Frank Edward Fitzsimmons (April 7, 1908 – May 6, 1981) was an American labor leader. He was acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971, and president from 1971 to 1981.
Early life Frank Fitzsimmons was born on April 7, 1908, in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, to Irish-American parents, Frank and Ida May Fitzsimmons. His father was a brewer who moved the family to Detroit, Michigan, in 1924 when Frank was 16. His father died of a heart attack when Fitzsimmons was 17 years old, and Frank dropped out of high school to support his family by working in an automobile hardware store. In 1932, he got a job as a bus driver in Detroit, Michigan, and New York City before becoming a truck driver in Detroit in 1935. He joined Teamsters Local 299, and became friendly with the local union's president, Jimmy Hoffa.
Fitzsimmons was elected Local 299 business manager in 1936, Local 299 vice president in 1940, and (at Hoffa's insistence) an international union vice president of the Teamsters in 1961. He was appointed secretary-treasurer of the 80,000-member Michigan Conference of Teamsters in 1949, and vice president of Teamsters Joint Council 43 in Detroit in 1959. During this time, Fitzsimmons became known as "a figure of ridicule" in the Teamsters; he was inarticulate, chubby, passive and easily embarrassed, and Hoffa and others frequently had him make coffee or hold chairs and rarely gave him any authority or duties. Nonetheless, Fitzsimmons was considered an adept manager and a very skilled contract negotiator. Despite Hoffa's many legal problems and the routine emasculation, Fitzsimmons remained the Teamsters president's staunchest supporter.
Teamsters presidency Acting president When Harold J. Gibbons resigned as Hoffa's executive assistant in December 1963 after a failed coup against the indicted Teamsters president, Hoffa appointed Fitzsimmons to the office.Pomfret, John D. "Bid to Oust Hoffa Expected in Union." The New York Times. December 7, 1963. In 1964, Hoffa was sentenced to an aggregate 13 years in prison for jury tampering, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud. Fitzsimmons was initially not considered to be popular enough to succeed Hoffa,Stetson, Damon. "Teamsters' Power Struggle to Succeed Hoffa Breaks Into Open." The New York Times. November 23, 1965. but Fitzsimmons was elected General Vice President of the Teamsters in July 1966, which to many Teamsters leaders signalled Hoffa's intention to make Fitzsimmons his heir-apparent if Hoffa was imprisoned."Board Acts on Succession." The New York Times. March 1, 1967; Jones, David R. "Successor Choice Named By Hoffa." The New York Times. May 4, 1966; Jones, David R. "Hoffa's Candidate Gets Clear Field as Potential President of Teamsters." The New York Times. June 29, 1966; Jones, David R. "Hoffa Re-Elected Teamsters' Chief." The New York Times. July 8, 1966. On February 28, 1967, the Teamsters executive board passed a resolution appointing Fitzsimmons "acting president" if Hoffa was no longer able to carry out his duties.
After failed appeals, Hoffa entered prison in March 1967, and attempted to run the union from jail through Fitzsimmons.Jones, David R. "Hoffa Plans Way to Retain Power." The New York Times. June 15, 1966. Fitzsimmons, however, was to be nothing more than a glorified gofer: But there is no certainty that Hoffa intends to let Fitzsimmons run anything. Indeed, few other Teamster big wigs even pretend that the chunky, amiable Hoffa right bower has the capacity to hold the union together for long. "He's just a peanut butter sandwich; he'll melt in no time," is the unflattering comment of one union insider.Raskin, A.H. "Hoffa Will Run the Union From Behind Bars-Maybe." The New York Times. March 5, 1967. Fitzsimmons and others even denied that they were doing work on Hoffa's orders.Roberts, Steven V. "Aides Deny Hoffa Does Union Work." The New York Times. April 12, 1971.Jones, David R. "Fitzsimmons, Acting Head of Teamsters, Fights Off Move to Oust Him and Strengthens His Hand." The New York Times. August 27, 1967. National trucking industry talks, which were interrupted when Hoffa went to jail, resumed with Fitzsimmons at the table.Jones, David R. "Trucking Negotiations Resume, Fitzsimmons Replacing Hoffa." The New York Times. March 9, 1967; Jones, David R. "Truck Talks Reported Progressing Despite Absence of Hoffa." The New York Times. March 20, 1967. Although the pact expired and the union struck for three days, Fitzsimmons was able to negotiate a new agreement, with a federal mediator's help, that some believed was richer than any Hoffa could have obtained.Jones, David R. "Mediator Hails Pact." The New York Times. April 12, 1967; Jones, David R. "Teamster Leader Sees Pact Backed." The New York Times. April 26, 1967. He negotiated a second contract three years later that provided a 27-percent wage increase over three years.Lydon, Christopher. "Drivers Approve Teamsters Pact." The New York Times. May 19, 1970.
Fitzsimmons rapidly solidified his own hold on the Teamsters presidency throughout 1967. He had permitted the International vice presidents greater latitude in their own affairs and delegated authority to them, winning their allegiance.Jones, David R. "Teamsters Curb One-Man Control." The New York Times. May 6, 1967; "Head of Teamsters Denies Power Shift." Associated Press. May 8, 1967. He defeated an executive-board attempt to oust him in July and followed it up by demoting Hoffa aides and promoting his own supporters (including Weldon Mathis) to high positions in the union. By August, he had openly declared he would run for the presidency of the union. He further increased his popularity by negotiating in October 1967 a national master contract in the trucking industry that brought 40,000 Northeastern truckers into the contract for the first time and by negotiating a new contract that ended a five-month steel haulers' strike.Jones, David R. "Hoffa's Stand-in Is Making Headway." The New York Times. October 1, 1967.
Fitzsimmons also began taking the union in new directions. In July 1968 he and Walter Reuther, the president of the United Auto Workers formed a new national trade union center, the Alliance for Labor Action, to organize unorganized workers and to pursue left-wing political and social projects.Janson, Donald. "U.A.W. and Teamsters Form Alliance." The New York Times. July 24, 1968; Stetson, Damon. "2 Biggest Unions Set Up Alliance." The New York Times. May 27, 1969. Fitzsimmons and Reuther offered the AFL-CIO a no-raid pact as a first step toward building a working relationship between the competing trade union centers, but the offer was rejected.Flint, Jerry M. "No-Raiding Pact Offered Meany." The New York Times. November 24, 1968. The Alliance's initial program was ambitious,Stetson, Damon. "New Labor Group Offers Program." The New York Times. May 28, 1969. but Reuther's death in a plane crash on May 9, 1970, near Black Lake, Michigan, dealt a serious blow to the Alliance.Lichtenstein, Nelson. Walter Reuther, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1997. The group collapsed in January 1972 after the Auto Workers were unable to continue to fund its operations.Salpuka, Agis. "U.A.W., in Debt, Halts Funds For Alliance With Teamsters." The New York Times. July 6, 1971; Salpuka, Agis. "A Labor Alliance to Be Dissolved." The New York Times. January 25, 1972.
First presidency On June 19, 1971, Hoffa resigned as Teamsters president and Fitzsimmons was elected international president on his own right on July 9, 1971.Shabecoff, Philip. "Hoffa Is Stepping Aside As Teamsters' President." The New York Times. June 4, 1971; Salpuka, Agis. "Teamsters Elect Fitzsimmons To Succeed Hoffa as President." The New York Times. July 9, 1971. Fitzsimmons announced Hoffa's resignation at the Playboy Plaza Hotel in Miami, where he was joined by President Richard Nixon. This marked the first time a Teamsters president had met a US president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Nixon stated "My door is always open to President Fitzsimmons and that is the way it should be". By the year's end, Fitzsimmons had purged the union's top offices of several Hoffa supporters.Salpuka, Agis. "Teamster Aide Expects Ouster." The New York Times. December 14, 1972. In 1973, he resigned his position as vice president of Local 299 and his son, Richard, was appointed his successor."Job in Local Left By Fitzsimmons." The New York Times. August 31, 1973. On July 10, 1975, a Lincoln Continental used by Richard Fitzsimmons was destroyed by a bomb outside a bar in which he was having a drink.