The Teamsters — full name the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — is one of the biggest labour unions in the United States, with well over a million members. A union is an organisation workers join so they can bargain with their bosses as one voice instead of one by one: about pay, hours, safety. It started with the men who drove horse teams, which is where the name comes from, then grew with the trucking industry, and today it covers far more than drivers — warehouse workers, delivery drivers, and many other jobs. Note the capital T and the -s: written this way it is a name, not a plural of the job word. Americans often say just 'the Teamsters', and everyone knows which organisation is meant. The word carries some history with it. Under Jimmy Hoffa, its president from 1957 to 1967, parts of the union were widely believed to be tied to organised crime and to corrupt politicians; Hoffa himself went to prison, and in 1975 he disappeared and was never found. Because of that, 'the Teamsters' can sound tough or shady to older Americans in a way the plain word 'union' does not — though the union today is a normal, legal, powerful organisation, and it would be unfair to your listener to imply otherwise.