Teamsters President James P. Hoffa thinks it's time for the federal government to get its nose out of his union.

Speaking at the Teamsters' 26th International Convention in Las Vegas this week, Hoffa said, "We have cleaned up our union. It is now time for the government to leave."
The union has been under federal oversight since 1989, when it agreed to the supervision as part of a settlement of a racketeering lawsuit. Since then, Hoffa said, the union has rid itself of its legendary mob influence.
As part of a move toward independence, union members overwhelmingly approved a change to the Teamsters constitution calling for direct election of officers by the members. This has been the case since the government took over, but previously, Teamster leaders were elected by the union's board.
Another step was the hiring two years ago of Edwin Stier, a former New Jersey prosecutor, to head up an internal anti-corruption effort. (See "Teamsters Aim to End Union Oversight," 8/2/1999.)
According to published reports, since then Stier has hired 15 former FBI agents to root out ties to organized crime. He told The New York Times that "organized crime influence in this union has been reduced very, very significantly. There are pockets here and there, but no different that you would find in any institution in the industries and the communities the union operates in."