Word: teamster
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Attorney General Kennedy's personal vendetta against Teamster President James R. Hoffa has turned into a national spectator sport, a wrestling match perhaps, with its properly defined hero and villain. The assumption of Hoffa's guilt sets the tone of the unending fight. This month Teamster officials charged that certified bonding agents throughout the nation had been ordered not to serve Teamster personnel, and the Justice Department felt it could retort: "We never comment on anything Mr. Hoffa...
Without saying that Hoffa is not a crook, it can be observed that assumption of guilt is somewhat inconsistent with traditions of law enforcement in America. The Teamster leader has been indicted several times, but never convicted; the Justice Department, as well as the F.B.I., the McClellan Committee, investigating groups in both wings of the House, and even the C.I.A. have kept Hoffa's every move under surveillance for years; yet he has not been proved guilty in an American court. Until he is, it ill behooves the Attorney General to make a mockery of the court decisions...
...served to raise the broader issues of government-labor relations. In fact, policy is being obscured by personality and justice couched in vindictive terms. If the anti-Hoffa campaign is not admirable, it is also not effective. Nor will it gain much meaning if and when the Teamster leader is jailed for mail fraud...
Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa would make a great passing combination-if insults and accusations were footballs. Last week it was Jimmy's turn to toss: free after standing federal trial in Nashville, Tenn., Hoffa charged that Bobby had tried to tell Nashville Banner Publisher James G. Stahlman what the paper "should or should not print" about the trial. Moreover, he said, he could provide a transcript of a telephone conversation in which Bobby pressured Stahlman...
Another grand jury in Chicago is investigating alleged irregularities in the Teamster pension fund, and Hoffa already faces a fraud charge involving the misuse of $500.000 of union funds in a Florida real estate development. All in all, it seemed possible that Jimmy Hoffa still might not have the last word...