Collision: How the Rank and File Took Back the Teamsters

This is the stirring story of how a reform slate was elected to leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1991. Going back to the regime of Jimmy Hoffa, who assumed the presidency in 1957, the Mafia had been a powerful force in the IBT, especially in the New York City area, notes Crowe, a labor reporter for Newsday whose encyclopedic knowledge of the union informs this important book. He shows how the top union officials paid themselves huge salaries, practiced nepotism and consistently arranged sweetheart deals for themselves with employers by refusing to ratify strike votes taken by local members. Dissidents were either fired from their trucking jobs or beaten up. But reform was made possible by a RICO civil suit filed against the IBT, which paved the way for Ron Carey's landslide election to the union presidency. Photos not seen by PW . (Mar.)