Posted on 09/03/2007 5:12:57 PM PDT by kellynla
Jimmy Hoffa doesn’t have a presidential candidate he and his powerful Teamster’s union is backing, but he praises Democratic candidate John Edwards for making strong appeals to labor a centerpiece of his campaign.
Since James P. Hoffa, the son of the legendary Teamster’s boss, took the presidency of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1999, he has energized his 1.4 million membership, making the country’s 4th largest union once again politically relevant and influential.
At 66, Hoffa is not only busy building union membership – conducting recruiting efforts among workers at UPS, FedEx, and solid waste companies – but also using the Teamsters clout to influence U.S. trade policies, block unfettered access of Mexican trucks into the U.S., and push for Iran divestment. He is even making a mark in the world of cyberspace – the Teamsters Web site, teamster.org, buzzes with blogs, commentaries, and the latest news for union members.
Hoffa’s main obsession today is making sure his union can adapt to a rapidly changing political landscape and help Democrats retake the White House in 2008.
“The Republican Party has destroyed itself,” Hoffa recently told NewsMax in an exclusive interview. “I don’t know what else they could do that’s worse or how they could come to labor and ask for our support. And I don’t see how working people, or labor, could give them that support.”
Hoffa once flirted with endorsing the GOP in the 2000 election. His union backed Reagan in 1980. But Hoffa has little sentimentality toward the Republicans.
He says the Republican Party “isolated itself from the labor unions and from working families” by pushing pro-business policies that are simply anti-worker.
“They’ve advocated terrible trade policies that have cost this country thousands and thousands of jobs. They’ve tried to get rid of Social Security. They have gotten us into a very unpopular war and they’ve alienated us from the rest of the world.”
In some cases, yes.
I don’t see any corporate executives coming in.....
You’re right about wages, but it just baffles me why the unions would want that. If I were a union member I’d be furious.
Perhaps the unions think poor uneducated Mexican nationals would be a great prospect for future members. So does the democrat party, and I hate to admit it, the RP.
Destroyed itself???
Funny comment coming from a Union leader which has seen its membership decline by millions and millions.
good thing he didn’t say this about hillary. he’d end up like another hoffa. we’d be looking for him for years.
Have the Dims done anything to try and stop the Mexican trucks from coming in ? I suspect not , yet Hoffa will blindly continue to support the Dims .
Unions have destroyed US manufacturing.
Imagine Jimmy Hoffa and me in agreement. My dear, departed Uncle (former state Republican Party Chairman) is no doubt spinning in his grave.
Heh. This week I’ve liked the Teamsters more than the Republicans. Didn’t read about toe-tapping-teamsters or Teamsters letting Mexican trucks run through the country.
Hoffa’s an expert on organizations destroying themselves, with most unions in shambles. The only ones making traction are government employee unions.
Wonder which president signed NAFTA.
And they were happily assisted by corporations that desired Communist Chinese peasant labor, not to mention the desire to hire illegal labor by the millions.
Profits regardless of consequences.
I wonder if the fool ever figured how much would "his" employees would be ahead if they took 15% of their paycheck each month and placed it in conservative mutual funds for 20 years. I bet the take home after 20 years would be more than the SS payout. They would be financially independant, and not a drain on the younger workers, no more ponzi scheme.
True, so true...
In my mind, both parties are at war with Joe Six Pack and the American middle class.
Sheeeyit. It's The Mobsters....errr, I mean The Teamsters, anti-business policies that result in anti-worker realities.
Neither did I. Did the Mobsters stop the trucks? If so, how?
Senator “Half-a-Waitress-Sandwich” Dodd has the support of the International Association of Firefighters, yet the Breck Girl is favored by the Teamsters? Who’s the “real” labor candidate?
Jimmy Hoffa doesn’t have a presidential candidate he and his powerful Teamster’s union is backing, but he praises Democratic candidate John Edwards for making strong appeals to labor a centerpiece of his campaign.
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