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- Title
The Base of the Empire: Teamsters Local 743 and Montgomery Ward.
- Authors
Orenic, Liesl Miller
- Abstract
Teamsters Local 743's organizing at Montgomery Ward shows how organizing labor worked in the postwar American "mixed-economy" capitalism by straddling both legitimate and illicit channels of commerce and power. Using this win as a springboard, with entrepreneurial zeal, the union's president, Don Peters, built the largest Teamsters local in the nation. The union developed an extensive service apparatus, instituted internal organizing and education, fostered a presence in public life, and followed a constant and creative organizing agenda in tune with a changing metropolitan workforce and economy. At the same time, Peters associated with organized crime, particularly through insurance and pension activity and small-scale organizing beyond the mail-order industry. The union made bread-and-butter issues a priority but also addressed the social and political interests of its diverse membership. The historic win at Montgomery Ward served at the base of Peters's empire and was the first step in the construction of a distinctive entrepreneurial unionism.
- Subjects
MONTOMERY Ward (Company); INTERNATIONAL Brotherhood of Teamsters; MAIL-order business; COLLECTIVE bargaining; LABOR union members
- Publication
Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas, 2018, Vol 15, Issue 2, p49
- ISSN
1547-6715
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/15476715-4353692