Mobsters, Unions and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement, by James B. Jacobs, New York: New York University Press, 2006, 352 pp., ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-4273-0.

This book is about the connection between organized labour and organized crime in the United States. It addresses: misappropriation of worker pension and operating funds by union office holders and other criminals; extortion of employers by union officials and the mafia; and union/employer conspiracies to operate cartels that corruptly allocate contracts and set prices. It mostly deals with its topic, labour racketeering, historically. In taking this approach, the author analyses the enduring patterns of criminal behaviour of a small group of stakeholders in the labour movement. Underlying this discussion are portraits of distinct periods in 20^th century American history. These include: the bootlegging era; the congressional hearings “high-point” period of 1957-59 during which the McClelland senate select committee saw a procession of union officials and members of the mafia take the 5^th Amendment; the age of federal law enforcement’s obsession with communism as the only matter worth investigating and the consequent unabated proliferation of criminal organizations throughout the 1960s; and the post-Hoover FBI era when the murder of a high profile union official, Jimmy Hoffa, caused law enforcement to give priority to breaking up cosa nostra organized crime families. The author traces the history of union racketeering and provides compelling accounts of the activities of parties from organized labour; criminal associations; employer groups; the United States Department of Justice and the FBI; and State and Federal Legislatures. The scope and nature of the crimes of well known union officials and mafia bosses are meticulously described as are the public-policy efforts which aimed to ensure that transgressions are not repeated. One of the book’s strengths is its illumination of the legalistic aspects of how individuals with complex and ambiguous roles have behaved corruptly. For example, Jimmy Hoffa, head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Minnesota, and labour organizer of truck drivers, dock workers and warehousemen throughout the Midwest is referred to repeatedly. The reader is left with a sound understanding of the nature of his influence, diversity of his crimes, and legal remedies used to curtail their future occurrence. In his book, Jacobs gives an important if unpalatable perspective of the workings and nature of organized labour. Through discussing union involvement in extortion, bribes, fraud, embezzlement and violence he also provides insight into modern employment relations. For those with an interest in union history, the book is as much an analysis of relations between actors in the labour management process as an exposé of organized crime. In this respect, it contributes to industrial sociology scholarship for at least three reasons. First, it gives detail about key events in the modern history of the United States labour movement. For example, it discuss the way the Wagner Act (1936) provided an impetus for union growth; the constraining influence of Taft-Hartley (1947); and the McClelland Commission which has been characterized as providing a platform for anti-union politicians. Second, the author indirectly sheds light on a likely reason for declining unionism through drawing attention to how the image of organized labour has been besmirched by criminals. This theme broadens debate about the changing nature of work. It implicitly suggests that the current trend towards individualism in employment relations is not solely due to the triumph of employers in an era of globalization. Rather, waning unionism may be a consequence of the conduct of labour officials as well as widely-documented influences such as growth of the services sector; an influx of women into the workforce; and increases in non-standard forms of employment. The third reason the book contributes to scholarship on employment relations is that its content demonstrates myriad ways that actors in …