James P. Hoffa, president of the Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters, said Aug. 18 that while the Dep’t of Labor may choose to supervise IBT’s 2001 general election, he believes the union is capable of conducting a free and fair election on its own. Under the 1989 Consent Decree settling federal racketeering charges against IBT, DOL has the option of supervising the next election. When asked whether DOL would add credibility to the election, Hoffa responded, “I don’t necessarily believe that. When we conduct the election we’re going to have it supervised by people of high integrity. We have in mind a group of people that are former government employees.” This was the latest statement in Hoffa’s battle to end the government’s supervision over the corrupt union. [BNA 8/20/99]
In a related story on IBT’s disastrous 1996 election, court-appointed Election Officer Michael G. Cherkasky recently reported that he issued 1,770 decisions on “protests” related to the election. In total, there were nearly 2,100 protests filed during the drawn out process which entailed 1) the disgraced and ousted boss Ron Carey’s narrow victory over Hoffa in 1996; Carey’s subsequent disqualification for a campaign money-laundering scheme; and finally, the election of Hoffa as the union’s new president late in 1998. [BNA 8/25/99]