Cornelius P. Shea (September 7, 1872 – January 12, 1929) was an American labor leader and organized crime figure. He was the founding president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, holding the position from 1903 until 1907. He became involved with the Chicago Outfit, and although he was indicted many times, he usually escaped conviction. After a short prison term for attempted murder removed him from union affairs, Shea was appointed secretary-treasurer of the Mafia-dominated Theatrical Janitors' Union in Chicago.
Early life Cornelius SheaThe press would later refuse to use his full name, calling him instead by the nickname "Con" to emphasize his alleged crimes. Many scholars and historians still do not employ his full name in books or papers. was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 27, 1872, to James and Mary Shea, Irish immigrants. His father owned his own tipcart and collected garbage for a living. Shea attended public elementary school, then dropped out after the sixth grade to work for his father."Shea, Head of the Teamsters, Has Risen From A Tip-Cart Man," Boston Daily Globe, December 2, 1906."Shea Beaten By 10 Votes," Boston Daily Globe, August 10, 1907.
Little is known about Shea's life between 1884 and 1894. But at the age of 22, Shea married 19-year-old Mary "Minnie" Lyons, the daughter of Irish immigrants Patrick and Margaret (Reagan) Lyons. The Sheas married in Cambridge on May 27, 1895. The couple had two daughters, Margaret and Genevieve, with three sons dead in infancy."Prison for Teamster Shea," Chicago Daily Tribune, July 24, 1908.
Early Teamsters career The American Federation of Labor (AFL) had helped form local unions of teamsters since 1887. In November 1898, the AFL organized the Team Drivers' International Union (TDIU).Sloane, Hoffa, 1991. In 1900, Shea helped organize TDIU Local 191 in Boston. He was elected the local's business agent in 1901, and president of the newly organized Boston Team Drivers' Joint Council in 1902.Taft, The A.F. of L. in the Time of Gompers, 1957."Drivers Bolt Meeting," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 9, 1903."Shea Chosen," Boston Daily Globe, August 9, 1903. He was also elected a delegate to the Boston Central Labor Council and the local building trades alliance.
In 1901, a group of Teamsters in Chicago, Illinois, broke from the TDIU and formed the Teamsters National Union. The new union permitted only employees, teamster helpers, and owner-operators owning only a single team to join, unlike the TDIU (which permitted large employers to be members), and was very aggressive in advocating higher wages and shorter hours. Claiming more than 28,000 members in 47 locals, its president, Albert Young, applied for membership in the AFL. The AFL asked the TDIU to merge with Young's union to form a new, AFL-affiliated union. The two groups did so in 1903, creating the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Shea was elected the new union's first president.
Shea's election as the first Teamster president was a tumultuous one. Shea effectively controlled the convention because the Chicago locals—representing nearly half the IBT's membershipMontgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865–1925, 1987.—were united in their support for his candidacy. Shea was opposed by John Sheridan, president of the Ice Drivers' Union of Chicago. Sheridan and George Innes, president of the TDIU, accused Shea of embezzlement in an attempt to prevent his election.Sheridan and Innes alleged that Shea had billed locals in Massachusetts $9.61 for services while charging the national union $19.44 for the same services. "Drivers Bolt Meeting," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 9, 1903. Despite surprisingly little lack of support from the Boston locals, Shea won election on August 8, 1903, by a vote of 605 to 480. Edward L. Turley of Chicago was elected secretary-treasurer and Albert Young general organizer.
In 1903, Shea moved his family to Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Teamsters had their headquarters. But daughter Margaret fell ill in Indianapolis, and Mary Shea moved the family to Charlestown, Massachusetts, while Cornelius Shea stayed in Indiana.
Teamsters presidency: 1903 Shea was confronted by a crisis within the union in late 1903, a crisis which centered on the union's membership based in Chicago. One-third of unionized Chicago citizens worked in a single industry (meatpacking). One particular union, the Teamsters were vitally important to the Chicago labor movement, as a sympathy strike by the Teamsters could paralyze the movement of goods throughout the city and bring a strike into nearly every neighborhood.
In November 1903, Teamsters employed by the Chicago City Railway went out on strike. Shea, who does not advocate sympathy strikes, attempted to stop sympathy strikes by other Teamster locals in the city but failed."Teamsters Are For War," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 23, 1903. However, three Teamster locals in the city—the truck, ice wagon, and coal wagon drivers, which together represented about half the Teamster membership in Chicago—refused to violate their contracts and walk off the job. The three locals went even further, and disaffiliated from the Teamsters Joint Council of Chicago. Furious, Shea called them "cowards and traitors". His outburst only angered his opponents in the union. In mid-December, Shea was confronted in his office by Teamster leader who shot at him four times and forced him to dance a jig before fleeing."Teamsters Split Over Contracts," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 25, 1903; "Labor's Leader Made to Dance," Chicago Daily Tribune, December 18, 1903.
Teamsters presidency: 1904 On July 12, 1904, 18,000 members of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters working in the meatpacking industry in Chicago walked off the job to win higher wages.Barrett, Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packing-House Workers, 1894–1922, 1990; Halpern, Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago's Packinghouses, 1904–54, 1997. The contract for the packinghouse drivers belonging to the Teamsters union had expired on June 1, 1904, and the ongoing strike by the butcher workmen led the drivers to fear for their own contract talks. On July 25, 1904, the packinghouse drivers asked the international Teamsters union to sanction a strike. On July 26, Shea agreed to let them walk out the next day, declaring that the walkout was not a sympathy strike but "It is, therefore, to protect ourselves" and prevent the packers from breaking the union."Strike Spreads," Chicago Daily Tribune, July 27, 1904. The meatpackers, however, brought in several thousand African American strikebreakers. With meatpacking plants operating at about 40 percent of capacity, the strike began to falter. On August 8, Shea ordered the ice wagon and market drivers to strike in support of the butcher workmen. The hope was that, with no refrigeration and delivery slowed, the meat would spoil and the packers would be forced to come to the bargaining table."Strike Spreads Among Drivers," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 9, 1904. On the afternoon of August 9, riots occurred throughout the afternoon and evening in Chicago, and a number of strikers and strikebreakers were assaulted or wounded by gunfire."Riots In Streets After Nightfall Involve Drivers," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 10, 1904.
As the strike collapsed, Shea rushed to Chicago from Indianapolis. He ordered the ice wagon drivers back to work on August 10, and announced that Teamster drivers would deliver any meat butchered prior to the strike. Large amounts of meat began to move through the city on August 13."Meet in Secret to End Strike," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 14, 1904. On August 18, 4,000 strikers and their supporters rioted for two hours outside the Chicago stockyards, causing numerous injuries."Mob of 4,000 Men Charges Police," Chicago Daily Tribune, August 19, 1904. Some local Teamster leaders tried to lead the ice and market wagon drivers back out on strike, but Shea denounced them and successfully appealed to the drivers to stay on the job. To keep union members in line, however, Shea reiterated his pledge that no meat butchered after the start of the strike would be hauled."Meat Supply in Drivers' Power," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 2, 1904. Despite this, the strike collapsed on September 6, 1904, when the Amalgamated Meat Cutters went back to work without a contract.
In the midst of the strife in Chicago, Cornelius Shea was re-elected by acclamation on August 8, 1904, at the Teamsters convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Under his leadership, the union had expanded to 821 locals in 300 cities, and the union's membership stood near 50,000 members (making it one of the largest unions in the United States).Fitch, Solidarity for Sale, 2006.
Teamsters presidency: 1905
Chicago Teamsters' strike
On December 15, 1904, 19 clothing cutters at Montgomery Ward went on strike to protest the company's use of nonunion subcontractors. Montgomery Ward vice president Robert J. Thorne locked the remaining workers out. Sympathy strikes by tailors' and other unions quickly broke out. By April, 5,000 workers were on the picket line in front of the 26 local companies represented by the National Tailors' Association (an employer group).Cohen, The Racketeer's Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 1900–1940, 2004."Gigantic Strike Is In Full Swing," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 28, 1905; "Big Strike Has Small Beginning," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 20, 1905; "To Test Union Sympathy," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 6, 1905. The Teamsters engaged in a sympathy strike on April 6, 1905, adding another 10,000 members to the picket lines."History of Great Teamsters' Strike Filled with Sensational Incidents," Chicago Daily Tribune, July 21, 1905.
Anti-union group Employers' Association of Chicago (EA) attempted to sabotage the Teamsters' strike. The EA collected $250,000 (about $6.2 million in 2007 dollars) from its members to hire strikebreakers. The EA also raised $1 million (about $25 million in 2007 dollars) to establish the Employers' Teaming Association—a new company which, within a matter of weeks, bought out a large number of team owners and imported hundreds of African American strikebreakers from St. Louis to work as teamsters. Mark Morton, president of Morton Salt and an EA member, convinced the railroads to pressure the remaining team owners to lock out their Teamster members as well.
On April 16, anonymous charges of graft against Shea and other strike leaders were filed with office of Mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne (who had been inaugurated only days earlier). Shea and the executive board of the Chicago Federation of Labor dismissed the allegations out of hand."Mayor Has Hope of Ending Strike." Chicago Daily Tribune. April 17, 1905.
Another 25,000 Teamsters walked off the job in a sympathy strike on April 25, 1905, paralyzing grocery stores, warehouses, railway shippers, department stores and coal companies. The EA and its members then sued nearly every union involved in the strike. Local and state courts issued numerous injunctions against the unions, ordering them to stop picketing and return to work.