Picking Up the Pins

The ten-strike bowled by the U.S. Senate's McClellan committee against Teamsters Union President Dave Beck (TIME, April 8) last week had labor leaders everywhere picking up the pins. Items: ¶ In Washington, James G. Cross, president of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union (160,000 members), announced that he would repay the union for personal phone calls, which a rival union official said amounted to some $2,400. Furthermore, he would return the Cadillac that came to him as a "gift" from another union official. ¶ In New York, David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (450,000 members), set out to demonstrate that labor can clean its own house, set himself up as confessor, jury and judge for union officials and staffers who have taken gifts (ranging from $100 to $500) from employers. If, said Dubinsky, any such "victim of so-called employer generosity" came to him and confessed within ten days, all would be forgiven. Otherwise, punishment would be handed out by President Dubinsky. ¶ In Atlantic City, N.J., where the United Auto Workers were about to begin their biennial convention, President Walter Reuther, deeply concerned about the political and practical impact of the McClellan committee hearings on organized labor, appointed a "public watchdog" committee to oversee U.A.W. ethics.

Meanwhile, Teamster Boss Beck was also trying to pick up some pins—with little success. At a Washington meeting of the union's executive board, Beck demanded that the Teamsters spend $1,000,000 for a public-relations campaign that would launder Beck's soiled linen. The Teamsters promptly cried whoa. Led by Secretary-Treasurer John English, Vice President William Lee of Chicago and Central Conference Boss Jimmy Hoffa (under indictment on charges of bribing a McClellan committee staffer), the board permitted Beck the barest sort of face-saving. It agreed only to spend a reasonable amount to fight antilabor legislation. An amount likely to be considered reasonable: around $200,000—no more than the Teamsters already considered normal in their efforts against that kind of legislation.

As for the McClellan committee, it was already setting them up in other alleys, had investigators at work in Manhattan and eight other cities. On tap for later this month are Washington hearings on Teamsters' strong-arming in Pennsylvania's Scranton area.