According to a brief biography of Jimmy Hoffa published by PBS Online, Hoffa was one of the most controversial characters in the history of organized labor. He served as President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 to 1971. Known throughout the trucking industry for being a tough bargainer, Hoffa played a major role in the first nationwide freight-hauling contract. Under his leadership, wages for truck drivers increased dramatically and the Teamsters became the largest labor union in the United States with a membership of approximately 1.3 million workers.
In 1955, the Democrats regained control of the United States Senate. Robert Kennedy was appointed chief counsel of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. With Communist hunting out of favor following the so-called community witch hunts of the early 1950s, Kennedy soon focused on the possibility that labor union leaders might be doing business with criminal organizations. Kennedy focused on the Teamsters which was the nation's largest union. Kennedy tried to prove that the Teamsters union had been infiltrated by members of organized crime who stole from the Teamsters' $250 million pension fund, and used the pension fund as a source of short term cash.
PBS Online explains that Kennedy decided to investigate Hoffa, the President of the Teamsters along with a number of other union leaders. In January of 1957, the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field was created. Kennedy led the investigation and a series of public hearings into corruption in the trade union movement in which Hoffa was an important witness. This investigation produced a handful of criminal prosecutions, but the press coverage raised the Kennedy family profile in national politics. These hearings suggested a disturbing relationship between some labor leaders and the Mafia.
One thing was clear from the Senate hearings; there was genu...