MESSAGE FROM SECRETARY-TREASURER Steven P. Vairma

The late great labor leader's 100th birthday

President's Column-Rocky Mountain Teamster
By Steve Vairma, President Joint Council #3

February is the 100th birthday anniversary of James Riddle Hoffa, a man who was inducted into Labor's International Hall of Fame in 1999.

He was also named "one of the 10 greatest labor leaders in America" by labor editors in 1968, an accomplishment that might be argued by long-time Teamsters who were active when the senior Hoffa was general president.

"One of ten, hell," a very veteran Teamster offered.  "He was the greatest of them all, no doubt.  He was one of a kind...no others like him.  He negotiated the first master freight contract.  He led the UPS organizing effort.  The sheer force of his personality brought thousands of poor truck drivers and workers in other industries into the middle class for the very first time."

An old issue of the Rocky Mountain Teamster chronicled a visit by Hoffa to Denver in June, 1962.

The Teamster leader's visit was one of the first political action dinners scheduled by a new Teamsters organization, DRIVE, or Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education.

On a warm night in June, Hoffa advised more than 1,000 cheering rank-and-file Teamster stewards and their wives to put their organizing and negotiating skills to a new task - precinct level politics.  Hoffa told the stewards that the anti-labor element in America "never sleeps."  And, he said, "we fail to recognize that what we have today, we gained by the sweat of our brow, and by the picket line.  If we fail to recognize that, what we have today, we can lose."

Hoffa had agreed to spend the night in Denver and go with union organizers to the Coors porcelain plant in Golden, Colorado, a Denver suburb.  The porcelain plant was a subsidiary of the Coors Brewery, which was owned by the Coors family, a notoriously rightwing, anti-union family whose beer was boycotted for many years by organized labor.

Many old-time labor activists still refuse to drink Coors, even though the company stance towards labor has softened somewhat under new principal ownership.

The plan was for the Teamster leader to pass out handbills to workers during a shift change and then to go the Golden Community Center where Hoffa would address the workers coming off the shift.

There were about 300 students - ranging from grade school to college level - who were carrying anti-Hoffa, anti-Teamster placards when Hoffa arrived at the porcelain plant.  Most of the students followed Hoffa and the Teamster organizers to the community center.

Near the center, Coors beer was being passed out to Colorado School of Mines students who came to boo, hiss and otherwise interrupt Hoffa's remarks.

But Hoffa was a great speaker.  He invited as many students as could crowd into the community center to come in.  He first lectured them on interference in labor matters.  While recognizing their right to have fun, Hoffa admonished them for refusing to respect the right of others.  He then defended the role of labor unions in the workforce and explained the contributions they had made to society.

After a question-and-answer session in which the Teamster leader answered all questions with staccato-like rapidity, the students - their picket signs forgotten, clustered around Teamster organizers and business agents to ask more questions about the union.

When the Teamsters and students left the building, a forgotten free beer peddler was gathering up his cooler and pouring apparatus.  He left a high stack of unused paper cups.  Dave Sweeney, political director for the Western Conference of Teamsters who later became the DRIVE director for the International Union, summed up Hoffa's session with the students:

"Professor Hoffa gave the best lecture these kids have heard all year."

Happy Birthday, Mr. Hoffa.