DAVE BECK

DAVID

DANIEL

BECK

David Daniel Beck was a powerful labor union leader from the West Coast of the United States.

He was born June 16, 1894 in Stockton, California and was reported to be of Jewish ancestry but is reported to be an active protestant Christian later in life.  He grew up seeing the great change of American society with patents and inventions leading to great industry, science, and technology.  He lived during the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.  Beck saw how resilient the American workers were even under the pressures of political unrest and economic instability. He was a witness to the American way of life transitioning from the horse and buggy to space travel.  Most of his adult life was dedicated to the development of labor unions and the transportation industry. Beck started out selling news papers, being employed by the local Health Department to shoot wharf rats for a meager sum, and working for a local laundry driving delivery trucks.  From the latter job he wasted no time advancing workers rights and labor causes, he himself had seen the need for, by other longshoreman and teamsters.  His first election as a Teamster was to the executive board of Local 566 in 1920.  In 1923 he was president of Joint Council 28 which included Seattle Washington. He next advanced to secretary treasurer in 1925, and by 1927, he became president of Local 566, while also becoming a full time international union organizer.  His ambitions moved him into the consolidation of other Locals for solidarity and the combined influence for workers benefits. As a Seattle based general organizer of Teamsters, Dave Beck reached a regional contract between truckers and the trucking companies in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. In 1937, Dave Beck formed the Western Conference of Teamsters and had to persuade Daniel Tobin that this conference was not a threat to the authority of the international union. It served to counter act the leadership of the Joint Councils of San Francisco when they infringed on other union interests. One year later the Western Conference of Teamsters encompassed 11 U.S. States and the Province of British Columbia, Canada.  

 

After all these accomplishments, Beck ran into political battles with other major union leaders.  Daniel Tobin had been running things in 1940 with the Teamsters and Beck was challenging him for the top spot.  During this time another Teamster leader was making some waves in the Mid-West by the name of Jimmy Hoffa.  When WWII engulfed the American labor force, Beck began a 6 year campaign to seize control of the International Teamster Magazine and did so by 1948.  He successfully brought in an amendment to the union’s constitution to create the post of “executive vice president” and won the election to fill the position himself.  Dave seemed to prevail over Tobin and continued his efforts to take the top spot.  With his accomplishments, the Machinists, and Boeing of Seattle formed the Aeronautical Workers. They were not previously members of the AFL- American Federation of Labor Union, but Beck, non the less, pushed his way through and it seemed there was nothing Daniel Tobin could do about it. Beck had a few turf control issues with Hoffa leading up to the time he made his move in October 17, 1952.  But, Jimmy Hoffa from the Central States threw in with Beck and Daniel Tobin stepped down from his post. Tobin had been leader of the Teamsters for 45 years.  Beck was elected the new IBT President. Jimmy Hoffa was selected as ninth international Vice President as a result of the win by Dave Beck. 

 

During the transition of power, some trucking industrialists aligned themselves with the IBT on joint efforts to improve labor relations rather than going to battle against workers on strike or those walking the picket lines. But it did not take long for Beck to realize he was up against other major issues coming into the Teamsters Union.  In 1953 Beck was elected to the Executive Council of the AFL. He accomplished this partly by demonstrating his willingness to promote cooperation speaking at the “ATA” - American Trucking Association convention in Los Angeles the previous year. He chaired the “ACT” (The Independent Association Committee to the Trucking Industry) which was made up of representatives in various segments of the industry. These entities became the successors of the “Trucking Industry National Defense Committee”.  Beck worked with the CEO s of trucking companies, for a time, including Roy Fruehauf,  and Walter F. Carey and a few other powerful trucking industrialists connected to U.S. Government Defense Contracts as well.  The 4 people on this committee acted as advisers to the U.S. Congress when major details of National Security meshed with infrastructural plans involving the future of American transportation. Some of these men also became close advisers to several US. Presidents later in the 1960s. The ACT, itself, was made up of Teamsters and employers sharing responsibilities for the programs of the committee.  But, later on it became public that there had been many “quid pro quo” arrangements made behind the scenes and in the shadows. Such agreements were labeled by the press as: “sweetheart deals”.  Jimmy Hoffa had been involved with a couple of these deals too. The “Test Fleet/Hobren” company was set up as one such arrangement in 1949 through 1957. A couple of extremely influential trucking executives (Walter F. Carey and his associate Bertram B. Beveridge of Commercial Carriers and Commercial Barge Lines) set up a private company for Jimmy Hoffa and his partner Owen Brennan in their wives maiden names.  This action was considered by Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) as a means to buy labor peace from the IBT. RFK perceived their actions as being a bribe or pay off for settling a “wildcat” strike against Commercial Carriers in Flint, Michigan. In addition to the Test Fleet arrangement, it also came out that in Flint, Michigan, a group of 9 other trucking companies handled there labor problems by paying a Detroit Teamsters labor relations committee $27,770 to ensure peace with the union. Dave Beck was somehow accused of using much of that money to entertain other Teamster officials between 1954 and 1956. Many observing these things suspected Jimmy Hoffa as a providing and leaking damaging information to those going after Dave Beck to deflect his own problems during the McClellan Hearings.  The Test Fleet arrangement was used by Robert Kennedy and his bother JFK to bring down Hoffa for jury tampering in a Taft-Hartley Act violation trial. The original trial stemmed into a second trial dealing with the charges of jury tampering. The complications from the Test Fleet Company case eventually sent Jimmy Hoffa to prison in 1967.  

 

Additionally, Dave Beck was continually facing the encroaching influence of organized crime seeping into the Teamsters Union from the East Coast.  AFL President George Meany and Dave Beck attempted to oust the corrupt International Longshoreman Association from the AFL and replace it with an alternative organization, But, even before getting off the ground with that project, Beck assigned Jimmy Hoffa to resolve a jurisdictional conflict with John Dioguardi “Dio”.  Mr. Dioguardi, a known East Coast mobster, was organizing for the rival “UAW”- United Auto Workers Union. This competitive union was under the leadership of the Reuther brothers. We know Jimmy Hoffa had been involved with Dio years before that time in other mutually beneficial but shady matters.  The infiltration of LCN on the East Coast and in the Central States was firmly entrenched inside the IBT then.  Jimmy Hoffa began to out maneuver Beck the same way Beck had done so to Daniel Tobin.  Dave Beck further complicated issues by throwing his support to Eisenhower’s U.S. Presidential reelection in 1956, while others in the AFL endorsed Adlai Stevenson. Beck was not making friends and his union was becoming infested with underworld influence.  Jimmy Hoffa was gunning for an IBT take over and it was within his sights. By the mid 1950s, it seemed, Beck had no where to turn. He was getting pressure from all sides.

 

In 1957 Dave Beck faced one disaster after another.  The Senate Investigations “McClellan Hearings” heated things up. In March 1957 the AFL- CIO Executive Committee voted to suspend him.  Beck was being investigated for income tax fraud in April 1957. He is said to have plead the “Fifth” 140 times in the hearings due to charges involving every thing from fixing Washington State Liquor Control Boards to making spurious deals for West Coast night club owners.  Along with the income tax fraud charge he was also charged with income tax evasion.  Other allegations including grand theft of union owned automobiles and the embezzlement of the funds he made by selling them were thrown at him through the State of Washington. Even Becks’ son was charged with 2 counts of grand larceny involving union automobiles. By December he was convicted of the grand larceny and embezzlement charges.  

 

 

Beck was facing a sentence up to 15 years in prison for it.  He was also living in a house owned by the IBT.  They had previously built it for him to live in rent free, but at this time were attempting to evict him.  It appeared like the world was coming apart for Dave.  The impending charges and court battles forced Dave Beck to step down as the top dog in the IBT.  Jimmy Hoffa was elected as the next Teamster’s President while Dave Beck continued to fight allegations and indictments.  Eventually the embezzlement charge, related to the union car he sold and allegedly profited from, was added to his other charges. He was sentenced to prison concurrently on all of the convictions both by the State of Washington and the U.S. Federal Courts. He also was indicted for receiving $200,000 from Roy Fruehauf as payment for a loan to help Fruehauf with legal costs during a business dilemma involving others in the Fruehauf family.  This was considered a violation of the Taft-Hartley Act. That charge seemed to have been lumped in with all the rest, and there were no other additions to his concurrent sentences. 

 

Finally, on June 20, 1962, Dave Beck begins serving his concurrent sentences at the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary. As he was boarding the boat to take him out to the island prison, Beck was encompassed by a group of reporters.  Beck kept his chin up and he tried to quote General Douglas MacArthur by saying his famous parting words: “I shall return”. Instead, he misquoted MacArthur as was noted by his critics. Beck actually said the iconic words: “I’ll be back”.  Findinghoffa.com found some humor out of this, as many years later that same phrase was made famous again by actor and former Governor of California,  Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even though Dave Beck had been brought down, he was not completely out. In a sense, he did end up being true to his word when he said: “I’ll be back”. It appears he still retained some influence with the right people and he was released early from his prison sentence on December 11, 1964. Dave Beck was pardoned by Washington Governor Albert Rosellini in 1965.  His Federal charges and any other parole conditions were pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1975.  Jimmy Hoffa is portrayed to have “borrowed” Beck’s phrase, when he went to prison in 1967. But, history teaches us Jimmy never made a real come back thus creating the need to find out why.

 

While in incarcerated, Dave Beck kept busy working in the prison cannery and began exercising daily.  He lost a lot of weight.  Beck would comment years later, it was the weight loss that improved and prolonged his life. To add to Beck’s misfortune, his wife and mother both passed away during the final trial and imprisonment. Carrying such personal grief did not stop him from fighting his way back to finding some later success with his life. After being pardoned, Dave Beck got a fresh start and chose not to go back to his “Union owned” house. Rather, he decided to take up residency at his deceased mother’s home. Even when in 1975 he had to pay a Tacoma, Washington brewer $10,000 in a libel suit stemming from a violent Teamsters incident occurring back in the 1930s, he was able to successfully sue the Seattle Times for libel and awarded $25,000. Plus, he continued collecting his $50,000 per year IBT Union pension for the rest of his life.  He even became a multi millionaire by making real estate investments in parking lots.  Dave Beck got the final word in, as he outlived most of his adversaries, including his nemesis Jimmy Hoffa.  He died in a Seattle hospital, at the age of 99, on December 26, 1993.

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Produced by Steve Drummond 2019