its heavily bureaucratized and undemocratic leadership. On the contrary, the Teamster rank-and-file membership was always the real target.

Handcuffing the Teamster membership's tremendous leverage in strikes is the purpose of government "investigations." Corrupt union officials simply provide a convenient pretext for government intervention.

Several months ago, the Justice Department announced an escalation of its attacks on the Teamsters. It was considering litigation which would result in government-appointed representatives taking control of the union.

This was undoubtedly the reason the Teamster leadership acted to rejoin the AFL-CIO. Weldon Mathis, Teamster secretary-treasurer, said that the prospect of a government takeover "was the dominant thing that brought as together. ,88 Fortunately, the AFL-CIO has pledged to throw all its resources against the threatened government takeover. As a result, the government may be forced to rethink its strategy of directly confronting the union.

But for many top AFL-CIO labor officials, it was not coming to the defense of the Teamsters that was uppermost in their mind. Reaffiliation means a substantial increase of the federation's political clout.

Millions of dollars in Teamster dues money will flow into the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Fund (COPE). Unfortunately, these added resources will be misused to deepen labor's reliance on the capitalist Democratic Party.

Unity in action needed Changes in the trucking industry over the last 30 years have resulted in a membership decline among the Teamsters' traditional base of over-the-road truck drivers.

A steady membership level has been Jim West/Impact Visuals maintained, however, by expanding its organizing base beyond transportation. Teamsters can be found in manufacturing, oil refineries, warehouses, offices, and hospitals. Millions of these new members are women and minorities.

The infusion of these powerful forces into the AFL-CIO can boost labor's ability to vigorously resist the employers' next round of concession bargaining. But to accomplish this strengthening of the labor movement, organizational unity must be accompanied by unity in action.

Combining the Teamsters with the AFL-CIO can be a first step toward achieving unity on the picketlines. Unconstitutional legislative restrictions on mass picketing and other acts of labor solidarity can more easily be challenged by a united labor Solidarity of the Teamsters is essential, for example, in challenging the prohibition against expanding picketlines or "secondary boycotts" to locations which handle struck goods.

Competition between unions The AFL-CIO and Teamsters unification may also mean an end to the disastrous policy of intruding into each other's jurisdictions. Teamster and AFL-CIO unions regularly compete for the same workers in organizing drives.

The worst example was the Teamster campaign in the 1970s to displace the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, from representing California farmworkers. This divisive battle permitted the powerful agri-business growers to extract more concessions from farmworkers.

It also resulted in weakening the militant UFW, which had to divert its few resources to defend itself from the Teamsters' attacks—some of which were physical.

While this particular dispute has cooled, the policy of AFL-CIO and Teamster unions competing with each other continues to this day. Recently, both the Teamsters and the International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO, have declared intentions to organize the Coors brewery in Colorado.

The spectacle of a divisive union contest at the Coors Brewery contrasts sharply with the overwhelmingly successful united effort which sustained the Coors Boycott for so many years.

"One big union!"

A short-sighted policy of union competition in organizing drives offers a no-win situation. One union's gain is quickly nullified by the other union's gain the next time. These conflicts confuse unorganized workers. Inevitably, the employer benefits.

Under pressures of increased employer attacks, more unions will be compelled to search for ways to achieve labor solidarity. Ultimately, it will become clear that decent living conditions can only be won by challenging the numerous anti-union laws and regulations that make labor solidarity virtually illegal.

The right to strike, the right to mass picket, and the right of all unions to respect picketlines will be reclaimed by a revitalized labor movement. The unexpected unity of the Teamsters and the APL-CIO suggests big changes in labor's future which will make these goals attainable.