Jackie Presser - Early Teamster Career

Early Teamster Career

In 1952, Jackie Presser was hired as an organizer by the international Teamsters union. He held a series of staff jobs for the next 12 years. Presser's break came in 1964, when he and his father brokered a real estate deal in suburban Cleveland for a group of local investors (which included Jackie Presser). The investors built an upscale sports club and restaurant on the property. The Pressers also helped the investors secure a $1.1 million loan from the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund. The project went bankrupt, however, and the pension fund lost more than $265,000.

Presser also undertook a personal transformation at this time. He stopped wearing flashy rings and loud clothing and began expressing a taste for expensive, conservative, tailored suits. He also undertook a series of diets in an unsuccessful attempt to lose weight (he weighed close to 140 kg for the rest of his life).

In 1966, Bill Presser gave his son Jackie a charter to form a new Teamsters local in Cleveland. Presser organized 12 workers at a local paint company and established Local 507. Presser hired a number of organizers, and Local 507 quickly organized 6,000 workers in dozens of plants and warehouses in the Cleveland area -— making Local 507 the largest Teamster local in the metropolitan area.

Bill and Jackie Presser soon were some of the most powerful men in the Teamsters union. By 1972, the father-son combination led the Ohio Conference of Teamsters. Jackie Presser quickly helped make the Ohio Conference a model within the Teamsters for providing social services, engaging in union-member communications, and undertaking effective political activity. Both Pressers were also trustees of the Teamster's Central States Pension Fund, one of the richest and most influential pension plans in the nation.

Jackie Presser was elected an international vice president of the Teamsters in 1976. His father, Bill Presser, was forced to resign his vice presidency after he was convicted of extortion and obstruction of justice. According to court testimony, Bill Presser and the Cleveland mob agreed to nominate Jackie as Bill Presser's successor. Bill Presser met with Roy Lee Williams, then president of the Central Conference of Teamsters -— a regional council which controlled union locals in 14 Midwestern states (including Ohio). Williams, who was working with the Kansas City crime family, agreed to help Presser convince Teamster President Fitzsimmons to make Jackie a vice president. Jackie Presser's subsequent election was unanimous.

As an international vice president, Presser urged the Teamsters to root out corruption and pushed for a massive public relations campaign to improve the union's image. In 1977, the Teamsters built a large public relations operation at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Presser soon won authorization for a $250,000-a-year advertising campaign, and the union began sponsoring football games on the radio.

But that same year Presser, along with Fitzsimmons and 17 other Teamster leaders, was forced to resign as a trustee of the Central States Pension Fund. The Department of Justice had charged Presser and others with making improper loans to mob-controlled Las Vegas casinos, racetracks and real estate investments. In 1978, Presser was named a defendant in a civil suit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), which sought damages and reimbursement on behalf of union retirees.

By 1979, Presser was making $231,676 a year. He drew a salary as both secretary-treasurer of Local 507 and as an international vice president of the union.