WASHINGTON — A wire service reports that Teamsters leaders joined President Bush in promoting the administration’s plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a project some unions back because it could create thousands of jobs.
“This energy bill that we’re working on is a jobs bill,” Bush told about a dozen union executives Thursday at the national headquarters of the Teamsters, which represents some 1.5 million workers. Also at the table were executives from unions representing the building trades, seafarers and carpenters.
“And when we explore for power, U.S. power, U.S. energy in ANWR, we’re not only helping us become less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil and foreign sources of energy. We’re creating jobs for American workers, jobs so that men and women can put food on the table.”
Organized labor groups traditionally support Democrats, but Bush has reached out to unions, and they helped his national energy plan pass the Republican-controlled House in August. The alliance has split two traditionally Democratic-aligned groups: Environmentalists strongly oppose many elements of the plan.
At the same time, unions themselves are divided over the ANWR plan. Many major labor groups oppose it.
The bill, which calls for more oil and gas drilling, new conservation measures and energy infrastructure upgrades, awaits a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Majority Leader Tom Daschle has promised to take up energy legislation by February, and White House aides said Thursday they believe he will keep the pledge.
The administration and unions have often clashed since Bush took office. Bush repealed a Clinton-era rule favored by unions that prevents the government from awarding contracts to businesses that have broken environmental, labor, tax or other federal laws. He installed conservative lawyer Eugene Scalia, son of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, as inspector general at the Labor Department.
But Bush said he and the union leaders are now focused on the same question: How to create more jobs. “All of us know that the energy bill that’s now stuck in the Senate, that can’t get voted on in the Senate, will be good for America.”
Bush referred to Teamsters President James P. Hoffa as “Jimmy,” and Hoffa joshed that he had learned the Heimlich maneuver should Bush choke on a pretzel.
Hoffa delivered a strong plug for the energy plan, using many of Bush’s own arguments. The proposal has become a “political football,” he said.