Sparks of Courage

Around the tables in Seattle's posh 410 Restaurant sat some of the top men in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, quietly talking strategy. At one table, the comments were mixed with uneasy hope and stifled distress. There sat two men who had dared to come out against arrogant, front-running Midwest Teamster Czar James Riddle Hoffa, who claimed that he would win the brotherhood's presidency at the quinquennial convention in Miami Beach, Fla. Sept. 30. Tom Hickey, longtime New York Teamster enemy of Hoffa, was one; the other was Tom Haggerty, secretary-treasurer of a milkwagon local in Chicago. At the next table, but out of earshot, was Jimmy Hoffa himself, dining and dealing with a quartet of his cronies. They were Hoffa's kind of company: one was a longtime Western Conference muscleman; another was recently convicted of perjury; of the remaining two, one is noted chiefly for his talent for tearing up telephone books with his bare hands.

"Look at the difference between tables," murmured Bill Franklin, secretary-treasurer of the Western Conference of Teamsters, who sat with Hickey and Haggerty. "Not a man at this table has ever done anything he needs to be ashamed of. The best thing Jim Hoffa could ever do for the union is to stand up right now and say he'll withdraw. But there's no chance of that." Said Tom Haggerty: "Well, it's up to us to dignify the name of our union." Franklin talked of the support behind Hickey and Haggerty and a third anti-Hoffa candidate, California's Democratic Congressman Jack Shelley of San Francisco, a onetime bakery driver who still pays Teamster dues. "There's enough for a snowball to get rolling," he said, "if Hickey, Haggerty and Shelley stand together."

Not Much Experience. The three challengers, as well as Jimmy Hoffa, were in Seattle last week to perform an unusual kind of experiment. The Western Conference's Franklin had thought up the idea of bringing the candidates for president in for scrutiny by the conference's 16-man executive board and 20-man policy committee. "Believe me," said Franklin before the hearing began, "it's taken a lot of doing. We still don't know how well it's going to work out because, don't forget, we've never had much experience in democratic procedure."

Behind closed doors, the meeting droned on for more than three hours. Western Conference Boss Frank Brewster (who was sentenced to a year in prison last month for contempt of Congress), long a Hoffa enemy, wanted to ram through an endorsement of Hoffa. Dave Beck, chins-deep in trouble,* was absent, but the word was around that what little power he has left will be with Hoffa in the hope that President Hoffa would help to make Beck president emeritus (at $50,000 a year).

Of the four candidates, Jimmy Hoffa got the biggest hand from his fellow Teamsters. But it was Chicago's Haggerty, a "clean" union man and a member of the Chicago board of education, who presented the most clearly detailed platform: greater autonomy for Joint Councils and locals, a bigger General Executive Board with greater powers, an end to ironfisted trusteeships (from which Jimmy Hoffa has gained much of his muscle).

Heartening Symbol. As an experiment in democratic procedure, the meeting was successful on at least one count: Brewster's plan for backing Hoffa was soundly beaten; none of the candidates won an endorsement. Each local could make its own decision. Around the Teamster empire, there were small chinks in the Hoffa wall. Dave Beck's own Seattle local (laundry and dye-works drivers) instructed its lone delegate to vote for any candidate but Hoffa; in New York, Hoffa Pal Johnny O'Rourke got the shock of his life when his local failed to endorse Hoffa, ordered its ten delegates to go uninstructed to Miami Beach. Hoffa seemed untroubled. Said he: "Patience, patience; that's all you have to have. Just wait and see. We've got detailed charts; we've got telegrams coming in from all the various locals in the different conferences; we know just where Hoffa stands."

Nevertheless, Hickey, Haggerty and Shelley planned to drive on, rolling up whatever delegates they could win independently. Once they weighed in at Miami Beach, the two weaker candidates would probably throw their support to the third. Hardly anyone thought they would be able to beat Jimmy Hoffa. But they symbolized a new and heartening rise of courage among the old local leaders who have had their fill of the private buccaneering of Hoffa and his unsavory crew.

*Latest: a ticket for jaywalking in Seattle.

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