Jimmy's Big Dream

In one of his dreams of glory--even more grandiose than his dream of nationwide control of transportation--Teamster Boss James Riddle Hoffa had another vision: his corruption-riddled union should control the nation's municipal, county and state employees--including the police. Last week, in New York City, a Hoffa henchman, taking his cue from the boss, boldly announced that he was ready to organize the 24,000 members of the New York police department.* Said Teamster Henry Feinstein, 53, who holds down an $8,500-a-year city job as supervisor of transportation in Manhattan: Within a fortnight he would throw pickets around police headquarters, police depots and supply stations. Hoped-for result: fellow Teamsters would refuse to deliver police supplies, and--as Feinstein put it--Police Commissioner Stephen Kennedy (TIME, July 7) would "get a taste of Teamster economic force and pressure. The commissioner," said Feinstein, with considerable relish, "will freeze in his office."

The commissioner was frozen, all right --but with pure anger. Barked Tough Cop Kennedy, who brooks no doubt about his responsibility and authority: "If the police are unionized, I advise the people not to waste their money paying the police commissioner a salary. Hoffa would be the police commissioner, so why waste the money?" Said the hard-boiled Daily News: "Public opinion will approve overwhelmingly any steps--repeat any steps--Commissioner Kennedy may take to crush this attempt." At City Hall, Mayor Robert Wagner found his voice, pounded his desk, called Feinstein's announcement "dastardly" and a "disgrace," promised to fire Feinstein from his city job if he tried to unionize the cops. New York Lawyer Godfrey P. Schmidt, one of the three monitors appointed by the U.S. District Court last year to oversee a Teamster housecleaning, thought Hoffa's police plan a piece of" "unmitigated gall," promised that the monitors would forbid it.

Seeing nary an appeaser in sight, Jimmy Hoffa quickly backtracked, claimed that Feinstein's plan was a surprise to him. His boys would not try to stop police deliveries, intended to picket "for advertising purposes only." Furthermore, the Teamsters would welcome police membership, only "if they request it."

In Washington, at week's end, Labor Secretary James Mitchell called for legislation (proposed by the Eisenhower Administration, but rejected by the last Congress) that would limit coercive picketing in organizing drives. There was no better justification for such a law than last week's show of Jimmy Hoffa's unmitigated gall--and the certain promise that Hoffa had only begun to dream.

* Police in 73 cities are unionized (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), e.g., New Haven, Conn.; St. Paul; Omaha; El Paso; Denver; Portland, Ore. The union's charter forbids police membership to strike.

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