Teamsters president Jim Hoffa announced a renewed effort to organize 8,000 Continental Airlines employees Friday. The effort would target ramp, cargo and customer service workers at the airline, in hopes to increase the total number of union workers at Continental over 50 percent. Hoffa hopes to capitalize on optimal conditions for union support, created by worker disillusionment with corporate salaries and profit growth, along with political capital resulting from the Teamsters support for President Obama in the 2008 campaign.
See "Teamsters out to organize more Continental workers", Victor Epstein, Business Week, October 18, 2009