Word: becks
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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With a mob of newsmen, lawyers and top Teamster officials trailing behind, chunky James Riddle Hoffa breezed into the spacious, glass-paneled lobby of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s Washington headquarters and disappeared through a pair of bleached-mahogany doors. Behind him waddled watery-eyed Teamster President Dave Beck. Symbolic it was that Ninth Vice President Hoffa unceremoniously pushed in ahead of his nominal chief. Dave Beck, his power dwindled, is No. 1 Teamster in title only, and he is scheduled to give up even that title to Hoffa when the union's convention meets in Miami Beach Sept...
...Ethical Practices Committee, chaired by greying Machinists' President Al Hayes, waited impatiently to hear what the hour-late Teamster chieftains had to say about charges that their union is dominated by "corrupt influences." Dave and Jimmy said plenty-but told very little. Reading off a wordy prepared statement, Beck said blandly that, after all, the "allegations" against him and Jimmy and other Teamster officials were not "of such magnitude as to support a belief that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, as an entity, is 'dominated . . . by any corrupt influence.' " Later on, Hoffa talked away for a couple...
...states. This kind of power was there for any aggressive man to grab. International President Dan Tobin, growing ineffectual after more than 30 years in office, was little more than a figurehead ruler of a vast, decentralized realm of baronies. In the Far West a redheaded baron named Dave Beck was already capitalizing on organizational weaknesses that fairly cried for a strong hand; stealthily Beck's hand reached out. In the Midwest roughhousing, baby-faced Hoffa was doing the same. He got caught a couple of times: in 1946 he was indicted, eventually assessed costs of $500 for eliciting...
...from his longtime foe, August ("Gus") Scholle, president of the Michigan C.I.O. Council. "Hoffa," says Scholle, "figures he can always buy what he wants." Adds a West Coast lawyer: "Jimmy Hoffa believes that anything can be accomplished and will seize a way to do it. You could count Dave Beck as being tough, but he's an angel alongside of Hoffa. Hoffa is just plain ruthless. Beck rants and snorts. As a last resort, he would use group physical violence, but he wouldn't have anyone bumped off. Hoffa wouldn't stop at anything...
...financial affairs of locals from international headquarters, i.e., Jimmy Hoffa. In deference to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. leadership, Hoffa says that he will rid himself of all his private business interests. But he will defend the right of an accused union official to cringe behind the Fifth Amendment, as Dave Beck did. Far more important is Hoffa's dream of establishing what he calls a "loose-knit council" of all the nation's transportation unions "to exchange ideas." How he would handle this enormous thumbscrew on the U.S. economy, only he can tell...