National Reports
RICH, J. C.
National Reports Trucking-Waterfront Mob Coalition Is Major Threat to AFL-CIO Leaders By J. C. Rich The racket boys who have made a good thing of cargo loading and unloading on the New York...
...Paul Hall kept his word...
...It was when the IBL, now under the auspices of the merged AFL-CIO, moved recently to renew its fight for recognition and a Labor Board election that James Hoffa showed up to spike the move and grant the racket outfit a credit of $400,000...
...This sad ineptitude was regretted not only by the longshore mobsters, but also by some imaginative brothers among the Teamsters...
...Hoffa, upon arranging the deal with the longshoremen's outfit, opined that President Beck would surely be "broadminded" and not oppose the $400,000 loan...
...despite the discredit brought upon it in recent years, it enjoys a deserved reputation for integrity, militancy and adherence to high labor principle...
...Meany and the Council were thus persuaded to proceed with full expulsion and the chartering of the International Brotherhood of Longshoremen to replace the ILA...
...An innocent bystander, he may go to jail for a strike call he issued at the behest of Tough Tony Anastasia, one of the overlords of the Brooklyn docks...
...Labor men were particularly startled that it was one of Beck's departments which had come to the aid of the ousted ILA...
...The IBL had the prestige of the AFL, the support of the Seafarers, and very little else...
...The Teamsters, who are in a key position in any waterfront activity and had originally instigated the ILA ouster, turned reluctant dragons and showed benevolent neutrality toward the goons...
...Normally, the assistance rendered by a labor organization to a sister union in distress would be hailed in the labor movement as a laudable expression of solidarity...
...It was ousted from legitimate labor, didn't have a dime it could call its own, had accepted aid from Communist-tainted sources, and was generally busted both morally and financially...
...Velson, in a previous incarnation, had spearheaded the Communist faction in the American Labor party in New York, but Teddy brushed this off as irrelevant...
...Beck said neither yea nor nay, but became unavailable to the press immediately after the announcement of the extraordinary loan...
...State income-tax evasion...
...Meany, it is reported, did not plead or argue with Beck...
...He merely read him the clause in the AFL-CIO constitution providing that any affiliate which gives aid and comfort to an expelled organization is itself subject to expulsion...
...It was forced to fight not only the goons but also a number of employers whose scruples did not prevent them from working hand in glove with the crooks...
...The regal succession in the Teamsters' Brotherhood so far has run from Dan Tobin, the labor man, to Dave Beck, the businessman...
...With Hoffa as sponsor or co-maker, charters were granted by the International to locals of dubious membership and even less reputable leadership...
...O'Rourke's own credentials include a long acquaintance with Johnny Dio one which, according to O'Rourke's proud boast, runs back for thirty years and was not cooled by Johnny's unfortunate sojourn in the cooler...
...They recalled that, in the contest with Martin Lacey, Hoffa's adherents were the ones who created rotten boroughs in order to pack the N.Y...
...Holding a key position by its control of trucking, it has been of inestimable value to sister unions during strikes...
...It was in his Central Conference capacity that he moved in on New York and arranged the now celebrated deal with the International Longshoremen's Association the deal by which Hoffa arranged a credit of 8400,000 for the racket-ridden ILA in return for such rewards and emoluments as the latter might deliver in its own bailiwick...
...Yet, if despite all efforts the Teamsters' Brotherhood goes wrong, the AFL-CIO will have no alternative but to suspend it and perhaps eventually expel it from its midst...
...Dave Beck promptly made a cross-country dash to his Seattle estate and became unavailable for comment...
...One minor character who was chagrined by this new turn in events was Captain William (Tugboat Bill) Bradley...
...National Reports Trucking-Waterfront Mob Coalition Is Major Threat to AFL-CIO Leaders By J. C. Rich The racket boys who have made a good thing of cargo loading and unloading on the New York waterfront always felt there was something wrong with the union skates in trucking if they couldn't pick up a dollar where they left off...
...Bradley is President of the ILA and seems to enjoy wearing the badge of office even though his boys pay him about as much attention as they do to the picture on the wall...
...This is to distinguish him from the usual run of union presidents, who are no more than trade-unionists at best...
...Hoffa's flirtation with the longshoremen, the contest for control of the Teamsters' New York organization, and the alliances with shady elements made by several Beck lieutenants fall into a pattern of power-lust that is as full of danger for decent trade-unionism as it is for industrial welfare and law and order...
...The Brotherhood of Teamsters is not only the biggest trade union in the United States but also one of the finest...
...He is thus somewhat in the position of his ailing predecessor Joseph P. Ryan, who was convicted for the minor trespass of accepting some Christmas booze and a little backsheesh from several old pals among the stevedore firms...
...They knew that in 1953, when the Executive Council of the AFL was considering action against the International Longshoremen's Association...
...They had done pretty well by themselves when they succeeded in steering several locals off the patrolled highways of rectitude, and now they moved in to apply power steering to the big-time components of the union as well...
...Despite all this, the new longshore union came within a few hundred votes of winning the NLRB election held two years ago...
...This was a peculiar arrangement all around, and labor men with sensitive noses scented any number of wharf rats in the procedure...
...With the potentialities of the trucking industry for a power lift, there was no limit to what a smart mob could scoop up in the form of kickbacks, graft, extortion money and such sidelines as the gambling and loan-shark franchises...
...Beck's position was bolstered by Paul Hall, Secretary-Treasurer of the Atlantic district of the Seafarers' International Union, who promised full aid in any move to break the hold of the racket boys on the waterfront...
...J. C. Rich, a leading labor reporter for more than 20 years, frequently contributes to The New Leader...
...This is the struggle to which New York District Attorney Frank S. Hogan referred recently when he said that "underworld forces are making a determined effort to capture control" of the N.Y...
...Teamsters' Council with delegates...
...The trouble was that the Brotherhood was still operating in the traditions of a Dan Tobin when the real take lay in following the pattern of the longshoremen's crowd...
...The waterfront must be cleaned up once and for all, he argued, and the AFL, as the champion of clean trade-unionism, was duty-bound to do the job...
...Somehow or other, the tough babies who really run the works in the ILA have always found some respectable blubberbrain to front for them...
...One wonders whether his attitude showed business acumen, for the ILA, by any account, is a poor credit risk...
...Next in line seems to be the aforementioned James R. Hoffa, who in addition to his Vice Presidency is also head of the Central States Conference of Teamsters and holds several other titles of substantial rank...
...The votes of these locals have been contested by Lacey and are held under lock and key despite O'Rourke's strenuous objections...
...Lacey has called these units "paper organizations" dominated by Johnny Dio, an alumnus of the New York penitentiary and state prison with honors in racketeering and extortion and a postgraduate degree in N.Y...
...In addition, John L. Lewis showed up with a war fund of $300,000 for the ILA, while West Coast longshore boss Harry Bridges sent one Charles Velson to supply aid and counsel to the boss-man of the ILA, Vice President Thomas (Teddy) Gleason...
...While the sword of suspension hung over the goons' heads, keeping them at least temporarily under restraint, the AFL could work from within the ILA and prepare for the time when full expulsion could be put into effect...
...It was Dave Beck, as an AFL Vice President, who insisted that the AFL expel the ILA at once and replace it with a newly chartered longshoremen's union...
...He points with pride to the fact that it was through hard-headed business methods that he increased the size of the Teamsters treasury by several million dollars, and that it was by his own talent and business competence that he rose from the lowly rank of milk driver to the estate of a big-time real-estate operator and stock trader...
...He is inclined to be disdainful of his confreres who hold to the notion that the welfare of their membership and the ethics of the labor movement should be their first concern...
...Honest businessmen would take heart from the AFL stand, the law-enforcement authorities would help, and so would reputable trade unions in the area...
...He might also have stated that the powerful Teamsters Vice President, James R. Hoffa, was in O'Rourke's corner, while the big wheel of the Teamsters, President Dave Beck, viewed O'Rourke's aspirations with a neutrality that was better than benevolent...
...However, as a man of business acumen and broadminded outlook, he considered the record extraneous to the issue of chartering the disputed locals...
...Beck may not be an acquaintance of Johnny Dio, but he cannot be unacquainted with his record, for it has been called to his attention by Lacey and others...
...With the exception of operators in certain specialties like scab garment trucking, the Teamsters' Brotherhood was too clean for comfort...
...Teamsters' Joint Council...
...Beck took the hint and announced that the Hoffa deal would be "postponed" and the $400, 000 subsidy to the ILA given further study...
...Hoffa's action was in obvious defiance of standard procedure in the labor movement...
...In the struggle that ensued with mounting violence on New York's docks, the IBL made a remarkable showing...
...To top it all, the rank-and-file of the longshoremen had personal and social attachments to their ILA leaders, and regarded with fear, timidity or simple indifference the attempt to clean up the docks...
...He stated that these underworld characters were supporting one John O'Rourke for the Presidency of the Council as against Martin Lacey, the present incumbent...
...Beck likes to be known as the businessman of the labor movement...
...George Meany and others favored suspension of the ILA rather than full-scale expulsion...
...This would provide the time needed to create sentiment and manpower for a new organization to replace the racket-ridden longshore union...
...However, George Meany grabbed him by the scruff of his telephone and read the riot act to him...
...Dave Beck didn't...
...Immediate expulsion, however, would leave the racketeers with their own organization intact and only a hastily mobilized force to oppose them...
...It would be a crippling blow to labor if this proud and powerful organization were lost to the unscrupulous elements that now seek to dominate it...
...In this case, the reaction was less than enthusiastic...
Vol. 39 • March 1956 • No. 13
