JAMES P. HOFFA
August 15, 2000

Ray Suarez speaks with Teamsters president James P. Hoffa at the Democratic Convention..

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RAY SUAREZ: Joining us now is the general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, James P. Hoffa. Your union is, as of this moment, still neutral in this race, right? JAMES P. HOFFA: We're moving ahead though. We're polling our members right now. We wanted to see what happened at the Republican Convention and the Democratic Convention. We want to put all that together; we want to poll our members and talk to our leadership. We're going to come up with our endorsement right after the Labor Day. RAY SUAREZ: Are you being courted? Are people paying attention to this endorsement in a way that they're reminded of the cloud of the Teamsters? JAMES P. HOFFA: I think they are. I think that we have people from both sides talking to us. I think that's important. I think it's important that the Teamsters have a say in whatever happens in the future. Don't forget, we're following a bipartisan political agenda working with both members, members of both Houses, where there is a Republican majority in the House and in the Senate. How are you going to get things done if you don't have friends on both sides of the aisle? So that's part of our bipartisan approach; our approach to the presidential race is somewhat the same way. But we're going to take the pulse of our members and we will come up with an endorsement. RAY SUAREZ: Were you disappointed by the selection of Joe Lieberman as vice presidential candidate for the Democratic ticket? He's been very outspokenly on the other side of trade issues from where the Teamsters are. JAMES P. HOFFA: Well, trade is a major problem for the Teamsters and many of the industrial unions. That's true of not only the Republicans - Bush -- but also Gore on the Democrats. So it's a continuing problem. I guess now we have to go on to the next level to say what other things do we agree with. And then just work very hard to have our voices heard to change minds in both parties to say, "We've got to see what impact these programs and these trade bills have on workers here in America." RAY SUAREZ: What makes the endorsement valuable to a candidate in the fall? What can the Teamsters do for a presidential candidate? JAMES P. HOFFA: We can do a tremendous amount of mailings, we can put manpower on the streets. We can do a lot of endorsements money-wise. There's a lot of things that we can do that are consistent with our programs of electing a President. We're going to do all of those; we're going to just turn the faucets on 100 percent to help our candidate. RAY SUAREZ: James P. Hoffa, thanks for joining us. JAMES P. HOFFA: Great to be here. Thank you.