Hoffa Remarks on Historic Port Pact at the AFL-CIO Convention
December 4, 2001

Brothers and Sisters, I am here today to send a message to the shipping lines, port authorities, terminal operators, and port trucking companies. The Teamsters Union has united with the Longshore unions to take back the ports.

North America’s ports will once again be wall-to-wall Union. With the help of the ILA and ILWU, the Teamsters will organize the 50,000 truck drivers serving our ports.

The plight of the port driver in our country is appalling. This largely immigrant group of workers earns an average of only $8 an hour when truck drivers under Teamster contracts earn more than twice that. Port drivers have no health benefits and no retirement benefits. They are exploited by the shipping lines, the terminal operators, the port trucking companies, and the oil and gas monopolies.

Port drivers are forced to perform hundreds of hours of unpaid work each year. They are forced to wait in line for hours on end just to make a pick up all unpaid. They are saddled with overweight and often improperly labeled containers carrying hazardous materials even though these practices are in gross violation of state and federal laws. They are forced to clean out the containers that transported hazardous materials. They are forced to drive unsafe chassis on public highways.

When they speak out, they are harassed, intimidated, and often fired.  Many have been silenced and continue to endure these abusive conditions.

The labor movement can no longer allow these hard working men and women to suffer.

We must all speak out against this injustice. And the Teamsters, ILA and ILWU will lead the way.

I am pleased to announce at this Convention, that three unions that have sometimes been in conflict but have always understood the need for unity have entered into a historic pact to level the playing field for port drivers.

This alliance brings to reality the dream my father, Harry Bridges, and Teddy Gleason had more than 40 years ago. They attempted to build a united labor front at the nation’s ports at a time when all three unions were outside of the AFL-CIO. Today we have achieved what they worked so hard to do.  Through this alliance, we will take back the ports for the workers. 

As Harry Bridges told the delegates to the 1961 Teamsters Convention, We have to demonstrate the old fashioned idea of trade union unity, trade union solidarity, the right to work together, and fight together.

Today, the Teamsters, the ILA, and the ILWU are doing just that.

In closing, I’d like to send a message to the 50,000 port truck drivers and their families in the United States and Canada. The Teamsters Union, the ILA, the ILWU, and the more than 13 million members of the AFL-CIO will not tolerate the oppression you endure.

We will level the playing field.

You will have a voice on the job!

You will be heard! 

WE WILL TAKE BACK THE PORTS!

Thank you.