U.S. Sues to Oust Teamster Leaders as Tools of Mafia : Suit Cites Decades of Corruption

The federal government sued today to force free elections and other reforms in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, charging the nation’s largest union is dominated by organized crime.

Teamsters President Jackie Presser, currently under indictment in Cleveland, and the union’s 17 other top officials were named as defendants, as were 26 alleged Mafia members or associates including the reputed heads of six mob families.

Organized crime’s “control is so pervasive that for decades the (Teamsters’) leadership has permitted La Cosa Nostra figures to dominate and corrupt important Teamsters locals, joint councils and benefit funds,” court papers filed with the suit claimed.

Members ‘Deprived of Rights’

Prosecutors charged that the Mafia “has gained control over” the union and “now uses the IBT and many of its affiliated entities to engage in racketeering activity.”

“The government’s complaint alleges that organized crime has deprived union members of their rights through a pattern of racketeering that includes 20 murders, a number of shootings, bombings, beatings, a campaign of fear, extortion and theft. . . , “ U.S. Atty. Rudolph Giuliani said in a prepared statement.

The government wants a federal judge to remove from office any Teamsters officers found at trial to have violated federal racketeering laws and is seeking appointment of a union trustee to ensure free and fair union elections.

Year in Preparation

The civil racketeering lawsuit, in preparation for more than a year, was filed at federal court in Manhattan by Giuliani.

The government used a similar suit two years ago under the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act to put Teamsters Local 560 in New Jersey under the control of a government-appointed trustee.

Presser is on temporary leave from the union after undergoing surgery last month for a brain tumor. In his absence, Secretary-Treasurer Weldon Mathis is serving as acting president.

Anticipation of the suit prompted the 1.6-million-member union to seek refuge with the AFL-CIO last October, rejoining the labor federation after a 30-year absence.

White House Criticized

In January, 1986, the President’s Commission on Organized Crime criticized the White House for maintaining close ties to the union despite its alleged longstanding links to organized crime figures.

The Teamsters union was one of the few major labor unions to endorse President Reagan in 1980 and 1984.

At the White House, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Reagan had no involvement in the decision to bring the lawsuit but he had been aware of the possibility.

Among those named in the suit were convicted crime family bosses Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno of the Genovese group, Anthony (Tony Ducks) Corallo of the Luccheses and Carmine (Junior) Persico of the Colombo family. All three were convicted in 1986 of sitting on the U.S. Mafia’s ruling “commission.”

Union Leaders in Montreal

Salerno, 77, also was convicted last month, in another massive rackets case, of bid-rigging in New York’s construction industry, but the same jury acquitted Salerno and two others of rigging the election of Presser and his predecessor, Roy Williams.

The union’s top leadership was in Montreal for a regularly scheduled meeting of the General Executive Board. The lawsuit was being transmitted to Canada for review by the Teamsters hierarchy.

A Teamsters spokesman in Washington said the union would issue a statement after the executive board had an opportunity to examine and discuss the lawsuit.