Frank Edward Fitzsimmons (April 7, 1908 – May 6, 1981) was an American
labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
leader. He was acting president of the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...
from 1967 to 1971, and president from 1971 to 1981.
Early life
Frank Fitzsimmons was born on April 7, 1908, in
Jeannette, Pennsylvania
Jeannette is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Jeannette was founded in 1888. The city got its name from one of the original city fathers, who wished to honor his wife, Jeannette McLaughlin, by giving the new town her fi ...
, to
Irish-American
, image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png
, image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state
, caption = Notable Irish Americans
, population =
36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...
parents, Frank and Ida May Fitzsimmons.
His father was a brewer who moved the family to
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, in 1924 when Frank was 16.
His father died of a heart attack when Fitzsimmons was 17 years old, and Frank dropped out of high school to support his family by working in an automobile hardware store.
In 1932, he got a job as a bus driver in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, and New York City before becoming a truck driver in Detroit in 1935. He joined Teamsters Local 299, and became friendly with the local union's president,
Jimmy Hoffa.
Fitzsimmons was elected Local 299 business manager in 1936, Local 299 vice president in 1940, and (at Hoffa's insistence) an international union vice president of the Teamsters in 1961.
He was appointed secretary-treasurer of the 80,000-member Michigan Conference of Teamsters in 1949, and vice president of Teamsters Joint Council 43 in Detroit in 1959.
During this time, Fitzsimmons became known as "a figure of ridicule" in the Teamsters;
he was inarticulate, chubby, passive and easily embarrassed, and Hoffa and others frequently had him make coffee or hold chairs and rarely gave him any authority or duties.
Nonetheless, Fitzsimmons was considered an adept manager and a very skilled contract negotiator.
Despite Hoffa's many legal problems and the routine emasculation, Fitzsimmons remained the Teamsters president's staunchest supporter.
Teamsters presidency
Acting president
When
Harold J. Gibbons resigned as Hoffa's executive assistant in December 1963 after a failed coup against the indicted Teamsters president, Hoffa appointed Fitzsimmons to the office. In 1964, Hoffa was sentenced to an aggregate 13 years in prison for
jury tampering
Jury tampering is the crime of unduly attempting to influence the composition and/or decisions of a jury during the course of a trial. The means by which this crime could be perpetrated can include attempting to discredit potential jurors to ensur ...
,
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...
, and
mail and wire fraud.
Fitzsimmons was initially not considered to be popular enough to succeed Hoffa, but Fitzsimmons was elected General Vice President of the Teamsters in July 1966, which to many Teamsters leaders signalled Hoffa's intention to make Fitzsimmons his heir-apparent if Hoffa was imprisoned.
["Board Acts on Succession." ''New York Times.'' March 1, 1967; Jones, David R. "Successor Choice Named By Hoffa." ''New York Times.'' May 4, 1966; Jones, David R. "Hoffa's Candidate Gets Clear Field as Potential President of Teamsters." ''New York Times.'' June 29, 1966; Jones, David R. "Hoffa Re-Elected Teamsters' Chief." ''New York Times.'' July 8, 1966.] On February 28, 1967, the Teamsters executive board passed a resolution appointing Fitzsimmons "acting president" if Hoffa was no longer able to carry out his duties.
After failed appeals, Hoffa entered prison in March 1967, and attempted to run the union from jail through Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons, however, was to be nothing more than a glorified
gofer
A gofer, go-fer or gopher is an employee who specializes in the delivery of special items to their superior(s). Examples of these special items include a cup of coffee, a tool, a tailored suit, or a car. Outside of the business world, the term ...
:
But there is no certainty that Hoffa intends to let Fitzsimmons run anything. Indeed, few other Teamster big wigs even pretend that the chunky, amiable Hoffa right bower has the capacity to hold the union together for long. "He's just a peanut butter sandwich; he'll melt in no time," is the unflattering comment of one union insider.
Fitzsimmons and others even denied that they were doing work on Hoffa's orders.
[Jones, David R. "Fitzsimmons, Acting Head of Teamsters, Fights Off Move to Oust Him and Strengthens His Hand." ''New York Times.'' August 27, 1967.] National trucking industry talks, which were interrupted when Hoffa went to jail, resumed with Fitzsimmons at the table. Although the pact expired and the union struck for three days, Fitzsimmons was able to negotiate a new agreement, with a federal mediator's help, that some believed was richer than any Hoffa could have obtained.
He negotiated a second contract three years later that provided a 27-percent wage increase over three years.
Fitzsimmons rapidly solidified his own hold on the Teamsters presidency throughout 1967. He had permitted the International vice presidents greater latitude in their own affairs and delegated authority to them, winning their allegiance.
He defeated an executive-board attempt to oust him in July and followed it up by demoting Hoffa aides and promoting his own supporters (including
Weldon Mathis) to high positions in the union.
By August, he had openly declared he would run for the presidency of the union.
He further increased his popularity by negotiating in October 1967 a national
master contract in the trucking industry that brought 40,000
Northeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
truckers into the contract for the first time and by negotiating a new contract that ended a five-month steel haulers' strike.
[Jones, David R. "Hoffa's Stand-in Is Making Headway." ''New York Times.'' October 1, 1967.]
Fitzsimmons also began taking the union in new directions. In July 1968 he and
Walter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...
, the president of the
United Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...
formed a new
national trade union center
A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ...
, the
Alliance for Labor Action
The Alliance for Labor Action (ALA) was an American and Canadian national trade union center which existed from July 1968 until January 1972. Its two main members were the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a ...
, to organize unorganized workers and to pursue
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
political and social projects. Fitzsimmons and Reuther offered the
AFL-CIO a
no-raid pact as a first step toward building a working relationship between the competing trade union centers, but the offer was rejected. The Alliance's initial program was ambitious, but Reuther's death in a plane crash on May 9, 1970, near
Black Lake, Michigan, dealt a serious blow to the Alliance. The group collapsed in January 1972 after the Auto Workers were unable to continue to fund its operations.
First presidency
On June 19, 1971, Hoffa resigned as Teamsters president and Fitzsimmons was elected international president on his own right on July 9, 1971. By the year's end, Fitzsimmons had purged the union's top offices of several Hoffa supporters. In 1973, he resigned his position as vice president of Local 299 and his son, Richard, was appointed his successor. On July 10, 1975, a
Lincoln Continental
The Lincoln Continental is a series of mid-sized and full-sized luxury cars produced by Lincoln, a division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. The model line was introduced following the construction of a personal vehicle for Edse ...
used by Richard Fitzsimmons was destroyed by a bomb outside a bar in which he was having a drink.
Fitzsimmons engaged in a notorious jurisdictional and organizing dispute with the
United Farm Workers
The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...
(UFW) from 1972 to 1977,
raiding
Raiding may refer to:
* The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings
* Raid (military)
* Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces
* Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria
* Par ...
the smaller union and establishing a new national farm workers' union to compete with it. The series of raids and counter-raids, repudiated contracts, and public-relations attacks began in December 1972 when Fitzsimmons ordered a 1967 no-raid and organizing non-compete agreement with the UFW to be dissolved and Teamsters contract negotiators to reopen contracts. The UFW sued, the AFL-CIO condemned the action, and many employers negotiated contracts with the Teamsters, rather than with the UFW. Although an agreement giving UFW jurisdiction over field workers and the Teamsters jurisdiction over packing and warehouse workers was reached on September 27, 1973, Fitzsimmons reneged on the agreement within a month and moved ahead with forming a farm workers regional union in California.
[Shabecoff, Philip. "Chavez Reaches Tentative Accord." ''New York Times.'' September 28, 1973.] The organizing battles even became violent at times. By 1975, the UFW had won 24 elections and the Teamsters 14, and UFW membership had plummeted to just 6,000 from nearly 70,000 while the Teamsters farmworker division counted 55,000 workers.
["Rendering to Cesar." ''Time.'' September 22, 1975.](_blank)
/ref> The Teamsters subsequently signed sweetheart deal
A sweetheart deal or sweetheart contract is a contractual agreement, usually worked out in secret, that greatly benefits some of the parties while inappropriately disadvantaging other parties or the public at large. The term was coined in the 1940 ...
s with more than 375 California growers. Financially exhausted, the UFW signed an agreement with Fitzsimmons in March 1977 in which the UFW agreed to seek to organize only workers covered by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act
The California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (CALRA) is a landmark statute in United States labor law that was enacted by the state of California in 1975,"Governor Signs Historic Farm Labor Legislation." ''Los Angeles Times.'' June 5, 1975. es ...
, and the Teamsters would have jurisdiction over all other agricultural workers.
In October 1973, Fitzsimmons ended a longrunning jurisdictional dispute with the United Brewery Workers, and the Brewery Workers merged with the Teamsters.
By 1973, Hoffa was planning to seize the presidency of the Teamsters again. Hoffa had been released from prison on December 23, 1971, when U.S. President Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
commuted his sentence to time served. According to the US. Department of Justice and White House officials, Hoffa's release was granted on the condition that he not participate directly or indirectly in union activities until 1980. However, Hoffa contended that he had never agreed to any such condition and unsuccessfully sued to have the restriction overturned. However, Fitzsimmons supported the government's position, and Charles Colson
Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as P ...
, special counsel
In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exist ...
to Nixon who helped negotiate Hoffa's release,
backed Fitzsimmon's interpretation of the release agreement.
Hoffa intended to publish a book accusing Fitzsimmons of "selling out to mobsters" and giving large low- and no-interest loans from Teamsters pension funds to mob-related businesses. However, Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, removing the last significant opposition to Fitzsimmons' re-election. Fitzsimmons was for a time a suspect in the disappearance. Fitzsimmons continued to solidify his hold on the Teamsters throughout 1975 and 1976.
Fitzsimmons oversaw national trucking negotiations again in 1976, which led to major wage gains. Once again, the contract expired and the Teamsters engaged in a national trucking strike. However, the strike ended after just three days, and union members ratified a contract that included a cost of living adjustment
Cost of living is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. Changes in the cost of living over time can be operationalized in a cost-of-living index. Cost of living calculations are also used to compare the cost of maintaining a cer ...
and a 30 percent rise in wages over three years.
Second presidency
Fitzsimmons was re-elected General President of the Teamsters in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 16, 1976. An insurgent reform group, which later adopted the name Teamsters for a Democratic Union
Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is a grassroots rank and file organization whose goal is to reform the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), or Teamsters Union. The organization has chapters nationwide in the United States and Canada ...
, issued a massive report accusing Fitzsimmons and other Teamsters of corruption and suppressing democracy in the union and picketed the June Teamsters convention. Fitzsimmons attacked the dissidents for trying to "destroy the union." He famously raged from the podium:
To those who say it's time to reform this organization, that it's time that the officers quit selling out the membership, I say to them, go to hell.
Delegates to the convention were not persuaded by the attacks on the union leadership and voted Fitzsimmons a 17 percent pay raise, which brought his salary to $516,250 a year ($ million
today), and they re-elected him to a second full term.
In the late fall of 1976, Fitzsimmons oversaw a ten-week strike at United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company ...
. The strike, which affected 15 Eastern States and included 18,000 warehouse workers and drivers, ended after the union reached an agreement to give workers a 33 percent wage increase over three years and to restrict the employer's ability to replace full-time workers with part-time employees.
Fitzsimmons was investigated in 1976 for failing to perform his fiduciary
A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person. One party, for exampl ...
duties as a trustee on the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund and was forced to resign from the board of trustees in 1977. The U.S. Departments of Labor
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
first began to investigate the fund in January 1976. He was subpoena ed by both the U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
's Committee on Labor and Public Welfare and by the Labor Department, and he testified in public and private regarding loans the pension fund made to certain mob
Mob or MOB may refer to:
Behavioral phenomena
* Crowd
* Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication
Crime and law enforcement
* American Mafia, also known as the Mob
* Irish Mob, a US crimin ...
-related businesses and the fund's operations. Although the Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
revoked the fund's non-profit status, the penalty was suspended after Fitzsimmons agreed to remove several trustees, which he did in September 1976. Fitzsimmons and Roy Lee Williams
Roy Lee Williams (March 22, 1915 – April 28, 1989) was an American labor leader who was president of the Teamsters from May 15, 1981, to April 14, 1983.
Early life and career
Born in Ottumwa, Iowa, Williams was one of 12 children in a very po ...
, the director of the Central Conference of Teamsters, attempted to remain on the board, but were forced out in March 1977.
Much of his final term as president was spent fighting deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
of the trucking industry. Deregulation had first been proposed by U.S. President Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
in 1975, and President Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
followed through by seeking and winning passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980
The Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform and Modernization Act, more commonly known as the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 (MCA) is a United States federal law which deregulated the trucking industry.
Background
Motor carrier deregulation was a part of a s ...
.
One of the last national negotiations that Fitzsimmons oversaw was another national trucking contract. With deregulation moving forward, the negotiations, which began in early 1979, were particularly difficult. Fitzsimmons gambled and decided to engage in a series of whipsaw strike
A whipsaw strike (also called a selective strike) is a strike by a trade union against only one or a few employers in an industry or a multi-employer association at a time. The strike is often of a short duration, and usually recurs during the lab ...
s to pressure the employers to agree to terms, but the trucking companies responded with a lockout
Lockout may refer to:
* Lockout (industry), a type of work stoppage
**Dublin Lockout, a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers 1913 - 1914
* Lockout (sports), lockout in sports leagues
**MLB lockout, lock ...
on April 2. The Carter administration had imposed wage and price controls
Incomes policies in economics are economy-wide wage and price controls, most commonly instituted as a response to inflation, and usually seeking to establish wages and prices below free market level.
Incomes policies have often been resorted to ...
, which sought to hold collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
wage and benefit increases to 7.5 percent a year, but Fitzsimmons sought 10 percent a year. Four days into the labor dispute, layoffs in the automobile manufacturing industry reached 100,000, which put pressure on Fitzsimmons to lower his contract demands. The strike and the lockout were short because of those pressures, and Fitzsimmons reached on April 11, 1979 an agreement that met Carter's wage-control guideline.
Death
After suffering shortness of breath at a Teamsters executive board meeting, Fitzsimmons underwent surgery in late December 1979 which removed a non-malignant tumor in his bronchial passage.[Serrin, William. "Health Rumors On Union Chief Stir Speculation." ''New York Times.'' January 11, 1980.] In early January 1980, the '' Los Angeles Herald-Examiner'' published a story claiming that Fitzsimmons was suffering from abdominal cancer, setting off widespread rumors that Fitzsimmons was dying and that a power struggle over his succession was raging in the Teamsters. Fitzsimmons denied that he had cancer. Nonetheless, by July, Fitzsimmons admitted he had lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
and had undergone chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...
for the past seven months.["Teamsters President to Seek Re-election Despite Cancer." ''New York Times.'' July 11, 1980.] However, he also declared himself cancer-free and fit to run for re-election in 1981.
Fitzsimmons' cancer returned in January 1981, leading to repeated hospitalizations, tests, weight loss, hair loss, and bouts of depression.["Fitzsimmons, Ailing, May Quit Union Job." ''New York Times.'' April 16, 1981.](_blank)
/ref> Although he returned to work in mid-March, he was so ill by early April that many felt he might not attend the union's executive board meeting later that month. Although the deadline for announcing his re-election bid was June 1, anonymous union officials believed he was so ill that he would announce his retirement before the board meeting. Planning began to name Ray Schoessling, the union's 75-year-old secretary-treasurer, interim president. As news of Fitzsimmons' deteriorating health spread, some union leaders began to fight to take over the union.
Fitzsimmons' illness led to deterioration in labor relations in the trucking industry. Deregulation had led to fierce competition and lower rates in the industry, and several trucking companies let it be known that they would not pay the wage and benefit increases Fitzsimmons had negotiated two years before. Before entering the hospital again in late March, Fitzsimmons wrote a letter to the employers demanding that they adhere to the contract.
On May 1, 1981, Roy Lee Williams announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Teamsters.
/ref> Williams made it clear, however, that if Fitzsimmons' health improved he would back the ailing general president. Williams made his announcement after rumors spread that union officials had visited Fitzsimmons in the hospital in La Jolla, California
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
, and Fitzsimmons had agreed to retire.
Fitzsimmons died of lung cancer in San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
, on May 6, 1981. He was survived by his second wife, Mary, and his four children. Four mourners attended his private funeral mass at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has bee ...
.
In popular culture
* Character actor J. T. Walsh
James Thomas Patrick Walsh (September 28, 1943 – February 27, 1998) was an American character actor. His many films include ''Tin Men'' (1987), ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987), ''A Few Good Men'' (1992), '' Hoffa'' (1992), ''Nixon'' (1995), ' ...
portrayed Fitzsimmons in the film '' Hoffa'' (1992).
* Gary Basaraba
Gary Basaraba (born March 16, 1959) is a Canadian actor. He appeared as Sergeant Richard Santoro on Steven Bochco's ''Brooklyn South'' and Officer Ray Hechler on the critically acclaimed but short-lived ''Boomtown''. He has worked for Martin ...
played Fitzsimmons in the crime film ''The Irishman
''The Irishman'' (subtitled onscreen as ''I Heard You Paint Houses'') is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book '' I Heard You Paint Hou ...
'' (2019).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzsimmons, Frank
1908 births
1981 deaths
People from Jeannette, Pennsylvania
Presidents of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
American trade union leaders
Deaths from lung cancer in California
People from Detroit
Catholics from Pennsylvania
Catholics from Michigan