TEAMSTERS PRESIDENT DECLARES VICTORY : CAREY SAYS WIN OVER HOFFA SHOWS MANDATE FOR REFORM OF UNION.

Byline: William Hershey Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Ron Carey, president of the Teamsters union, declared himself the winner Saturday over challenger James P. Hoffa in the bitter election to head the 1.4 million member union, the largest affiliate in the AFL-CIO.

Hoffa, a Detroit labor lawyer and son of former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, did not concede defeat but acknowledged, ``It does look like it's possible Ron Carey will be re-elected.''

The election was seen as both a referendum on Carey's five-year effort to clean up a union that had seen three recent presidents - including Jimmy Hoffa - sent to prison, and on AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's crusade to revitalize the dormant American labor movement and restore its political and economic clout. Carey was one of Sweeney's key allies last year when Sweeney swept out the old AFL-CIO leadership and won the presidency.

With all ballots counted late Saturday night - except those set aside as challenged or void - Carey, 60, a former delivery truck driver, led 226,593 votes - nearly 52 percent - to 209,896 votes, about 48 percent - for Hoffa, said the court-appointed election officer, Barbara Zak Quindel. The ballots were counted at the National 4-H Center in this Washington suburb.

There were 41,002 challenged ballots, which will be reviewed beginning Monday.

Carey, buoyant but limping on a bad left knee that will undergo surgery Monday, hugged and kissed his followers - who shouted ``Carey, Carey'' - at Teamsters headquarters in downtown Washington before beginning a news conference.

``This is a victory for continued reform for the Teamsters union,'' Carey said. ``We beat the mob, we beat corporate American and we beat the old guard officials in our union.''

As he has throughout the campaign, Carey derisively referred to his opponent as ``Junior,'' even though the younger Hoffa has a different middle initial than his father, James R. Hoffa.

``Junior's come-lately conversion to reform was not real,'' Carey said. ``But the fact that he had to copy our platform showed how far we have moved the debate in this union.''

He emphasized the days of the Teamsters rumored coziness with organized crime had come to an end.

``This victory sends a message to every mob boss in America. Our treasury, our pension funds will never again be the piggy bank for organized crime,'' Carey said.

He called on all Teamsters members to put the election behind them. But, to cheers from his supporters at the news conference, Carey said he would not withdraw a libel suit he filed against Hoffa seeking millions of dollars for Hoffa campaign literature that accused Carey of secretly holding $2 million in stock from United Parcel Service - the company Carey used to work for - and of using a UPS lawyer to swindle an elderly Queens woman. The suit called both accusations false.

While Carey called for union unity, he made clear that it would be unity on his terms. Since taking over as president, he cut his own salary, cut out a middle layer of union bureaucracy, ended free lunches at headquarters and sold off two union airplanes.

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Photo: Ron Carey

Wants unity on his terms