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Obama Says Teamsters need Less Oversight
This article is from May, but I am finding it worrisome that this is okay with Obama. I have heard he is backpedaling/clarifying, but.....
Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign.
It?s an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.
Sen. Obama?s rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, has declined to take a stance on Teamsters oversight. During his eight years in office, President Bill Clinton took no action to end the special board. Democratic presidential nominees in 2000 and 2004 ? Al Gore and John Kerry ? didn?t address the issue, according to Teamsters officials.
Neither Sen. Obama nor Teamsters President James P. Hoffa has spoken publicly about easing up federal oversight, a top priority for Mr. Hoffa since he became union president in 1999. On the campaign trail, Mr. Hoffa stresses Sen. Obama?s criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement as the big factor in winning the 1.4-million member union?s support.
But John Coli, vice president for the Teamsters central region, who brokered the Teamsters endorsement, said Sen. Obama was ?pretty definitive that the time had come to start the beginning of the end? of the three-member independent review board that investigates suspect activity in the union. Mr. Coli said that Sen. Obama conveyed that view in a series of phone conversations and meetings with Teamsters officials last year.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor confirmed the candidate?s position in a statement to The Wall Street Journal, saying that Sen. Obama believes that the board ?has run its course,? because ?organized crime influence in the union has drastically declined.? Mr. Vietor said Sen. Obama took that position last year.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120994756511766395.html?mod=blog
Re: Obama Says Teamsters need Less Oversight
How so? I understand the unions being for a candidate, but less oversight on a union with such a checkered history?
So Obama supports increased regulation for private industries with no ties to organized crime, but no regulation for a wildly corrupt union that endorses him. Gotcha.
Here's an article about the Teamsters and corruption. It explains that the Independent Review Board was a part of a settlement with the justice dept. I don't think it's working so I'd love for a renewed investigation but in the meantime it's better than nothing and certainly the Teamsters can't go without oversight. They have not demonstrated they deserve that.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_280366.html