Union Democracy Triumphs Over Organized Crime

When Ron Carey learned that he had been elected Teamsters union (IBT) president, his first words, addressed to the old-guard officials who were using the union’s treasury as their private money market fund, were: “The party’s over.” An unstated message, delivered to the whole labor movement by the victory of his entire sixteen-candidate slate, carried a broader lesson: for the first time in memory, organized crime suffered a major defeat in the American labor movement.

The eradication of corruption has been—and remains—one of the great unfinished tasks of American labor. Many have tried. Up to now, all failed. To start, not at the beginning, but “only” thirty-seven years ago, we turn to February 24, 1955, when the CIO executive board met to vote on merger with the AFL. Walter Reuther, hoping to allay the misgivings of those who were disturbed by the extent of corruption in the older federation, told them, “[I]t will clearly require bold courage to cleanse the labor movement of corruption, and it will require eternal vigilance to keep it clean. It is not an easy job, and if you think a united labor movement is going to mean we can sit back and say, we have the declaration, we have the machinery, the job is won, you are deluding yourself…[But I think the job can be done…There are a lot of honorable people in the AFL leadership…we are equal to that challenge.”

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