The Mafia and the American Labor Movement

Jim Jacobs
Director, Center for Research in Crime and Justice
New York University School of Law

Monday, November 6, 2006
3:10 to 4:45 p.m.
CUE 518

New York University School of Law Professor James B. Jacobs’ most recent book looked at the Mafia's penetration and exploitation of the American labor movement throughout the 20th century. He will discuss how it happened that, by the 1960s, the country's most powerful crime syndicate had the power to choose the head of the nation's largest private sector labor union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and to exert influence in many other unions as well. He will also talk about the U.S. Department of Justice's 25-year-long effort to purge organized crime from the labor movement.

James B. Jacobs is Director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at New York University School of Law. He has published 14 books and more than 100 articles on such topics as prisons and imprisonment, drunk driving, corruption and its control, hate crime, drug testing, regulation of weaponry, and organized crime. His most recent book is entitled Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: Organized Crime and Organized Labor and was published by NYU Press in 2005.