International Brotherhood of Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, commonly known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or simply the Teamsters, is one of the largest labor unions in the United States. A teamster was originally a person who drives a horse-drawn wagon, and such laborers made up the original core of the union at the start of the 20th century.

The IBT was officially formed in 1903 in Niagara Falls, New York, as the merger of several different groups representing teamsters. The United states had no labor laws until FDR instituted measures such as the National Labor Relations Act. The union was involved in several violent strikes in its fledgling years. The group expanded to include truck-drivers in the 1920s, and grew during the hard times of the Great Depression and World War II. However, its membership skyrocketed with the post-war boom as the automobile, food-processing and transportation industries grew rapidly. By 1949, its membership had topped one million.

At the 1957 IBT convention held in Miami Beach, Florida, Jimmy Hoffa was elected president of the union, which then had 1.5 million members. In the next two decades, Hoffa's legal troubles and union ties to organized crime signaled a long period of decline. Like most American unions, the IBT has seen a decline in membership over the past 20 years.

In 1996, James P. Hoffa lost the presidency of the teamsters to Ron Carey.

Currently, the teamsters have been in news following a successful strike against the UPS in 1997, with the postal services department being now the largest division in the union and scandals involving corruption and links with mob-crime in Chicago.

James P. Hoffa, the son of Jimmy Hoffa, became president of the teamsters on March 19, 1999,