Sunday, February 4, 2001

Max Ortiz / The Detroit News With a portrait of his father, the legendary Jimmy Hoffa, looking over his shoulder, James P. Hoffa said, “I think my father looking down from heaven would be very, very proud.”

Hoffa tackles goals, ghosts

President tries to build membership, union coffers

By Richard A. Ryan / Senior Washington Correspondent
The Detroit News, Copyright 2001

    WASHINGTON — James P. Hoffa, facing re-election as president of the Teamsters union after less than two years in office, rattles off grand plans for the future — an end to almost a dozen years of federal supervision, organizing WalMart and North American port drivers, and negotiating a new master freight agreement for truckers.

    As president, Hoffa has shown political dexterity and independence. He flirted with endorsing George W. Bush before finally backing Al Gore, arguing that no one and no party should ever take his support for granted. He says he will continue to fight against what he considers unfair global trade, insisting that the “blizzard of layoffs” at DaimlerChrysler and other companies are a result of job losses caused by “all these trade bills that have passed over the years.”

    But even as Hoffa spoke confidently about the future during an hour-long meeting at Teamsters headquarters, serious tests loom. It was the first interview granted The Detroit News by a leader of the union since the resolution of the newspaper’s labor dispute.

    The Teamsters union’s finances, nearly depleted by the past administration, are improving but the union is far from flush. Hoffa faces opposition from determined challengers who think he represents the union’s bad old days. John Rabine, an ally from Seattle, was recently thrown out of office by opposition forces. Some deep divisions remain, even at the level of individual locals.

    “You are never going to get 100 percent, no matter who you are,” Hoffa says dismissively.

    And while he says he faces a future bright with possibilities and new glory for the Teamsters, there is no escaping the union’s inglorious past, which resulted in federal supervision that Hoffa insists he will end.

    Honoring Jimmy Hoffa

    A huge portrait of Hoffa’s father, the legendary Jimmy Hoffa who brought such power and notoriety to the union in the 1960s, hangs on the wall in the executive board room. When he was inaugurated president in 1999, Hoffa resurrected the painting from the bowels of the building where it had been banished by the previous administration.

    A haunting charcoal drawing of his father hangs in Hoffa’s huge office with its breathtaking view of the Capitol. Another portrait hangs in the President’s Room of the headquarters, known throughout union ranks as the Marble Palace because of the extensive use of the stone in its construction.

    The senior Hoffa disappeared from a Bloomfield Hills restaurant in 1975, presumably abducted and murdered by organized crime figures who feared he would regain control of the union. His body has never been found.

    “I don’t feel ghosts” in the headquarters, Hoffa says about his father. “I just feel we are continuing a tradition. My father was probably the greatest Teamster ever and he built this union to new heights. And it is just an honor to be able to sit at his desk and to be in the same offices.”

    In another tribute to his dad, who ruled the union from 1957 until 1971, including a three-year period he was serving a prison sentence for jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy, Hoffa renamed the union’s scholarship fund after his father “as a living memorial to him.”

    His father, Hoffa says, would be proud of what he has been able to achieve in the short period he has been in office.

    “We have unified this union, we have pulled it together. The union had lost its way. It was horribly divided and the union wasn’t doing its job. And we have been able to rebuild that and I think my father looking down from heaven would be very, very proud.”

Part 2 -- Tackling priorities

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