Word: hoffa
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...gave service too. In the dreary Depression days of strikes and lockouts, Hoffa's springy figure and his vibrant personality (expressed with a wealth of the four-letter words) became a familiar sight. His commodity was spirit. He found men to form picket lines, sometimes scraped up money to pay for their bread. He toured meetings of locals like an itinerant troubleshooter ("I know how to coordinate all the locals, how to use them to give full strength wherever we need it"), wore out his share of shoe leather on countless picket lines ("I was picked...
...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 "fees" from independent grocerymen, who, rather than hire union drivers, were hauling their own provisions; in 1942 he was fined $1,000 for his part...
While trucking-industry management generally likes Hoffa and looks upon him with some awe, bigger fish tend to fear him. At the biggest dinner of its kind ever held in Detroit, more than 2,600 well-wishers last year paid $100 apiece in honor of Hoffa's 25 years in the labor movement (proceeds for a children's home in Israel). Scores of important names in the Midwest seized the chance to shake the hard, square hand of Hoffa. And though General Motors, Ford and Chrysler employ only 500 Teamsters (out of a total payroll list...
Cons & Confidence. The mark of Hoffa's skill is that he has been able to win widespread confidence on both sides of the bargaining table while borrowing money under curious circumstances from businessmen with Teamster contracts, consorting with hoods and ruthlessly pushing around local Teamster leaders who got in his way. He teamed up with New York Racketeer Johnny Dio to discredit old-time Teamster Vice President Tom Hickey and to dethrone Martin Lacey from the presidency of the powerful New York Teamsters Joint Council 16 (some 60 locals). Hoffa succeeded ultimately: his man John O'Rourke finally...
...mark of Hoffa's brazen determination to get what he wants any way he can was his performance in the early days of the Senate Labor Rackets investigation. New York Lawyer John Cye Cheasty swore that Hoffa hired him to spy on the committee's investigative work. When Hoffa was arrested and tried on bribery and conspiracy charges before a jury of eight Negroes and four whites, Hoffa's good "friend," ex-Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis, made a conspicuous show of himself in the courtroom. During the trial John Cheasty noted a recurrent Hoffa action. Jimmy...