Hoffa to Lead 'Militant' Teamsters
The 57-year-old Mr. Hoffa, whose father negotiated the first nationwide contract for truck drivers, and in the process built the Teamsters into one of the largest and most powerful labor unions in the country, outlined his plans to reinvigorate the union at a press conference following a decisive victory in the federally supervised rerun election over main challenger Tom Leedham of Oregon, who heads the union’s warehouse division.
Mr. Hoffa will fill out the unexpired term of Ron Carey, who won a narrow victory over Mr. Hoffa in 1996. That election was overturned, and Mr. Carey was disqualified from running again, because of fundraising violations by his campaign staff.
The final rerun tally posted last week showed Mr. Hoffa with 54.5% of 323,900 votes cast for general president. Mr. Leedham claimed 39.3%, and John Metz, head of the union’s public employees division, finished with 6% of the vote.
Mr. Hoffa, who practiced law for 25 years and has never before held an elected union office, said his first challenge will be to negotiate a contract for approximately 12,000 Teamsters employed in the car haul industry. The National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement expires next May.
“It will be a good test,” he said.
Ian Hunter, executive director of the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division, said he has no idea what to expect from Mr. Hoffa. The organization has a history of negotiating during volatile periods. In 1988, bargaining was interrupted by the death of Teamsters President Jackie Presser.
egotiations on the next contract stretched over a year and half due to a Teamsters convention and Ron Carey’s election. In 1995, the Teamsters struck Ryder System’s Automotive Carrier Group.
“Our timing has not been too good,” Mr. Hunter said.
No other major trucking contracts have to be revisited before Mr. Hoffa’s term is up in 2001.
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