The Nation - News from Aug. 4, 1988

Less than three weeks after assuming office in a hotly contested election, new Teamsters President William J. McCarthy has fired two of the union’s top regional officials along with its chief attorney. Teamsters officials confirmed that McCarthy replaced Robert Holmes and Edward Lawson as directors of the union’s central and Canadian conferences. Both men, who retain their elected seats on the union’s 18-member, policy-setting executive board and titles as international vice presidents, had supported Secretary-Treasurer Weldon L. Mathis for the top Teamsters job after the death last month of Jackie Presser. Mathis, who was Presser’s designated heir and had served as interim president while Presser was undergoing brain surgery, was defeated by McCarthy on a 9-8 vote by the Teamsters’ executive board July 15.