The person who sent this to us is a Washington reporter I know and trust. Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03799.html The Teamsters union (http://www.teamster.org/about/division.htm) is composed of millions of workers, including flight attendants, pilots, parking attendants, construction workers, truck drivers, mechanics, manufacturing workers, police, city bus drivers, local government clerks, convention workers, hotel workers, zookeepers, and so on. That's a lot of potential informants. I invite the Teamsters to reply. Also note that a Washington Times report in June (http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020614-90235042.htm) pointed to Hoffa's warm relationship with Bush. Though I should note that according to a news report in May, the Teamsters were not rushing to endorse Operation TIPS: http://www.progressive.org/May%202002/berk0502.html -Declan --- Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2002 09:24:12 -0700 (PDT) From: [deleted per request] Subject: Teamsters to push TIPS? To: declanat_private Declan, I don't report on this myself, but thought it would be good for Politech. Teamsters President James Hoffa, Jr. is preparing to endorse the Bush administration's TIPS plan, according to Washington sources close to the labor union. Teamsters is the largest union in the U.S. and its members include United Parcel Service (UPS) workers. The decision of the Teamsters to back TIPS is solely Hoffa's, and no union vote was taken, or is planned, the source said. Many Teamsters are more left-of-center and are unhappy with Hoffa's close relationship with Republicans and the Bush White House and view his pending endorsement of TIPS as an attempt to win favor with Bush, the source said. Of course, it is unclear what type of support this move would actually receive from individual Teamsters. But a publice endorsement would be ominous. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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