Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Union Boss: Bloomberg "Sure Sounded Like He Was Thinking About" Running

Those are the words of Joseph Hansen, the international president of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, who spoke with the Forward at a dinner put on by the Jewish Labor Committee in NYC last night.

According to Hansen, Bloomberg met with top union leaders, including the Teamsters’ general president, James P. Hoffa, in Miami, Florida in December 2006.

“He sure sounded like he was thinking about it,” Hansen told the Forward. But “he didn’t say he was going to run.” “He’s a credible candidate, but I think it is very unlikely that he gets a union endorsement at this point–he’s an interesting guy.”

(For more on Bloomberg’s long push to a possible run, see this.)

And what is Hansen’s view on Hillary Clinton, who has taken some flak lately over the supposed union-busting activities of her top adviser, Mark Penn?

Positive: “Hillary’s been out there working on all our issues.”

Hansen said that an endorsement from his union would not come at least until September, when the executive board has a meeting, but that he would not be surprised if there is a split endorsement, given deep divisions among both union members and leaders.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.