Hoffa for President

Squat, shrill-voiced Midwest Teamster Boss James Riddle Hoffa, 44, barreled into Chicago last week and kicked off his campaign to succeed discredited Dave Beck as president of the 1,400,000-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, biggest, most muscular union in the U.S.

To 600 of the far-flung Teamster brass summoned for the show, Jimmy Hoffa looked like more of a boss than ever because he had just beaten federal charges that he had tried to plant an agent on the Senate's McClellan committee investigating labor racketeering (TIME, July 29). As Reformer Hoffa, he took the rostrum to propose: 1) an organizing drive to gain 600,000 Teamster members, 2) transfer of some Beck-abused powers from the president to the union's executive board, 3) a demand that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. revoke its policy of censuring union officers who plead the Fifth Amendment (which Dave Beck pleaded ad infinitum). In the event of a fight with the A.F.L.-C.I.O. over the Fifth, or over other questions of Teamster "autonomy." Hoffa warned, "we would rather leave the A.F.L.-C.I.O. than give up the fight." His hairy-armed supporters--claiming control of at least 75% of all Teamster voting strength--roared approval ("Atta boy, Jimmy"), promptly voted him unanimous endorsement as their candidate.

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