Teamsters Job Creation Initiative Gains Momentum on Both Sides of Capitol Hill

Teamsters Job Creation Initiative Gains Momentum on Both Sides of Capitol Hill

Official Statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa

October 28, 2005

I commend the key committees in the House and Senate that recently took an important step toward increased energy independence. By calling on the Secretary of the Interior to move forward with developing the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), these committees also endorsed a key part of the Teamsters' jobs agenda.

ANWR development will quickly create thousands of jobs with strong wages and benefits. The impact of job growth will go well beyond Alaska and contribute to many states' economies.

For decades, skilled American labor—union labor—has successfully performed the many tasks involved in developing energy on Alaska's North Slope. Along with our brothers and sisters in more than a dozen other unions, the Teamsters stand ready to fill the jobs that ANWR will create and get to work developing more American energy for American consumers.

I would like to thank our allies in both chambers for their steadfast commitment over the years—not just to ANWR development but to making sure that the work is done under a Project Labor Agreement. Chairman Richard Pombo has followed the precedent of his predecessor, Chairman Don Young, in working with the leadership of his party to ensure that a PLA is included in every piece of ANWR legislation that has passed through the Resources Committee.On the Senate side, I have had the honor of working with Alaska Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski on this important job creation initiative. They have already introduced legislation, along with Hawaii Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, that will remedy the omission of a PLA in the Senate legislation due to the Byrd rule. We appreciate these Senators for going the extra mile for our members and will work with them to help their measure becomes law.

I would also like to recognize the Inupiat Eskimos for their generations of stewardship over this land. Many of their leaders have traveled to Washington, D.C. this month to support the development of ANWR. As the only native peoples who live in ANWR, they have done a great service to their people and the 75 percent of Alaskans who support ANWR development.

With oil remaining above $60 a barrel and no immediate relief in sight, the continued financial burden affects all American industries. Working Americans—especially the hundreds of thousands of Teamsters who start their day by turning the key to a truck—need the energy, the relief and the jobs that opening ANWR will provide now.