"Everybody here's gotta vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize...Let's take these SOBs out and give America back to America," Teamsters President James Hoffa said in a speech on Monday.

Hoffa told 97.3 KIRO FM's Ross and Burbank Show on Friday he does not regret what he said in Detriot.

"Since I've made that comment, my phone has been ringing off the hook. Everybody is saying keep it on, we need more of that. Even the airline pilot the other day when I flew out said 'Keep it up, you're doing a great job.' We need more of that. We need people talking about the issues."

Hoffa was in Puyallup Friday to help grocery warehouse workers at the Fred Meyer Distribution Center get a new contract.

"We are going to win this battle," he said to a crowd of 200 cheering Teamsters and Fred Meyer employees. "We've got people paying $12,000 out of pocket on their healthcare. It stinks! It stinks!"

The company will meet with Teamsters this week and again on September 29 to sort a new contract out. In the meantime, Fred Meyer Spokeswoman Melinda Merrill says the rally won't help anything.

"Regardless of what kind of hype or excitement goes on in between, the only place to fix this is at the bargaining table," she said. "And the longer this goes on, the longer our employees go on without their raises."

After hearing about longshoremen who stormed rail cars at the Port of Longview early Thursday morning as part of a labor dispute, Hoffa said you can't blame all unions for one isolated incident.

"Unions are the reason why we have a middle class in this country. We're the ones that gave you the 40 hour work week and paid vacations. If it wasn't for unions, none of that would exist. So you can't be diluted by some incident here and say that's some kind of reflection on the whole labor movement."

Hoffa said it's rally time and he's trying to wake up voters to the frustrations the Tea Party and Republicans are causing for President Obama.

"I'm going to make a prediction. The program that he announced yesterday with regard to putting people back to work, a program to address our heavy unemployment in our country, they're going to destroy that," he said.

Referencing actions taken in Wisconsin, Hoffa said the Teamsters will do whatever they can to try to stop the Tea Party.

"We're going to target them because guess what? They're targeting us."

Listen to Teamster President James Hoffa

Read Dave's Commentary on Hoffa's Detroit speech

Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor

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