Uncle Testifies to Union Firings, ‘Sweetheart’ Pacts by Presser

The uncle of Teamsters Union President Jackie Presser has charged in sworn testimony that Presser, while a Teamsters official in Cleveland in the late 1960s and early 1970s, helped arrange “sweetheart contracts” with businessmen and fired union members who were troublesome to their employers.

The previously secret testimony of Allen Friedman, which was given to a federal grand jury here in December, 1983, was unsealed this week. It provides new details and charges about Presser’s union activities before his election as national president four years ago.

But Friedman’s often bitter testimony lacks specifics and deals with events that occurred too long ago to form the basis for prosecution, federal officials said.

‘Ghost Employees’

Presser and two union associates--Harold Friedman (no relation to Allen Friedman) and Anthony Hughes--are scheduled to stand trial late this year on charges that they siphoned off $700,000 in Teamster funds to pay non-working “ghost employees” in recent years, including Allen Friedman.

The testimony of Presser’s uncle, who was convicted in 1983 of receiving $152,000 from Presser’s Teamsters Local 507 as a “ghost employee,” was among documents ordered unsealed by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio at the request of several news organizations.

After his conviction, Allen Friedman agreed to tell grand jurors what he knew about Presser in hopes of getting a reduction in his sentence.

The sentence never was reduced, but the Justice Department subsequently dropped charges against him--and freed him from jail after he had served 11 months--after his lawyers contended that they never had been told about Presser’s role as a longtime FBI informant, knowledge that would have affected the way they defended him.

‘Not a Stable Person’

Neither Presser nor his attorney, John R. Climaco, was immediately available for comment. But Robert J. Rotatori, Harold Friedman’s attorney, said: “It goes without saying that Allen Friedman is not a stable person.”

The transcript says Allen Friedman testified that Presser and Harold Friedman, a fellow officer of Local 507, cut “sweetheart” deals with Cleveland businessmen who feared that other less friendly unions would organize their workers.

Subsequently, Presser condoned the firing of “troublesome” Teamsters Union members who filed grievances against some of these employers, Allen Friedman said.

He testified that Presser gave instructions to “go easy” in contract negotiations with any Cleveland businessman who was “a friend of . . . the Presser family.”

Allen Friedman said that during the 1960s and early 1970s he was a full-time business agent for Local 507. But he said his activities slowed in later years after he had two heart operations.

Testimony on Kickbacks

Allen Friedman testified that Harold Friedman demanded and received kickbacks of $100 to $200 a week from some business agents on the union payroll.

He said: “If you knew Jackie Presser the way I did, he was getting his halves.”

Allen Friedman, brother-in-law of Presser’s late father, Ohio Teamsters leader William Presser, refused to provide the grand jury with specific names, places or dates, the transcript says.

“I’m not being smart with you, I just don’t want to get further involved,” he said.