Our Members Are Our Strength .
Our Children Are Our Future .
Our Retirees Are Our Foundation.
OUR HISTORY
How the Teamsters came to be one of America’s largest and most diverse unions — and where Local 848 fits in the story.
1903 — The Founding
Before the Teamsters got their name from trucks, the name came from horses. A teamster drove a team of horses pulling a wagon — delivering ice, beer, milk, lumber, freight, and anything else a city needed to move. The work was hard and the hours were long. A turn-of-the-century teamster could work 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for low pay and no protections.
In 1903, two competing team-driver associations merged at a convention in Niagara Falls, New York, to form the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Cornelius Shea was elected the first General President. The new union represented roughly 50,000 workers in cities across the United States and quickly became a force in the labor movement.
The union’s founding principle, set down by its early members, has carried through every generation since: let each member do his duty as he sees fit, and let no member sow seeds of discord within our ranks.
1907 – 1955 — Growth
In 1907, Daniel Tobin was elected General President at age 32. He would lead the union for the next 45 years — through the rise of the motor truck, two World Wars, and the Great Depression. Under Tobin, the Teamsters grew from a regional team-driver union into a national industrial union representing freight drivers, warehouse workers, dairy and bakery workers, and dozens of other trades.
The 1930s were a turning point. The 1934 Minneapolis general strike — led by Teamster organizers — established the union’s reputation for militancy and discipline, and helped open the door for the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. By 1941, the union had grown to more than 500,000 dues-paying members, the fastest-growing labor union in the United States.
The Teamsters also led on civil rights earlier than most of organized labor. The first union local in New Orleans was governed by an Executive Board of Black and white members at a time when most Southern locals enforced segregation. The Teamsters threatened to pull charters from locals that practiced racial discrimination.
1957 – 1970s — National Power
In 1957, James R. “Jimmy” Hoffa was elected General President. Under his leadership, the Teamsters negotiated the legendary National Master Freight Agreement in 1964 — a single contract that covered roughly 400,000 over-the-road drivers across the country. It turned long-haul trucking from grueling, poverty-line work into a stable middle-class job, with predictable wages, pensions, and health coverage.
At its peak under Hoffa, the union represented more than two million workers across freight, warehousing, dairy, brewing, public sector work, airlines, and dozens of other industries. The Teamsters were — and remain — one of the most diverse unions in North America.
What It Means
For more than a century, the Teamsters Union has helped millions of workers achieve the American Dream. Our success is a testament to those who came before us — the workers who stood together to form a union and a labor movement. They fought for the rights and privileges that most Americans take for granted today.
Without the solidarity of unions, there would be no weekends, no pensions, no health insurance, and no safety standards on the job. The best way to honor Teamster history is to keep doing what those workers did: stand together, raise standards, and look out for one another.
Local 848 — Southern California
Teamsters Local 848 represents over 11,000 working members across Southern California — in transportation, warehouse, sanitation, freight, beverage, food distribution, and a long list of other industries that move the regional economy.
Local 848 is part of Joint Council 42, the Southern California regional body of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Our union hall sits in Long Beach, with an additional office in Glendora serving members across the Inland Empire and the Antelope Valley.
What follows isn’t a complete history — the Local’s archives go further back than what’s been digitized. But these are some of the moments documented on this site that show what the work has looked like over the past two decades.
2012
An NLRB election victory of 46 to 15 brought Toll Group drivers into Local 848 — one of several organizing wins that year, alongside contract ratifications at AVTA, TABC, Vopak, US Foods Corona, Farmer Brothers, Anheuser-Busch Riverside, and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
2014
After years of Local 848 advocacy, the courts required California’s local government agencies and transit contractors to obey worker retention laws — with attorney fees awarded to the Local. The win raised the floor for transit workers across the state.
2020
Food distribution workers at US Foods and Sysco in Southern California ratified contracts the International Brotherhood of Teamsters called “historic.” The wins came at the height of the pandemic, when these workers had been keeping food on grocery shelves under extraordinary conditions.
Ongoing
Local 848’s 501(c)(3) charitable arm supports members’ families and the wider Southern California community through scholarships, holiday food drives, and partnerships with local organizations.
Our Retirees Are Our Foundation.
Our Members Are Our Strength.
Our Children Are Our Future.
Organize
The first step is a confidential conversation with one of our experienced organizers. We’ll listen, answer your questions, and help you think through what’s possible at your workplace. Nothing happens without you.
Further Reading
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters maintains a fuller history of the union and its milestones — from the 1903 founding through today.