Clinton Cozies Up To Labor
President Clinton spoke Thursday at a dinner honoring Jim Hoffa, head of the Teamsters Union, in an effort to garner union support for the presidential campaign of Vice President Al Gore and the Senate campaign of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The union vote has become increasingly important in the Clinton camp, as it could greatly help or hurt the chances of both Gore, who is running to succeed Mr. Clinton, and Mrs. Clinton, who is considering a run for Senate from New York.
Hoffa has argued against early support for Gore, who also was in New York on Thursday to seek backing from union members, and Democrats generally, in this crucial early primary state.
Democrats traditionally fare well with union voters, but the Clinton administration has periodically disappointed them.
Mr. Clinton met privately with Hoffa before the dinner.
"We had a good talk about golf," the president told reporters afterward. "We didn't talk too much about other politics."
However, Mr. Clinton mentioned both Gore and Mrs. Clinton at the labor think-tank dinner, where he studded his standard fund-raising speech with references to union concerns.
"I was so sick and tired of more than a decade of people trying to make unions the whipping boy of whatever it was that was wrong in America that they wanted to make right," Mr. Clinton said of the time before he took office.
As Mr. Clinton lauded the accomplishments of the Clinton/Gore administration he spoke about the need for change, but not radical 180-degree change.
"Yes, we ought to change - but what we ought to do is build on what we've done and reach for the stars," he said, "not take a U-turn and get us right back in the trouble we were in 1992 when we got here."
During his campaign for the union presidency, Hoffa backers accused the Clinton administration of meddling in union politics in 1996 to support incumbent Ron Carey. But CMr. linton said Thursday's visit was not a peace mission.
"I'm not mending any fences," the president said. "I have actually enjoyed a fairly constructive relationship with the Teamsters for the last 6 1/2 years."
Especially at question is the endorsement of Aore by the AFL-CIO. Some union leaders have flirted with Democratic challenger Bill Bradley, and Gore is eager to line up as many labor leaders as he can. Gore appears likely to capture the coveted AFL-CIO endorsement despite differences with unions over the North American Free Trade Agreement and other Clinton administration policies.
The Clinton-Hoffa meeting was several months in the making and recognizes Hoffa's efforts to rid the Teamsters of corruption, White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said. Presidents have avoided the Teamsters in recent years because of its history.