James P. Hoffa makes it official: The Teamsters are breaking apart from the AFL-CIO:

I am here today to announce that the General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has unanimously voted to withdraw our membership from the AFL-CIO.

This decision has been reached through a lengthy and thoughtful process. It has been a difficult decision to make and we do not take this step lightly...

In our view, we must have more union members in order to change the political climate that is undermining workers rights in this country.

This doesn't sound like the strongest of responses from AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney, either.