Growth of Reform Among the Teamsters

When the New School for Social Research presented Ted Katsaros at its labor-management luncheon last December, it was recognizing, somewhat belatedly, the union reformer. Just 20 years ago, the same luncheon series featured A.J. Hayes’s, then president of the Machinists union and chairman of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee, who lectured on high policy from a lofty plane. Meanwhile, he was expelling two union reformers in Tool- and Diemakers Lodge 113 in Chicago, Machinists who had led a three-year battle for democracy. Hayes imposed a trusteeship over the lodge for over two years to prevent the rebels from ousting an officialdom accused of financial malpractices by the international’s own auditor. That was back in 195...