James P. Hoffa

On his 18th birthday Hoffa was sworn in as a Teamster by his father. He studied economics at Michigan State University (B.A., 1963) and law at the University of Michigan (L.L.B., 1966). From 1968 to 1993 he worked as an attorney representing clients of the Teamsters. During this time Jimmy Hoffa disappeared (1975) and was presumed to have been murdered.

In 1991 Hoffa first sought the office of the Teamsters presidency, but federal officials ruled him ineligible because he had never officially worked as a Teamster. As a means of gaining on-the-job experience, Hoffa began working as an administrative assistant to Lawrence Brennan, president of Michigan Joint Council 43, in 1993. Hoffa ran for president of the Teamsters in 1996 but lost the close bitter election to incumbent Ron Carey. A funding scandal caused Carey to be unseated late in 1997, and Hoffa won the presidency through a special election in December 1998.

As president, Hoffa opposed trade agreements that appeared to threaten American jobs, and in 2015 he succeeded in having the Teamsters removed from Department of Justice oversight that had been initiated in 1989. He was also credited with improving the finances of the union and greatly increasing its membership. Hoffa was reelected multiple times, though the 2016 contest was unexpectedly close. He subsequently faced growing criticism from within the union, especially after he oversaw the ratification (2018) of a labour deal with UPS even though a majority of Teamsters had rejected it. In 2020 Hoffa announced that he would not seek another term as general president, and he was succeeded by Sean O’Brien in 2022.