James P. Hoffa that will give them a strong voice in the workplace." "We announced two goals for the Teamsters in 2008: To organize 40,000 workers and to elect Barack Obama President of the United States. I am proud to say that thanks to the hard work by so many in our union, the Teamsters delivered on both promises." The union's successful organizing plan has emphasized the Teamster core industries—particularly those in the global supply chain—and the management of Hoffa and the Teamsters Organizing Department involved the entire union. The bulk of the organizing resulted from coordinated, disciplined campaigns in which numerous Teamster
Foreign trade of the Soviet Union that increased borrowing to pay for imports from the West would lead to dependence on international lending institutions. Trade between the United States and the Soviet Union averaged about 1 percent of total trade for both countries through the 1970s and 1980s. Soviet-American trade peaked in 1979 at US$4.5 billion, exactly 1 percent of total United States trade. The Soviet Union continuously ran a trade deficit with the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s, but from 1985 through 1987 the Soviet Union cut imports from the United States while maintaining its level of exports to balance trade between