Teamsters Rank-and-File Organize Nationwide

After the wildcats of 1970, rank-and-file activists tried to find ways to organize nationally. In 1975, a group of 40 Teamsters from different groups, at the initiative of Teamster members of the International Socialists, formed Teamsters for a Decent Contract to mobilize around negotiations for the next MFA. This pressure led to a (disorganized) official strike and a subsequent major successful wildcat in Detroit. The activists made new contacts, and decided to start Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a national group with some base in barns in different cities. I compare the TDU chapters as of 1981 in New Jersey (weak), Los Angeles (able to assist local activists and put out and circulate 10,000 copies of its newspaper), and Detroit (a movement strong enough to threaten local Teamster bureaucracy). After discussing the social and economic factors, and strategies, that let TDU succeed, I suggest that neither the Teamster bureaucracy nor TDU would be able to prevent the decline of the Teamsters, given the forces arrayed against it, but that TDU would continue as “activists waiting for a break” that would perhaps become tamed and legalistic.