BLET Focus


Spring 2004 Volume 111 - No. 1

BLET Focus

Brief Teamster History

1899 - Team Drivers International Union (TDIU) was chartered, with an initial membership of 1,700.

1899 - The Teamsters National Union, was formed. AFL President Samuel Gompers convinced the competing unions to meet.

1903 - The two groups joined forces to create the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Cornelius Shea was elected its first General President.

1905 - The IBT backed a bloody strike at the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward Company. The strike lasted more than 100 days, tragically took 21 lives, and cost about $1 million. In the end, Montgomery Ward's cutthroat tactics broke the strike.

1907 - Local 25's Dan Tobin was elected General President. His leadership brought needed new momentum to the fledgling union.

1912 - The first transcontinental delivery of goods by motor truck.

1914 - World War I begins, which leads to an industrial boom in the U.S. that helped to drive the relentless organizing efforts of General President Tobin. Teamsters played a crucial role in the war effort. Union members helped secure military success by swiftly moving troops and supplies from ports to battle lines. Speeding through France and Germany, American trucks were critical to the allied effort after the U.S. entered the war in 1917.

1929 - The Great Depression begins hits the Teamsters' membership hard, but through ambitious organizing, membership numbers do not suffer.

1930s - The Teamsters support Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policies, which help to alleviate the economic depression.

1930s-1940s - World War II begins. Teamsters President Tobin travels to the United Kingdom to observe the efforts of unions in that country.

1941 - The U.S. enters the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Members of the IBT promote war bonds and organize drives for scrap metal and rubber. Thousands of members serve in the military.

Post War - The IBT membership tops 1 million

1952 - Dan Tobin ends his 45 years as President

1957 - James R. Hoffa elected General President. During his presidency, the IBT moves to the forefront of the labor movement. The organization establishes its DRIVE program, negotiates the National Master Freight Agreement and battles for social justice.

1976 - Membership tops 2 million

1980s - The fortunes of organized labor decline as a result of deregulation and corporate greed. The IBT renews its focus on the DRIVE program to combat these problems.

1997 - The IBT strike at UPS sparks labor's resurgence.

1998 - James P. Hoffa is elected General President

Continued on Page 7

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