Teamsters President James P. Hoffa announced Thursday that the union is undertaking a new anti-corruption initiative in order to end oversight by the federal government.

Hoffa campaigned on a promise to remove any remaining influence of organized crime from the union. "Our primary goals in this new anti-corruption effort are to strengthen our union and its democratic practices as we … simultaneously eliminate the need for continued government control of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters," Hoffa said in announcing the new program.
In 1994, a consent decree put the union in a government-directed trusteeship until the Teamsters could prove that the union was free of corruption. Hoffa criticized predecessor Ron Carey for not getting the consent decree lifted, saying the regulation has cost the Teamsters $80 million. He plans to meet with U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White soon to discuss progress on eliminating corruption in the union.
A key element of the plan is the appointment of Edwin Stier as a consultant. Stier is a former assistant U.S. attorney and former court-appointed trustee of Teamsters Local 560 in Union City, NJ.
Stier will help the union devise a plan which will include standards of conduct for Teamster members and officers, and internal procedures for impartial investigation and enforcement of the standard of conduct, as well as ways to remove any remaining organized crime influence.
James Kossler, a former FBI official responsible for directing the department's organized crime effort in New York, will also help implement the plan.
For more information, visit http://www.teamster.org.