Mr. Clean and the Outcast

In 1957, United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther compared the corrupt Teamsters Union to a fallen woman, and he headed the drive to expel it from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Last spring, after he topped off an old feud with President George Meany by leading his own union out of the giant federation, Reuther decided that the Teamsters were not so bad after all. Last week the labor movement's Mr. Clean got together with its scarlet lady in a slogan-bedecked Washington hotel to exchange vows of solidarity forever. The U.A.W. and the Teamsters created something called the Alliance for Labor Action.

Through the A.L.A., the nation's two largest unions agreed to work together toward goals that they might not be able to achieve alone. For Reuther, frustrated in his efforts to make national policy through the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the linkup provides a base of 3.6 million members and a podium from which to advance his ideas. Last week he reiterated his call for national health insurance, tax reform and organization of community action groups to speak for the poor and the black. For the Teamsters, the alliance offers a much-needed aura of respectability. The Teamsters' acting president, Frank Fitzsimmons, made clear that his union would give up none of its independence by entering the alliance.

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. has recognized the alliance as a challenge to its hegemony and threatened to expel any member union that joins it. The alliance has already made some unsuccessful overtures to A.F.L.-C.I.O. members, but its prime organizational targets lie outside. Some 58 million members of the U.S. labor force--notably those on the farms, in the civil service, in stores and offices --are considered ripe for unionization. The Teamsters' 2,000,000 members and the U.A.W.'s 1,600,000 will each have to contribute 100 a month, giving the alliance operating funds of $4.3 million a year. The organization will also have tremendous muscle to back up its demands. The U.A.W. has the power to paralyze one of the nation's major industries, and the Teamsters can tie up virtually every segment of U.S. industry by stopping the trucks.

Waiting for Jimmy. Just how long the new alliance will last depends largely on the Teamsters' president, James Riddle Hoffa. Convicted of jury tampering in 1964, Hoffa began serving an eight-year sentence in March 1967. He is eligible for parole in November but faces another five-year prison term for conviction on charges of fraud in handling union pension funds, which he is appealing. Hoffa is likely to resume his old job once he gets out. When he returns, no one expects that he and Reuther will be able to work together in harmony. They may not have to. If the Teamsters brighten their image enough to recruit many new members, labor's bad boy may be able to dissolve his alliance with the U.A.W. and return to the A.F.L.-C.I.O.--on his own terms.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.