Teamsters See U.S. Vendetta Against Presser

As Teamsters President Jackie Presser was freed on bail Saturday following his indictment on payroll-padding charges, delegates gathering here for the Teamsters Union convention accused the government of waging a vendetta against the 1.7-million-member union.

“If the Lord himself were the president of our union, the government would go after him,” said Gerry Scott, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 952, based in Orange County.

Scott and several other Teamsters officials said they believe that the charges of embezzlement and racketeering lodged against Presser by a federal grand jury Friday would have no impact on Presser’s reelection bid and might enhance his support among the 2,100 Teamsters officials who will choose their president later this week.

‘Pulling Together’

“It’ll solidify the delegates behind him,” said Ken Buhle, secretary-treasurer of a Teamsters local in Michigan City, Ind. “This organization has a habit of pulling together whenever anyone goes after one of our leaders,” Buhle said.

Presser, 59, appeared before a federal magistrate in Cleveland and was freed on a $50,000 unsecured bail bond. The indictment accused Presser of perpetrating a payroll-padding scheme involving the theft of $700,000 over 10 years to pay union employees who did no work. If he is convicted of all the counts against him, he could be sentenced to up to 51 years in prison.

Presser made no comment when he left the courthouse. Friday, he asserted that the Justice Department’s case against him had no merit.

Robert Holmes, the union’s second vice president, said he was not surprised by the indictment, which had been the subject of rumors for weeks, but questioned its timing on the eve of the union’s convention, which opens Monday.

“It comes up every convention,” Holmes said, referring to the fact that three of the last four Teamsters presidents have been indicted by the federal government, including Roy L. Williams, Presser’s predecessor. Williams was indicted just before the 1981 Teamsters convention on charges of conspiring to bribe former Sen. Howard W. Cannon (D-Nev.). Cannon was not charged in the case. Williams was convicted and is in prison.

Presser and his attorney, John Climaco, told the union’s Executive Board on Friday morning that they expected the indictment and said they were not worried, said a union leader who was at the meeting.

“He said he was extremely confident of acquittal, but so was Roy Williams,” said the source, who spoke on condition that he not be identified. He said Presser’s indictment would become “a rallying point” for the delegates.

Last year, Jack Nardi Jr., one of the men alleged to have received the “ghost worker payments,” pleaded guilty to taking the money. Allen Friedman, Presser’s uncle, was convicted of the same crime. However, the Justice Department allowed their convictions to be dropped when their lawyers sought information about Presser’s alleged service as an FBI informant.

Denied He Was Informant

Presser has denied that he has been an informant. However, the Justice Department decided not to prosecute him on the payroll-padding charges last year after his lawyer persuaded department officials that he had been authorized to make the payments as part of his efforts to help the government investigate organized crime.

On Saturday, no date for a formal arraignment was set. Presser was not required to post a cash deposit for bail. He will be allowed to travel throughout the country as long as he advises court officials of his plans. His two co-defendants, Harold Friedman, a Teamsters Union international vice president, and Anthony Hughes, recording secretary of Cleveland-based Teamsters Local 507, Presser’s hometown local, were freed on the same bail.

Presser was expected to return here Saturday evening. The expressions of support for him were not surprising because the overwhelming majority of the delegates are Teamsters officials who support the incumbent leadership.

A Token Challenge

Presser faces a token challenge for the presidency from C. Sam Theodus, president of Teamsters Local 407 in Cleveland. Theodus said his primary goal in running is to secure direct election by rank-and-file members of all union officers. Now, only local union officers are elected by a direct, secret ballot vote. Other officers, including the union’s president, are chosen by delegates, generally local union officials, in public voice voting.

Doug Allen, a delegate from Los Angeles Local 208, said he hoped Presser’s indictment would lead to increased support for a direct rank-and-file vote for all officers.

“Hopefully the delegates will start to realize they’re not doing the right thing and we need the right to vote for the rank and file,” Allen said. “I’ll lay every penny I have that Jackie Presser would not get elected if we had a rank-and-file vote.”

Allen, 58, is a member of the Executive Committee of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a dissident group with 8,000 members that has been unrelenting in its criticism of Presser and has continually protested what it considers a lack of democracy in the union.

But Allen’s view was in a distinct minority here. “Jackie Presser has 99% support from the rank and file and the officers and the convention will demonstrate that,” said Joseph Konowe, director of the union’s industrial trades division.