Hoffa Shows Rival Teamsters the Door

Within days of officially taking the helm of the Teamsters, the organization his father steered to infamy, James P. Hoffa begancleaninghouseandgivinghisenemiessomethingtotalkabout.

Since late March, at least 55 international field representatives and organizers have been fired. All were sympathetic to the reform-minded slate that opposed Hoffa.

“You win an election, I guess you get to fire who you want,” said Ken Paff, who directs Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a group that openly feared Hoffa’s election as head of the 1.4-million-member organization could precipitate a return to corruption. “Our concern is what it shows about the union, going back to business as usual.”

The fired staffers include organizers of the successful 1997 United Parcel Service strike, and some who have been involved in ongoing contract negotiations involving Northwest Airlines flight attendants and newspaper workers in Detroit.

Teamsters spokesman Chip Roth said those campaigns and others were foundering and needed “new thinking and innovative approaches.” Replacements for the fired workers have not been announced, but Roth said resources will be made available as needed.

“Some critics of the Hoffa administration are saying the sky is falling,” he said. “But there’s nothing extraordinary going on here. It’s just a normal transfer of personnel as a new administration comes in.”

Roth should know: He lost his old job in 1992, when reformer Ron Carey won the top Teamsters post.