The Embattled Warrior

Jimmy Hoffa had to weather a temporary storm of Senate committee accusations, court injunctions, and ultimatums from the AFL-CIO to achieve one of the most powerful executive positions in organized labor, but his victory will come as a surprise to no one. One thing, however, is certain: Hoffa is now in a fight that started, rather than ended with his triumph at Miami Beach last week.

The immediate problem concerns the relationship between the AFL-CIO and Hoffa's Teamsters. George Meany, president of the parent union, is expected to urge suspension of the Teamsters and the next step--complete expulsion--would be left up to the AFL-CIO convention this December. Hoffa has appealed to Meany and his executive council to drop the ouster movement, but the Ethical Practices Committee has already gone too far to back down now. The result of a clear split between the AFL-CIO and the giant Teamsters bloc would be a labor war injurious both to national business and to the unions themselves. In more clement times, the two unions have had to depend on each other; the AFL-CIO on the Teamsters for transportation, and the Teamsters on the AFL-CIO for contracts. If the two groups split, the result would be chaotic with labor raids and wide-spread strikes. The real victim would then be the national economy. Meany and the leaders of the AFL must decide then, either to take these risks and expel the Teamsters or play a waiting game and let Hoffa cut his own throat.

John McClellan's Senate investigating committee, which has just prepared a long list of "improper activities" by Hoffa and henchmen, is another of the Teamster president's more peaceful opponents. The situation here is a particularly frustrating one for McClellan and his committee, for they are convinced, along with the rest of the nation, that Hoffa is a corrupt labor leader who should have been locked up long ago. He has gotten off the hook once already and the Committee well realizes they cannot afford to let him get away again. If he did, public opinion would certainly begin to question the value of a labor rackets purge that could not rid the unions of their most obvious offender.

But even if McClellan should not succeed, there is a third force which must be brought to bear on Hoffa and his colleagues if he is to be ousted. This force must come from within--from the teamsters themselves. Some already oppose him, as has been evidenced by the attempts of thirteen teamsters to invalidate the election.

But as yet, this group has had little success in halting Hoffa's steamroller. What they must do then is to convince the rank and file teamster that Hoffa is bad for him and for organized labor. This will not be easy, for many teamsters believe that while Hoffa may be corrupt, he has had to be to gain labor benefits for them. The question will then be whether the anti-Hoffa forces can convince this group that Hoffa is not out for the good of the Teamsters, but for the good of James R. Hoffa.

No matter how successful the McClellan committee and the anti-Hoffa Teamsters may be in the next few months, it is almost certain that Meany and the AFL-CIO will not sit back and let Hoffa flaunt their ultimatums. They will bring as much pressure to bear on Hoffa as they can in the next few months and in December might easily decide to expel him. But we hope that the AFL-CIO does not take this step, for while it might destroy Hoffa, its effects would be far-reaching. It would be a far better thing to have Hoffa defeated by a Senate subcommittee and his own teamsters rather than by a labor war which could well prove disastrous to an inflation-weakened economy.