Union des Teamsters

Union des Teamsters, nom de Fraternité internationale des Teamsters, chauffeurs, entreposeurs et aides d'Amérique, anciennement (jusqu'en 1940) Fraternité internationale des Teamsters, chauffeurs, écuries et aides d'Amérique (IBT), le plus grand syndicat du secteur privé aux États-Unis, représentant les camionneurs et les travailleurs des secteurs connexes (comme l'aviation).

Quiz

Organisations mondiales: réalité ou fiction?

L'Organisation mondiale de la santé est une branche spécialisée du gouvernement américain.

Le syndicat a été formé en 1903 lorsque le Team Drivers International Union (1899) a fusionné avec le Teamsters National Union (1902). Les livreurs locaux utilisant des véhicules tirés par des chevaux sont restés les membres principaux jusqu'aux années 1930, lorsqu'ils ont été remplacés par les chauffeurs routiers interurbains. De 1907 à 1952, le syndicat était dirigé par Daniel J. Tobin, qui est passé de 40 000 en 1907 à plus de 1 000 000 en 1950. Il était devenu le plus grand syndicat du pays en 1940. Présidents Dave Beck (1952-1957) et James Hoffa (1957-1971) ont transformé les Teamsters en un syndicat fortement centralisé capable de négocier des accords nationaux de transport de marchandises. Les présidents Ron Carey (1992–99) et James P. Hoffa (1999–), fils d'un ancien président, se sont concentrés sur la sécurité de l'emploi et les questions familiales.

The union’s size, along with the threat of halting shipments of essential goods, gave the Teamsters great bargaining power. But the union’s magnitude also provided some officials with opportunities for violently pressuring small employers or profiting, in consort with organized crime, from the manipulation of union pension funds. In the wake of corruption disclosures implicating Teamster leadership, the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) expelled the union in 1957—after almost 60 years of membership in the AFL.

Between 1957 and 1988, three of the Teamsters’ presidents—Beck, the elder Hoffa, and Roy L. Williams—were convicted of various crimes and sentenced to prison terms. After his release from prison, Hoffa disappeared in 1975; many believe he was killed by members of organized crime. The Teamsters Union was readmitted to the AFL–CIO in 1987. In 1988 the Justice Department filed a civil racketeering suit against the union, but the suit was settled out of court in 1989. In 1992, given their first chance to directly elect their national leaders, members chose as president Carey, the candidate supported by the reformist group Teamsters for a Democratic Union. While Teamster representation of truck drivers declined with the growth of nonunion trucking companies in the 1980s, the union gained many new members through its efforts to organize workers in clerical, service, and technology occupations.

In 1997 the Teamsters galvanized media attention and public support when their strike against United Parcel Service (UPS) stopped the delivery of thousands of packages worldwide. The strike centred on the extensive use of part-time employees by UPS. In the agreement negotiated with UPS, the Teamsters won 10,000 new full-time jobs over the course of the five-year contract. In later years the Teamsters became increasingly dissatisfied with the AFL-CIO, especially its inability to increase union membership. In 2005 the Teamsters disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO and, with several other unions, helped establish the Change to Win coalition.