Stallone, Teamsters’ Chief Join Forces in Drug Crusade

Movie idol Sylvester Stallone and Teamsters Union President Jackie Presser announced Tuesday that they are joining forces in the growing anti-drug crusade.

Presser said Stallone, who portrayed a trucking union leader in the 1978 film “F.I.S.T.,” will be the national spokesman of the Teamster Crusade for a Drug-Free America.

At a news conference at the Century Plaza, Presser said the union is “very proud to have Sylvester Stallone acting as the spokesman for our members and the youths we will represent in the future.” He presented Stallone with a plaque and an honorary gold union membership card, adding, “I hope you never have to drive a truck.”

Presser said the campaign will involve the production and distribution of anti-drug information in brochures, posters, union publications and on thousands of T-shirts and bumper stickers. He said the union has formed a blue-ribbon panel of doctors and other medical personnel to come up with recommendations on drug-rehabilitation and drug-testing policies.

Stallone said he also might narrate a Teamster-financed documentary film on the evils of drugs.

“This is an insidious problem,” Stallone said. “It’s eating away at the moral fiber of our country. Like termites, it eats away at the foundation.”

Stallone referred to “F.I.S.T.” in discussing his involvement with the Teamster program, saying, “This is where fiction meets reality after doing ‘F.I.S.T.’ ”

Stallone said he has had a “hands-on” relationship with the union since the movie was made. In “F.I.S.T.” Stallone played a union leader named Johnny Kovak, who many critics said was patterned after Jimmy Hoffa, one of Presser’s predecessors.

In the film, Kovak uses the assistance of criminal elements in organizing battles against trucking company goons in the 1930s and is then unable to free himself from involvement with the criminals and he himself becomes corrupt.

Attempt to Regain Control

Hoffa, who was imprisoned for jury tampering, disappeared in 1975 when he attempted to regain control of the union after his release from prison and is believed to have been murdered.

Presser is currently under federal indictment on racketeering counts based on charges that he siphoned off union funds.

Stallone said his involvement in the Teamster project evolved out of meetings he had with Presser starting last summer.

“It was a kind of mutual coming together,” the actor said.

Presser said that drugs are a problem in every school in the country and that drug use “is destroying the youth of America.”

Presser said the union is familiar with the breadth of the drug problem because it has locals in every county in the nation. However, he said that only a small percentage of the truck drivers that the union represents is involved in drug or alcohol abuse.

Presser said substance abuse is more widespread among Teamsters who work in other sectors of the economy, such as warehouses.

He said the union has been involved in a successful drug-testing and rehabilitation program with trucking companies since 1984. He said random testing is prohibited under the program and employees are offered counseling and other assistance if they have drug problems.

“Our membership can’t be compelled to give tests,” Presser said.

However, the union has been named as a defendant in two federal lawsuits filed by Teamsters challenging their firing in connection with drug tests. Both suits contend that the Teamsters Union failed to properly represent its members in the disputes.

Presser said he would have no comment on these cases until the litigation is concluded.

Facing Federal Charges

He was asked if the new drug program is an attempt to improve the Teamster image, a reference to the fact that three of the union’s last five presidents were convicted of federal crimes, that he is currently facing trial in Cleveland on federal charges of siphoning off more than $700,000 from Teamster and Bakery Workers Union funds in a payroll-padding scheme and that the President’s Commission on Organized Crime said earlier this year that the union has been linked to organized crime since the 1950s.

“We have no problem with our image,” Presser responded.

Later, he declined to answer questions about the charges against him.