Hoffa Tells AP Kerry Is Evolving on Trade

[w4rma]

By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer

WASHINGTON - The Teamsters, which had snubbed John Kerry for his support for trade agreements, contends that the Democratic front-runner is evolving on the issue and has the best chance of beating President Bush, union President James P. Hoffa said Wednesday.

"He might not be there yet, but I think the more he campaigns, the more he realizes this entire election is going to come down to jobs," Hoffa said in an Associated Press interview. "I think he's moving towards that. Everybody evolves."

Kerry, who recently secured the Teamsters' backing, will get the endorsement of the AFL-CIO at a Thursday meeting of union leaders. They are eager to show a united front headed into November's election after a bruising primary that used millions of labor dollars and exposed deep cracks in the movement.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040218/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_labor

[Kira]

1. What about drilling

in Alaska?

[ozone_man]

4. What about that?

Did Kerry say something about drilling in Alaska?

[Kira]

6. I was reading on another thread

that Hoffa was saying on Chris Matthews that Kerry was considering"drilling all over there"

[ozone_man]

8. I heard something to that effect.

If true, that won't go over well with environmentalists.

[Taeger]

2. Hoffa Jr.

Why not offer a public quid-pro-quo endorsement??? Just say, if Kerry promises to cancel NAFTA and WTO, we will endorse you!!!!!!

[junker]

3. NAFTA gotta GO. Kerry better learn this mantra now. It goes....

Nafta gotta GO.
Free the slaves (amuricans I mean)!
Kill Nafta NOW.
Then take out WTO!

Kerry better face it. NO ONE can grow a decent thing under NAFTA. Side bar agreements do not mean shit and make him look like a wimp. A NWO stooge. Get some cajones and KILL NAFTA while there is still an America to recover from this soverignity sucking source of social putrification.

[Zhade]

5. Interesting side note: Hoffa is (or was) a member of the CLI...

...the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which is a group stuffed full o' neocons (e.g. William Kristol) and neoliberals (e.g. Will Marshall).

[Bandit]

7. Hoffa is a traitorous pig just like his dad

He has no values other than money. I am glad that the Teamsters have decided to go with the Democrats this time around but wouldn't put it past them to switch up half way through. They can no longer be trusted. After they hired scabs to build their union hall in Texas they completely lost me.

[Voltaire99]

9. Tsk tsk: that's a libel

Hoffa the Elder presided over the last era in American history during which the working class had any economic stability let alone hope of upward mobility.

And the reason was unions, my friend, and leadership such as his. Collective bargaining power brought that security, that prosperity. It wasn't handed to American workers just because capitalists like them as people, you know. ;-)

[mobuto]

11. Unions are great and very much needed

the reason they're so weak today is largely because of Jimmy Hoffa - who brought a bad name to the labor movement with his public corruption.

The Teamsters are a bad union, always have been. They're both right-wing and horribly corrupt (although Hoffa Jr. is supposedly less dirty than his predecessor, Mr. Carey). Now the only thing worse than a bad union is no union, its just that working Americans don't recognize that. All they hear is what the Right-to-Work goons tell them - that labor unions are just a device to get money into the pockets of organized crime. And its people like Jimmy Hoffa who, by fitting into that stereotype, advance it.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Hoffa junior was a lawyer for the Mafia

He never in his life ever worked as a Teamster.

[hedgetrimmer]

10. the more he campaigns the more he learns it comes down to jobs...

by the way john you remember that last guy with the jfk initials?