In June 1988, the Reagan administration launched the most important US labour case of the past half-century.
The government alleged the Italian-American mafia – La Cosa Nostra – had effectively taken over the nation’s largest and most influential private sector union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).
A civil suit began under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in a bid to prosecute officials and wrest control of the union from the country’s most powerful criminal syndicate.
