Since endorsing Sen. Obama on Feb. 20, Mr. Hoffa has sought to be an ambassador for the candidate to his membership, which is 81% male and 76% white. He often talks to Sen. Obama, offering advice and tactics. He's sent out rounds of automated phone calls to Teamsters members for Sen. Obama in key states. In April, he joined an Obama teleconference with reporters when the campaign needed someone to tout the senator's record on trade.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Hoffa fits right in with his members. He greets fellow Teamsters as "brothers" with handshakes and bear hugs.
Shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Mr. Hoffa visited a York Peppermint Pattie plant in Reading that is slated to be closed. He blamed free-trade agreements negotiated by Sen. Clinton's husband when he was president. Mr. Hoffa tells workers that trade agreements enacted recently have made is easier for companies to move jobs to Mexico and China.
Sombrero Posters
"What they're saying is they're going to take this thing and put a sombrero on it," he told workers, pointing to their Peppermint Pattie plant. Mr. Hoffa handed out giant posters of a bright yellow sombrero and told workers at the Teamsters-organized plant to hang them up inside the plant. "This is the kind of crap they're doing," he told one worker as he signed his sombrero poster.
Just before the Peppermint Pattie stop, Sen. Obama called Mr. Hoffa, as the union leader sat at a diner eating eggs sunny-side-up and toast. Mr. Hoffa says he told Sen. Obama about the plant and suggested he include it in his stump speech.
Later that day, Sen. Obama issued a statement saying that working families can't wait "while the same old Washington players play the same old Washington game, while factories like the York Peppermint Pattie plant in Reading move to Mexico in search of cheap labor."