A Reformer and the Mob

A Mafia turncoat fingers Teamster boss Ron Carey, raising doubts about the union's big cleanup

"Roughshod" and "musclebound." That's how President Clinton last week described organized labor's lobbying tactics against lawmakers who support the free-trade agreement. Those ugly terms, which evoke old stereotypes of spaghetti-sucking Mob bosses and pistol-blazing hitmen, infuriated Ronald Carey, the leader of the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He demanded that Clinton apologize for using "code words" that are "an insult to every working man and woman in America."

They may be insulting; they may also be true, at least as far as Carey himself is concerned. Outwardly, Carey is a zealous reformer who swept into office two years ago in...

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