2010 - Labor Leaders on Labor Award

James P. Hoffa
General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters

is an American labor leader and attorney who was the tenth General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Hoffa was first elected in 1998. Hoffa is the second-longest serving General President of the Teamsters Union. Hoffa's final term as General President ended in 2022.

Frustrated with the AFLCIO's lack of emphasis on organizing, the Teamsters Union split from the AFLCIO on July 25, 2005. Shortly after, the Teamsters sued the Bush administration to overturn regulations that extended the number of hours a driver could spend behind the wheel of a truck. The Teamsters argued the rule would contribute to driver fatigue. After a court battle, the Obama administration finally agreed to change the rule. Hoffa led Teamster efforts to protect defined-benefit pension plans for more than a decade following the economic collapse of 2008. The legislation championed by Hoffa and the Teamsters was known as the Butch Lewis Act, named after a Teamster retiree pension activist, and became law as part of President Biden's American Rescue Plan stimulus package in 2021

Most receently, Hoffa has been an outspoken critic of Amazon's attempt to curtail union organizing efforts.