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Jimmy Hoffa's Life & Contribution to Labor

Jimmy Hoffa's Life and His Contribution to Labor

Introduction: Jimmy Hoffa was the leader of the largest union in the United States, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He was fervent, some might even say fanatical in his support of the Teamsters. He often faced conflicts with law enforcement and union leadership. Many speculate that his dealings with organized crime leaders resulted in his disappearance or murder in 1975. It is speculated that Hoffa was murdered by the Mafia because he was so eager to get back into office that the Mafia felt he might trade information in exchange for lifting the restrictions the forced him out of the Teamsters Union when Nixon pardoned him in 1971.

According to an essay by Richard Behar published on the Time Inc. website, the federal government became involved in supervising the Teamsters Union following a 1989 settlement of a racketeering suit that charged the union's leadership with having a long standing relationship with the American Mafia. The record speaks for itself. Four of the union's past seven presidents had been indicted on criminal charges; three of them including Jimmy Hoffa went to prison. To avoid a government-imposed trusteeship, the Teamsters Union agreed to allow the 1.6 million members to freely elect their president (Behar).

According to a lengthy article by Pat Zacharias published by The Detroit News, Jimmy Hoffa never intended to become a union organizer. He job at the Kroger Grocery and Baking Company unloading produce from railroad cars for 32 cents an hour. At the time, warehouse workers were required to report at 4:30 p.m. for a 12-hour shift, but they only got paid for the time that they actually unloaded produce. The rest of the shift, they would sit around idle and unpaid, waiting to be called but unable to leave the premises. In the spring of 1931, after two workers were fired for going to a food cart for dinner Hoffa called for a work stoppage jus...

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Jimmy Hoffa's Life & Contribution to Labor. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 17:49, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1695823.html