Fun fact: Jimmy Hoffa remained president of the union even after being convicted and imprisoned. He only resigned as part of his commutation agreement with Nixon.

As someone who comes from Europe, I find the culture and corruption of American unions to be very puzzling. It seems to be the case from the very beginning of the American labor movement, and in the past the corruption seemed to have been at an even higher level. I'd love to see someone explain this. Why does the task of organizing workers promote corruption in the U.S. more than in Germany? And can anything be done to change this? Shedding this image would certainly help promote unionization.

> Why does the task of organizing workers promote corruption in the U.S. more than in Germany?

That task doesn't.

(Neither does the task of law enforcement, or government, or corporate management.)

America’s corruption isn't task specific.

The very beginning of the labor movement was super violent- pitched battles to keep scabs from crossing picket lines. Organized crime came from the same neighborhoods and communities as striking union workers, so they helped provide muscle for the workers. Then they stuck around.

I think this is mostly a relic of the past though- most union members are in government or the service industries now, without any of those ties or history.

It doesn't. There was the famous Volkswagen union corruption scandal:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/vw-expenses-frau...