Interim Teamster Chief Expects Presser to Resume His Post After Medical Leave

Weldon L. Mathis, the second-ranking official in the Teamsters Union, said here Monday that he expects Teamsters President Jackie Presser to resume his position as head of the union at the end of a 120-day medical leave that began on May 4.

Mathis, the union’s secretary-treasurer who is serving as interim president, made the prediction after a special meeting of the union’s executive board at La Posada Resort here. The meeting had been called so the board could discuss the ramifications of the medical leave that Presser started 12 days ago on his doctor’s orders.

In response to questions, Mathis denied reports that Presser’s worsening health problems had precipitated a “power struggle” inside the union’s executive board over who would succeed the 61-year-old Teamster chieftain. “I don’t know of any power struggle. There are no vacancies on the board,” he said in reference to Presser’s temporary absence.

Lesions on Brain

Presser checked into the Barrows Neurological Institute of St. Joseph’s Hospital in nearby Phoenix last Thursday after lesions were discovered on his brain at the Cleveland Clinic, where he had been undergoing radiation treatments. Presser had surgery in Cleveland for lung cancer last year.

Teamster sources here said that doctors would determine within the next few days whether it would be advisable to attempt to operate on the cancerous lesions.

Three union sources, including Vice President Bobby Holmes of Detroit, said they are more optimistic about Presser’s condition now than when they had arrived here. “I hope he makes it,” said Holmes.

A spokesman at St. Joseph’s Hospital confirmed that Presser has been admitted there but said there would be no reports on his condition at the request of his family.

Bare Quorum Present

Mathis acknowledged that eight members of the board, plus Presser, did not show up for Monday’s special meeting. This meant that the board had a bare quorum of nine members. Over the weekend, a knowledgeable union source said that several members of the board planned to boycott the meeting.

Mathis and other Teamster sources said that two vice presidents who did not come--Walter Shea of Washington and Donald Peters of Chicago--cited health problems of family members as the reason. Vice President Harold Friedman of Cleveland said he could not attend because he was getting married and Vice President Jack Cox of Los Angeles said he could not be here because he would be serving as Friedman’s best man.

Four other vice presidents--Joseph Trerotola of New York, Joseph W. Morgan of Hallandale, Fla., William J. McCarthy of Boston and T. R. Cozza of Pittsburgh--also did not show and did not say why. They are reportedly miffed at Mathis.

‘Noses Out of Joint’

One prominent East Coast Teamster leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that some board members “got their noses out of joint” when Mathis informed them that he was assuming Presser’s position for four months via an internal union computer hookup rather than calling them personally. Attempts to get comments from the four were unsuccessful.

“I guess you could call it a boycott,” Mathis said in response to a question about their absence. “They wanted to meet in Washington. I guess they don’t like Arizona.”

Mathis said he had decided to convene the meeting here because he had planned previously to be here for a meeting of the union’s construction and building trades division.

Most members of the board who were here declined comment on Monday’s meeting. But Holmes, a member of the union more than 50 years, said of the reputed boycotters: “If they didn’t want to come, no one can make them. . . . They’re big boys. They probably would have done themselves a favor if they had come and listened.”