Word: becking
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...Even Beck's enemies admit that he has done well for his Teamsters in the way of wages and fringe benefits, and it is upon that fact that Beck justifies all his behavior. Cries he: "Everything else is incidental to wages, hours and improved working conditions for the Teamsters' membership. What are the men getting for what the men are paying?" What the men are getting does not include a say-so in the affairs of their union. Asks Beck: "Why should truck drivers and bottle washers be allowed to make decisions affecting union policy...
...making the decisions, Beck gets an annual salary of $50,000, pays his field organizers from $15,000 to $20,000 a year (from the union treasury). The result surpasses the average labor officials' wildest dreams. The philosophy of the local Teamster officer, says a seasoned observer, goes something like this: "If I can get some members for a local union, then I can get a charter, then I can get some more members, then I can collect dues, then I can have a union treasury, then I can buy a Cadillac, then I can take trips to Florida...
...Heaven. Over the years, the Teamsters' Boss Beck has labored mightily to achieve a standing of eminent respectability. Unlike his goon-squad lieutenants, he does not smoke, drink, play cards, shoot pool, follow the horses or bestow nylons indiscreetly. Beck and his Teamsters spend lavishly for civic and political purposes, e.g., a cool $1,000,000 pledged to the City of Hope Medical Center near Los Angeles, and (according to McClellan committee testimony) about $500,000 to defeat a right-to-work referendum in Washington State last year. With the notable exception of Washington's ex-Republican Governor...
Many businessmen came to like good old Dave. To honor Beck's election as the Teamsters' president, more than 600 Seattle business leaders gathered in the Olympic Hotel in December 1952. Co-chairmen were the publishers of the Seattle Times and of the Post-Intelligencer. Master of ceremonies was Brewer Emil Sick, chief beneficiary of the Beck-directed union war of the 1930s, when Beck permitted "not a single goddam drop" of Brewery Workers Union beer to enter the Northwest from California or the East. Cried Sick: "We respect you as a labor leader-the greatest...
...years later, soon after the Teamsters' new headquarters went up in Washington, Beck won even more heartwarming tribute. At a testimonial dinner, Eric Johnston, watchdog for the motion pictures industry and past president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, turned to Beck with some unblushing doggerel: If I had a key to heaven And you didn't have...