In 1905, Shea led the Teamsters in a walkout aimed at the Montgomery Ward department store in Chicago. The strike, which was unsuccessful, was a violent, long and bitter one. Toward the end of the strike, Shea and several other Teamster leaders were indicted on charges of extortion. Angry at the strike's failure, Shea's apparent guilt in the extortion plot, and Shea's failure to unite the union's two warring factions, union members ousted Shea in August 1907 and elected Tobin in his place by a vote of 104 to 94