Public Option Not Vital to Health Reform, Teamsters’ Hoffa Says

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Teamsters President James Hoffa said dropping the so-called public option wouldn’t be a “deal killer” for health-care legislation, signaling a split among leaders of unions that are a core constituency of President Barack Obama.

“We’ve got to find out what’s doable,” Hoffa, head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” which airs today. “I think it’s important to get something done this time and declare a victory.”

Hoffa’s position adds to debate among Obama supporters over how best to accomplish an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, the president’s top domestic priority. Richard Trumka, who takes over as president of the 11 million-member AFL-CIO this month, said Sept. 1 that a government-run insurance program known as the public option is an “absolute must.”

There are no litmus tests when it comes to health-care legislation, Hoffa said. Dropping the public option is “not a deal killer,” the leader of the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union said. “The goal is to go after those 50 million people that don’t have health care.”

Obama plans to make the case for his approach to health-care legislation in a prime-time address to a joint session of Congress next week.

The Teamsters is one of seven labor unions that left the AFL-CIO federation in 2005 because of disagreements over priorities. Hoffa said he doesn’t expect the unions, which formed a rival coalition called Change to Win, to reunify with the AFL-CIO, even after reconciliation talks this year.

Litmus Test

Hoffa said he isn’t willing to compromise on another priority for organized labor, the so-called card-check bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions.

“This is a litmus test,” he said of the Employee Free Choice Act, which is stalled in the Congress after labor leaders had pushed for the measure to be taken up in the first 100 days of Obama’s administration.

The legislation lacks the 60 votes needed to force action on the Senate floor over Republican objections. Hoffa said his union may not support Senator Arlen Specter’s re-election bid because the Republican-turned-Democrat from Pennsylvania hasn’t fully supported the bill.

“Those people out there that say they’re Democrats and see our ideas, that can’t back us on something that’s so basic as this -- we’re certainly scoring,” he said.

FedEx, UPS

Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana are among the Democrats who have said they may not support the union bill, after voting for an earlier version of the legislation.

Specter, who is running for a sixth term, has reversed his position on the bill several times this year, and has said he now plans to support efforts to bring a “modified” version to a vote.

Hoffa said he expects the Senate to pass the bill this year, along with another measure backed by his union that would make it easier for FedEx Corp. ground workers to join the same unions that represent employees of United Parcel Service Inc. The House of Representatives approved the legislation in May. The Senate hasn’t crafted its version of the bill.

“The Teamsters are very interested in organizing FedEx,” Hoffa said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net.