On December 23, 1971, former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, serving a thirteen-year prison term for jury tampering and fraud, had his sentence commuted in time for Christmas by President Richard Nixon. However, Hoffa left prison with the parole provision that he not engage in union activity until 1980. In 1932, as a young warehouseman, he organized a union that within two years entered into the Teamsters, a national union made up primarily of truckers. In 1957, the year he became Teamsters president, a Senate Judiciary Committee uncovered widespread corruption in the union, which led to its expulsion from the AFL-CIO, the nation's dominant labor organization. Nevertheless, Hoffa remained a popular Teamsters president, even during a federal corruption trial that ended with a hung jury and his acquittal. In 1964, he won the trucking industry's first national contract but was convicted in two separate trials for jury tampering and fraud. After losing numerous appeals, he began serving his thirteen-year prison sentence in 1967, but in 1971 was pardoned by President Nixon. After his release, he was active in promoting prison reform, and supported Nixon in his 1972 reelection bid. Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and is widely assumed to have been murdered.
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Added: May 16, 2007 |
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