(The Associated Press distributed the following article on September 4.)
WASHINGTON — Teamsters chief James P. Hoffa says President Bush doesn’t understand the economy or the problems of working families, and despite overtures from the White House, it “would be difficult to imagine” the union endorsing him for president next year.
The union, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this weekend, has announced it is backing Rep. Dick Gephardt in the Democratic primaries to challenge Bush next year. But some Republicans had hoped that, should Gephardt fail to win the Democratic nomination, the Teamsters might back Bush in the general election.
The Teamsters have a history of playing both sides of the political fence, going back to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and the Bush administration has tried to woo Hoffa since taking office.
But Hoffa, in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, made clear that the White House overtures, which included a special seat at Bush’s first State of the Union speech, would not pay off in next year’s election.
“I don’t think he understands the economy,” Hoffa said. “He doesn’t understand the problems working families are having — losing their jobs, plants are closing. He doesn’t feel their pain, and I think that’s unfortunate.”
A Bush endorsement “would be difficult to imagine,” Hoffa said. “The administration would have to change its ways.”
At the same time, however, the union isn’t enthralled with the other Democrats running for president, leaving open the possibility that it could remain neutral in the general election if Gephardt isn’t on the Democratic ticket.
One of the key reasons Gephardt won Teamsters’ support is his unwavering opposition to free-trade agreements that unions blame for eroding their membership.
The Teamsters count 1.4 million members, down from 2 million in 1976.
Trucking deregulation in 1979 started the membership slide. But the greatest damage was inflicted by the trade agreements, Hoffa said, with factories closing nationwide and shipping jobs to Mexico, China and other countries.
The union was formed in 1903 by men who drove horse-drawn wagons delivering goods, called team drivers or teamsters.
The Teamsters are increasing their organizing efforts to, at the very least, maintain the current membership level, Hoffa said. He has added 100 new organizers across the country.
Once representing predominantly freight haulers, membership now includes police officers, teachers, hospital workers and movie crews. Hoffa said the union continues to look for expansion opportunities in other industries, such as waste management, warehousing and food processing. Mergers also are being discussed with some smaller unions.
The Teamsters probably is the best known union in America, largely for its colorful, yet troubled past. Its ties to the mob are legendary, and the Teamster image has become almost a caricature — think Tony Soprano of HBO’s “The Sopranos.”
Rightly or wrongly, Hoffa’s late father, James R. Hoffa, had much to do with that image. The former Teamsters president earned the loyalty of his members with contracts that lifted them into the middle class. But the influence of organized crime expanded in the union during his reign.
Hoffa vanished in 1975, believed murdered by the mob.
The younger Hoffa says Teamsters remember what his father did for working-class Americans.
Drivers in the 1940s and ’50s were not even allowed to stay in motels because they were thought of as such low-class people, he said.
His father “brought respect to them. They would stay in clean hotels. They would drive in air conditioned trucks,” he said.
“These are the kinds of memories people have here,” Hoffa said. “I can’t help what other people think. The reality is he’s a hero to the working people of not only the Teamsters union, but I think many people respect him as a fighter for working families. I am very proud of his legacy.”
The Teamsters union has been under federal oversight for 14 years to settle a government lawsuit that alleged it was controlled by organized crime.
Hoffa thinks the oversight could be lifted by the end of the year, with the government proposing an exit plan last month.
“We are running a clean ship,” Hoffa said. “We are running a union free of corruption, and we’re proud of what we’re doing.”