Hoffa Backers Raucous As Teamsters Gavel Drops

Supporters of Teamsters presidential candidate Jimmy Hoffa staged a boisterous beginning to the union convention Monday. They booed a U.S. senator. They booed the national anthem. They even booed a moment of silence for deceased members.

The chanting and jeering started as soon as the convention was brought to order and continued for most of the day, sparing only Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, who gave the invocation.

The chants of “Hoffa, Hoffa” and “Carey Must Go” grew almost deafening every time incumbent president Ron Carey took the microphone to conduct general business.

There are 1,880 delegates to the convention from the U.S. and Canada, but the hall was also open to credentialed “guests” who gathered in seats surrounding the floor. Many were Hoffa supporters who joined in the chanting, while banging on seats and pounding their feet.

In the afternoon of a day that saw virtually none of the business on the agenda accomplished, Carey had the hall cleared, banning guests for the afternoon and ordering delegates to be recredentialed.

The convention is to nominate officers and chart the future of the nation’s largest labor union. Ballots will be mailed to the union’s 1.4 million members in November and the votes will be tallied in December.

Hoffa, the 54-year-old son of the late Teamsters leader, is attempting to unseat Carey in the union’s general election.

In the morning session, the convention was sent into a frenzy when Carey ruled against the Hoffa camp on a credentialing issue that was decided on a questionable voice vote.

The chanting continued after lunch as Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., tried to speak. After leaving the podium he ripped into the Hoffa supporters.

“This demonstration does not bring credit to the Teamsters … and it does not bring credit to those who back Mr. Hoffa,” he shouted. “This is a black mark on the Teamsters (and) a black mark on the American labor movement.”