“And Justice for All….Even Teamsters” tells my inside story  from the viewpoint of  a soldier in the two-million strong Teamster International and as ‘boss’ of one of many chartered Locals.  I was head of Teamsters Local  568 in Shreveport, Louisiana, a job I held for 24 years beginning in January 1, 1978 until retirement on May 5^th, 2001. Prior to taking office, I worked on a freight dock for a local freight company, accumulating thirty total years as a Teamster.

That was the era in time when unionized companies were in their golden years and Teamsters were at their height of power. 

I witnessed the most difficult challenges faced by Teamsters in their long, colorful history and uphill battles.  I recognized the beginning of the downward trend for labor unions and saw the tide start turning.  America’s middle class, as well as  America’s high standard of living, were in jeopardy. 

I watched as politicians began allowing companies to close their factories in America and move to third-world nations, costing America hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. These losses were so numerous, I thought ‘Made In America’ might become a thing of the past.

 I saw politicians take orders from the rich and greedy on Wall Street, and Wall Street using our government as a bought-and-paid-for pawn to do their dirty work.

And I was there when illegal immigrants began invading America, gobbling  up jobs, not paying taxes, and getting all benefits free-gratis of the American tax payer.  These aliens had total disregard for our higher standard of living, our justice system, or our government, which has the duty to protect our borders from such an attack.

It was the Teamsters Union who fought the last great battle in the war to protect America’s middle class from the loss of jobs and the foreign invasion.  Other unions were definitely involved, but I can speak only for the Teamsters.

You may not like unions and I’m not here to change your opinion.  But as late as the 1980’s, we had a well-balanced middle class of American workers with good wages, insurance, pensions, as well as other benefits and, most importantly, a good tax base to help support this country. 

The Teamsters’ goal was to keep good paying jobs in America. I believe to this day our cause was good and noble. 

I want to tell about it from the view point of a Teamster Soldier who saw our America slipping away.

I was in the trenches, I saw it all.

As you read my story, follow my career from my rural upbringing on a Louisiana cotton plantation to my journey to Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Inauguration.  See my invitation to a mobster’s 31st wedding anniversary prior to his gangland-style murder.   Watch through my eyes as I tell the story of the Teamsters’ struggle as America changed before our eyes.  Meeting these new  challenges, we fought the only way we knew how but never got the credit for the good we did. 

I realize there are  hundreds of books out there about unions in general and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in particular.  My stories are about how history affected me.  If you want more details, you need to read the other books.  They’re out there, some more believable – and true – than others.

Everybody has a story to tell.  Every Local has stories that belong to them.  I was a Teamster Member for 30 years during the most notorious ‘gun fighting’ days and the head of a Local when everything about America began changing.

I was in the gunfights. I know what happened.   My story tells the good, the bad and the ugly. 

And last, because I know that the question still hangs over America, I‘ll tell you what I think happened to Jimmy Hoffa and why.