Recently, I had the pleasure of watching The Irishman. This Martin Scorsese-directed gem follows the working life of Frank Sheeran, a truck driver of Irish descent, and his intimate involvement with both the Teamsters union and organized crime.
The Netflix-created movie spent only one month in theatres before being released into our living rooms. Stellar performances by Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci kept me highly entertained for all of its three-and-a-half-hour duration.
This movie should be entertaining to most audiences, but those of us with union interests and involvement will be especially intrigued. Sheeran (played by De Niro) is a hit man for the mafia who later becomes president of Teamsters Local 326. The movie follows his friendship with Russell Bufalino (played by Pesci), head of a Pennsylvania crime family, and Jimmy Hoffa (played by Pacino). It highlights Hoffa’s rise and subsequent fall as president of the Teamsters.
At the peak of Hoffa’s leadership, the Teamsters boasted well north of a million members in the US alone. Hundreds of millions of dollars were received annually in dues and pension contributions, and a lot of this money was used to fund organized crime. Casinos and hotel complexes were financed from Havana to Las Vegas, and corruption was the name of the game.
As much as this sounds like a movie review, it’s not. Watching the movie reminded me of a situation I experienced last summer at the Maple Leaf Foods poultry processing plant in Edmonton.
CLAC is proud to represent the approximately 400 workers at the plant. They had switched to CLAC in 2018 because of their dissatisfaction with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), their union at the time. The UFCW was attempting to regain representation back from CLAC by mounting a raid campaign.
At one point, UFCW reps held a barbecue just outside the plant gates, and as a show of solidarity, union members from many other Alberta Federation of Labour affiliate unions came out in support. These other unions included the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, various affiliates of the Alberta Building Trades Unions, and the Teamsters.
Some of us CLAC representatives went out that day to observe their comings and goings and to show support to our members at Maple Leaf. It all became rather intense when three of us were surrounded by twenty or so of these people. Some hurled insults. Others attempted stare downs. One individual in particular from the Teamsters did his best to scare us off.
It was old-school thug unionism at its best. We informed them that we would not be intimidated, we weren’t going anywhere, and we were proud of our excellent representation of our members at Maple Leaf.
I soon realized my own naiveté. Yes, unfortunately, this sort of behaviour still happens! To be honest, it was an embarrassment for the union movement. If this is where we’ve progressed to, then no wonder that union density rates have been steadily declining for decades.
CLAC brings a modern and professional approach to workplace representation. We believe in workplaces that are free of harassment and intimidation, and this extends even to those who we may disagree with. Everyone benefits from this approach, and that’s why we continue to represent more and more workplaces and members in the face of declining union density in North America.
Old-school union thuggery may have been the norm in the 1950s and 1960s—and it makes for exciting movies—but it doesn’t fly in today’s world. Workers deserve to be respected and shown dignity.
Those are things that workers represented by CLAC have known for 68 years. It’s about time that other unions take a page from that script.