He mobilized the whole union for four years to defend another strike which began under his predecessor, at the huge Diamond Walnut plant in Stockton, California. The international made it the national symbol for the campaign to win legislation prohibiting the permanent replacement of strikers. In the last four years, the Teamsters have become one of the few U.S. unions to reach across the Mexican border. The union sponsored FAT organizing drives in Irapuato, where Green Giant relocated production from its big food processing plant in Watsonville, California, and at a Honeywell plant in Chihuahua. Both were runaways which cost the jobs of hundreds of Teamster members in the U.S. Carey restructured the Teamsters' organizing department, giving it a more strategic orientation, and a greater commitment to unorganized workers.
Union drives now focus on industries where the union already has contracts.
In the west, immigrant workers are the backbone of campaigns focused on the food processing industry. Making a final peace with the United Farm Workers, the unions have begun joint drives, with the Teamsters organizing workers in the sheds and the UFW in the fields in the same industry. And Carey has gone after the mob. In local after local, the international has moved to replace leaders accused of misusing members' dues money to line the pockets of themselves and their friends. This process of change has been anything but peaceful.