Hoffa Rallies Workers in Michigan, Vows to Fight Spreading Anti-Worker Tide

News provided by

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Feb 22, 2011, 05:51 ET

Teamsters' General President Also Meets With State House Speaker

LANSING, Mich., Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa promised to stand with workers to defend their collective bargaining rights, in an address today to 700 union members at a lunchtime rally at the Michigan statehouse.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO)

"We're outraged at what is happening in Wisconsin and in other states across this country," Hoffa said. "This is a vast, corporate-funded campaign to weaken unions and pummel middle class workers and it has reached statehouses all over the country. We're not going to stand for it. We're going to stand up for workers' hard-fought rights in Wisconsin, in Michigan and all the states."

The workers included members of teachers' unions, the United Auto Workers, public employee unions and others. Hoffa told the group that "we must stand together in this fight to protect our jobs."

Earlier in the day, Hoffa met with Republican Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger, urging him to respect the collective bargaining rights of public employees and leave intact prevailing wages on project-labor agreements as they currently stand in the state of Michigan.

Hoffa reminded the speaker that it is not workers or unions that caused the economic problems in Michigan -- it was Wall Street. Workers should not be punished, he said. Hoffa also told the speaker that there should be shared economic sacrifices, and asked the speaker, "what are the employers giving up?" Hoffa said the Teamsters Union is in solidarity with every other union in the state and in the country.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters