Word: pressers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...years the sound of prison doors clanging shut has provided the background music for the transition from one Teamster president to the next. From Dave Beck in 1958 to Jackie Presser in 1986, four of the past six Teamster chiefs have been accused or convicted of felonies, often involving organized crime...
Earlier prosecutors were forced to fight the union's corruption by charging individual leaders with specific crimes: Teamsters President Jackie Presser, for example, is under indictment for racketeering and embezzlement, and past Presidents Dave Beck, Jimmy Hoffa and Roy Williams all went to jail. RICO frees the Justice Department to take action against an entire institution. Building on more than 300 convictions of Teamsters and union-related Mob figures since 1970, the lawsuit portrays the leadership of the 1.6 million- member union as a front for the Mafia. Organized crime, charged Giuliani, "has deprived union members of their rights through...
Weldon Mathis, the union's acting president while Presser is hospitalized with brain cancer, called the suit "a shameful attempt to destroy a democratic union." Several public officials also criticized the potentially dangerous precedent. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said a move by the Government to take over a union "smacks of totalitarianism." Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, a Democrat, was also wary. "I think we're getting on very, very thin ice here," he said...
Although the Reagan Administration professed enthusiasm for the Teamsters suit, the announcement caused some embarrassment. The Teamsters endorsed the Reagan-Bush ticket in both 1980 and 1984. Presser was named an adviser to the 1980 Reagan transition team, headed by none other than Edwin Meese III. "Had this information been available at the time," Attorney General Meese said last week, "President Reagan . . . would obviously not have accepted that kind of support." But evidence of the Teamsters' pact with the devil was known well before 1980. As the report of the President's Commission on Organized Crime points out, "Jackie Presser...
...free for executive-class passengers and cost $4 a flight for those with coach seats. The June selection includes the movies Innerspace and Shoot to Kill, reruns of Moonlighting and Night Court, a cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny and a recap of the 1987 World Series. Airvision President Sheldon Presser says the mini-TVs will also appear later this summer on Qantas Airlines and British Airways...