• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Unions and Racketeering

Historically, elements of organized criminal groups referred to as La Cosa Nostra (LCN ) or the "Mafia" gained substantial corrupt influence, and even control in some instances, over labor unions by creating a climate of fear and intimidation among their members by threats and acts of violence. Organized crime was certainly nothing new in America. The Italian imported “La Cosa Nostra”—literally translated as “this thing of ours”—had come to the nation’s attention in 1890, when the head of the New Orleans police department was murdered execution-style by Italian and Sicilian immigrants. In the 1930s, Charles “Lucky” Luciano had set up the modern-day La Cosa Nostra, creating the family structure (led by “dons” or “bosses”) and ruling body (“the Commission”) and running the entire operation like a business.

Through such domination, these criminal groups were able to place their associates in key official positions with various unions and in other positions of influence and to thereby exploit the unions and the employers which dealt with such unions and derive illegal proceeds from the operation of the unions' affairs and labor-management relations.

Although Teamsters Union leader James R. (Jimmy) Hoffa never was a truck driver himself, he became involved with the Teamsters as an organizer in Detroit in the early 1930’s. In 1946, he became president of Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit, then head of all Michigan Teamsters locals, then vice president of the national Teamsters, and finally president of the national Teamsters in 1957, a position to which he was re-elected in 1961. As Hoffa rose in the union he made deals with organized crime to prevent organized crime criminals from conducting strike breaking activities (many industrial leaders utilized these same criminal elements to suppress workers attempting to join unions and striking).

The first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran were, "I heard you paint houses." To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than twenty-five hits for the mob, and for his friend Hoffa.

While Hoffa was involved with the Teamsters, the organization experienced rapid growth. Hoffa was instrumental in the consolidation of various local trucking unions into regional sections, and finally into a national union of over one million members that at its peak was one of the most powerful unions in the United States. Through the aggressive organizing methods that Hoffa developed and encouraged, the Teamsters also brought into their fold various other blue collar and professional workers who were not involved in the trucking industry, including firemen and other municipal employees, farm workers, motion picture and theater workers, newspaper, food service employees and others.

By the mid-1950s criminals and their accomplices had become aware of loopholes in the laws governing the conduct of labor unions. They sought to take full advantage of the opportunities that deficiencies in the law afforded with a view of seizing control of the labor unions and employer associations. Situations of that type had assumed disturbing proportions.

The urgency of this problem was demonstrated in 1957 by organized labor itself when the AFL-CIO felt impelled to adopt strict codes of ethical practices covering the establisliment of paper locals; the administration of welfare funds; the infiltration of racketeers, Fascists, and Communists ; and with respect to conflicts of interest.

The Teamsters and their methods were controversial and their leaders were frequently accused of being corrupt and having criminal ties. The Teamsters were expelled from the national coalition of labor organizations, the AFL-CIO, in 1957 because of concerns about corruption and infiltration by organized crime. This was the impetus for a senate investigation in the mid 1950s by the McClellan Committee which led to the passage of the Landrum-Griffith Act of 1959 and other legislation designed to regulate union activities.

During its Government procurement investigations, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Government Operations uncovered evidence that racketeers had invaded the business of supplying uniforms to the U.S. Government and that certain local unions were cooperating with the racketeers. The subcommittee subsequently discovered that the reports to Federal agencies filed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America were not accurate. Subcommittee chairman John L. McClellan of Arkansas believed a full-scale investigation of improper activities in the whole field of labor or management was needed.

The US Senate. Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field was active from 30 January 1957 to 31 March 1960. It was authorized and directed to conduct an investigation and study of the extent to which criminal or other improper practices or activities are, or have been, engaged in the field of labor-management relations or in groups or organizations of employees or employers to the detriment of the interests of the public, employers or employees, and to determine whether any changes were required in the laws of the U.S. in order to protect such interests against the occurrence of such practices or activities.

Under Chairman John L. McClellan, with Chief Counsel Robert F. Kennedy, it conducted 253 active investigations, served 8,000 subpoenas for witnesses and documents, held 270 days of hearings with 1,526 witnesses (343 of whom invoked the Fifth Amendment), compiled almost 150,000 pages of testimony, and issued various interim reports. At its peak of activity in 1958, 104 persons were engaged in the work of the committee, including 34 deployed on field investigations and approximately 40 accountants and investigators from the Government Accounting Office. The committee''s investigations covered a wide range of labor unions and corporations in the United States, such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Automobile Workers, Anheuser-Busch, Sears, and Occidental Life Insurance.

It is not clear why Bobby Kennedy hated the Teamster union and Jimmy Hoffa in particular. The one thing that is clear is that Jimmy Hoffa hated the Kennedys has much or more than they hated him. When RFK convinced the Senate to hold hearings into labor racketeering, it ignited a bitter feud between the two. Hoffa viewed RFK as a rich kid brat who wanted to make a name for himself at his (Hoffa's) expense. RFK had a short temper and his zealous pursuit of Hoffa as AG included many questionable tactics to "Get Hoffa" as one of his special Justice Department teams was called. Several of these tactics would later be ruled unconstitutional (in cases unrelated to Hoffa) and demonstrate Kennedy as someone willing to push the boundaries of legality to convict Hoffa.

The President's Commission on Organized Crime (PCOC), specifically concluded that the LCN had for decades controlled and corruptly influenced certain major labor unions in the United States, including "the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), the Laborers International Union of North American (LIUNA), the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HEREIU), and the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA)."

Prosecutorial activity increased throughout the country, and a rash of grand jury indictments resulted. On the legislative front, the select committee's influence was reflected in the enactment of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Public Law 86-257) on September 14, 1959.

In accordance with the PCOC's recommendations, the Department of Justice's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, working with various United States Attorneys' Offices, devised a strategy to use criminal prosecution and civil RICO lawsuits to eliminate such corrupt influence and/or control of particular labor unions and their affiliated organizations. As of 2010, the United States had obtained relief in 24 civil RICO cases involving employer associations and labor unions including the IBT, LIUNA and the HEREIU.

When the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) was enacted in 1959, Congress declared, “it is essential that labor organizations, employers and their officials adhere to the highest standards of responsibility and ethical conduct in administering the affairs of their organizations, particularly as they affect labor-management relations.” The LMRDA primarily promotes union democracy and financial integrity in private sector labor unions through standards for union officer elections and union trusteeships and safeguards for union assets. Additionally, the LMRDA promotes transparency through reporting and disclosure requirements for labor unions and their officials, employers, labor relations consultants, and surety companies. The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) continues to pursue this mission through criminal and civil enforcement of the LMRDA.

OLMS also administers provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and the Foreign Service Act of 1980, which extend comparable protections to federal labor unions. In addition, OLMS’ Division of Statutory Programs administers the Department’s responsibilities under the Federal Transit Act by ensuring that fair and equitable arrangements protecting mass transit employees are in place before the release of federal transit grant funds.

OLMS is the front line agency responsible for enforcing the LMRDA through its criminal and civil investigations. Criminal investigations include embezzlement, deprivation of rights by violence, extortionate picketing, willful failure to file reports, filing false reports, prohibited union office holding or employment of convicted persons, and fraud related to union elections. Civil investigations include violations of the LMRDA involving union election procedures, financial disclosure requirements, and trusteeship standards. OLMS conducts audits of union finances, administers a comprehensive compliance assistance program, and offers information and technical support to union officers and members to further the goals of financial integrity, union democracy, and transparency.

Beginning in 1975, for example, an FBI case code-named “Unirac” (for union racketeering) broke the mob’s broad stranglehold on the shipping industry, leading to more than 100 convictions. In a two-part operation launched in 1978, the FBI struck a major blow against organized crime leadership in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Kansas City, and Las Vegas through an investigation that uncovered the mob’s corrupt influence in Las Vegas and in the Teamsters Union. And in the 1980s, the groundbreaking “Commission” case led to the convictions of the heads of the five Mafia families in New York City—Bonnano, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese.

A 1964 Northern District of Illinois criminal prosecution played a major role in ending the controversial career of well known Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa. The jury convicted defendants on all but eight of the 28 counts of mail and wire fraud. Judge Richard B. Austin sentenced Hoffa to five years in prison on each count to run consecutively after the conclusion of an eight year sentence resulting from an earlier conviction on a charge of jury tampering in Nashville, Tennessee. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the conviction. However, in response to the defendants’ petitions for certiorari to the Supreme Court, the government admitted that the FBI had conducted unauthorized eavesdropping on certain of the defendants’ conversations. The Supreme Court remanded the case for further hearings on this issue, but on remand it was determined that no evidence used in the convictions had been obtained through the unauthorized eavesdropping.

Hoffa finally went to prison in 1967 and remained there until December, 1971, when President Nixon commuted his sentence to time served. A condition of the commutation was that Hoffa could not engage in union activities until 1980. Nevertheless, after his release, Hoffa engaged in extensive efforts to have this condition invalidated so that he could reassert his control over the Teamsters. Hoffa came out of prison spouting off about Fitzsimmons, The Teamsters and organized crime thinking there would be no repercussions.

However, in July 1975, before he was able to achieve this goal, Hoffa simply disappeared. He was last seen in the parking lot of a suburban Detroit restaurant and his fate and whereabouts have never been determined despite extensive investigations by the FBI, local law enforcement and private parties.

Hoffa was killed to prevent him from re-taking over the leadership of the Teamsters. Since his disappearance, the Jimmy Hoffa saga has been the subject of movies, books and numerous newspapers and magazine articles. In 2016, author Charles Brandt reported that legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino ordered Frank Sheeran to kill Hoffa. Sheeran did the deed, knowing that if he had refused he would have been killed himself.