The man who spent six years cleaning up corruption in the Teamsters' Union has now been barred from re-election as president because of illegal fund-raising. This could mean his replacement by Mr James Hoffa, son of the notorious Teamster boss imprisoned for corruption in the 1960s, who disappeared in 1975. His body was never found.
The president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Mr Ron Carey (61), has been barred from standing for re-election following a a judge's report that "he misused union power" in his election campaign last year.
The result of this election had already been annulled for breach of rules, but now Mr Carey has been named as being aware that $700,000 of union funds was illegally used to secure his narrow win over his rival, Mr Hoffa.
An inquiry has also been ordered into Mr Hoffa's own campaign for alleged abuses.
Mr Carey has denied any wrongdoing and has said he will appeal against the ruling, but the report by Judge Kenneth Conboy is seen as a serious blow to the labour movement generally because it implicates senior officials in the other unions, including the AFL-CIO umbrella body.
Three of Mr Carey's aides have already admitted diverting Teamster funds to political bodies during the 1986 presidential and congressional elections in return for donations to Mr Carey's campaign. They also arranged for officials in other unions to contribute illegally to the campaign.
The report also referred to a scheme involving the Democratic Party in a planned illegal exchange of funding with the Teamsters which fell through. Judge Conboy said Mr Carey's denials of knowledge of these schemes were "directly contradicted by the documentary evidence" and "unbelievable".
Commentators see the fall of Mr Carey as a serious setback to the recent revival of the labour movement in the US, especially under Mr John Sweeney's vigorous leadership of the AFL-CIO. Mr Sweeney's parents came from Co Leitrim. Republicans critical of labour's political activities have now been given more ammunition.
The unions played an important role in the failure last week by President Clinton to win "fast-track" authority from Congress for international trade negotiations. Union funding has become increasingly important in the election campaigns of Democratic members of Congress.
Mr Carey led a successful strike last summer, on behalf of Teamster workers in the United Parcel Service, which was hailed as sign of new militancy by labour after years of enduring "downsizing" by big corporations only interested in boosting profits.
Mr Carey is also credited with halting the drop in Teamster membership while cleaning up many of the corrupt practices which had tainted the union since the Hoffa era.
The Washington Post yesterday described Mr Carey as "the first inside partner that the federal government found in its 40-year struggle to exorcise what the Justice Department called a `devil's pact' between the Teamsters and the Mob."