1970s: Growth Slows
The Teamster Century
By 1973, the economy began to slow, but the Teamsters bucked the trends and continued to better the wages, security, and working conditions of the membership.
Teamster leaders were able to engineer a working alliance with the Nixon White House to safeguard the interests of working men and women during the wage and price controls of the early ‘70s.
Other advances included a 1975 Master Agricultural Agreement won by the Western Conference, which dramatically improved wages and conditions for more than 30,000 farm workers employed by 175 separate growers. In 1976, Teamsters membership topped the two million mark.