Greg Laden's Blog : Maddow Talks With SEIU's Andy Stern about the Lying GOP

I thought the largest union in the US was the teachers union. My father's local in NYC 804 of the Teamsters produced the last president Ron Carey a former United Parcel Service driver. James P. Hoffa is currently the president after there were aspersions provided by government accusations of Mr. Carey that reflected people inside his organization. Mr. Carey passed on recently. Mr. Hoffa's sister is a judge. I work in "contract" archaeology required by various agencies and circumstances and there was a brief attempt to organize part of the Operating Engineers who run many of the backhoes and excavation equipment. It was to be called Local 141 after the length of the hypotenuse of a diagonal used to lay-out 1 meter by 1 meter squares for example, using two tapes. It was supposed to protect federal stated wages from misuse by employers who low-bid on federal projects but did not follow the federal contract requirements for payroll. I wonder if the FBI used union operators looking for the current Teamsters president's father, Jimmy Hoffa, whose release conditions, no return to politics, agreed to with President Nixon, he violated. I hope so, Teamsters also drive backhoes. My dad used to say the government ruined unions when they found mandatory meeting attendance "unconstitutional" and allowed the representative government structure into them, open to the same type of corruption the US government is susceptible to.