James Hoffa Wins Teamsters Election But Faces Declining Union Membership
James Hoffa has officially won re-election to serve another term as general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, after election supervisor Richard Mark certified the vote on Feb. 16.
James HoffaLocal 89 President Fred Zuckerman unsuccessfully tried to unseat Hoffa, who has led the union since 1999.
Ken Hall also will serve an additional term as general secretary-treasurer. Hoffa and Hall will begin new five-year terms in mid-March.
Mark wrote in the certification statement that five protests to rerun the election were filed before and after the ballots were counted in November, alleging election rule violations. The protests were denied by Feb. 10, and none of the parties appealed the rulings.
With 198,778 votes cast, Hoffa defeated Zuckerman 51.5% to 48.5%.
One challenge that Hoffa would likely address in his next term is declining union membership. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that membership fell to 10.7% of all American workers in 2016, marking the eighth straight year the number was flat or down.
In total, 14.5 million Americans belong to a union out of a total of 136.1 million workers. In 2015, 14.8 million workers were in a union out of 133.7 million total.
Younger workers also were less likely than an older employee to be in a union. Nearly 13% of workers between the ages of 35 and 64 were in a union, but they were only 9.2% of those between 25 and 34.
Within the transportation and warehousing industry, there were 935,000 union members in 2016 or 18.4% of all workers, down from 18.9% in 2015 and 25.7% in 2000.
