93 Facts About Jackie Presser

Jackie Presser was an American labor leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1983 until his death in 1988.

Jackie Presser was closely connected to organized crime, and allegedly became president of the Teamsters based on the approval and support of the Cleveland crime family.

The Pressers were very poor: Bill Presser stuffed newspapers into shoes to block holes in the uppers and strengthen worn-out soles.

Bill Jackie Presser was however a protege of Jimmy Hoffa and quickly rose within the local, regional and international Teamsters ranks.

Jackie Presser was elected president of the Ohio Conference of Teamsters and eventually a vice president of the international union.

Jackie Presser's childhood, by his own account, was a happy one.

Jackie Presser dropped out of school in the middle of the eighth grade.

Jackie Presser enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943 when he was 17, and served in World War II.

Jackie Presser merged his local with four other local unions in order to improve the workers' collective bargaining position.

Jackie Presser began receiving a markedly larger salary, and spending large amounts of money on travel and automobiles.

Jackie Presser wore pinky rings and diamond bracelets, and became notorious for wearing loud, brightly colored sports jackets.

Jackie Presser began to gain substantial amounts of weight, a health problem he would fight for the rest of his life.

In 1952, Jackie Presser lost re-election as union president after members became dissatisfied with his colorful and lavish lifestyle.

In 1952, Jackie Presser was hired as an organizer by the international Teamsters union and held a series of staff jobs for the next 12 years.

Jackie 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.

Jackie Presser stopped wearing flashy rings and loud clothing and began expressing a taste for expensive, conservative, tailored suits.

Jackie Presser undertook a series of diets in an unsuccessful attempt to lose weight.

Jackie Presser organized 12 workers at a local paint company and established Local 507.

Bill and Jackie Presser were soon some of the most powerful men in the Teamsters union.

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.

Jackie Presser was elected an international vice president of the Teamsters in 1976.

Jackie Presser's father was forced to resign his vice presidency after he was convicted of extortion and obstruction of justice.

In 1977, the Teamsters built a large public relations operation at its headquarters in Washington, DC Jackie Presser soon won authorization for a $250,000-a-year advertising campaign, and the union began sponsoring football games on the radio.

In 1978, Jackie Presser was named a defendant in a civil suit brought by the US Department of Labor, which sought damages and reimbursement on behalf of union retirees.

Jackie Presser drew a salary as both secretary-treasurer of Local 507 and as an international vice president of the union.

Bill Jackie Presser had been indicted by the federal government on charges of bribery, embezzlement and other charges.

Jackie Presser's information was verified, and Jackie Presser spent the rest of his life as an FBI informer.

Jackie Presser began receiving $2,500 a month from the FBI for providing information.

Jackie Presser was considered a "top-echelon informant," marking him as one of the Bureau's most prized sources.

Shortly thereafter, Jackie Presser allegedly received permission from two FBI agents to pad the Local 507 payroll with fake employees.

Jackie Presser allegedly told the leaders of the Chicago crime family that he was willing to do them favors in exchange for money and assistance.

Organizationally Jackie Presser was under the control of the Cleveland crime family.

Jackie Presser hired a large contingent of muscular bodyguards who accompanied him everywhere he went.

In 1977, Jackie Presser allegedly used his mob connections to seek political favors from President Jimmy Carter.

The media soon reported that Jackie Presser was reputed to have links to organized crime and that he was the object of a DOL civil suit for financial malfeasance.

Reagan and his advisors claimed to have been unaware of the accusations, and Jackie Presser denied having any ties to organized crime.

Just days after the story broke in the national press New Jersey State Police witnesses testified that Jackie Presser was the primary contact for the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey and the Patriarca crime family of Boston whenever crime figures needed loans from Teamster pension funds.

Roy Williams and Jackie Presser were mentioned as possible successors, and some press reports indicated a fight for the presidency was under way.

However, Jackie Presser announced he would not be a candidate and that he was supporting Williams instead.

Jackie Presser told the press that his attitude was "very negative" toward reaffiliation.

Jackie Presser, who was re-elected as an international vice president at the June convention, later reported that he earned $353,737 in 1981 from his various Teamsters jobs.

Jackie Presser confirmed that he, his father and Fitzsimmons had met with federal agents, but declared that there had been only one meeting in 1972.

The mafia had long doubted claims that Jackie Presser was an informant, and the retraction helped renew mob confidence in Jackie Presser.

The mob's confidence in Jackie Presser was reaffirmed a year later when the Justice Department publicly ended its investigation into the alleged kickback scheme.

In February 1983, Jackie Presser was re-elected to the international union's policy committee.

The press reported that Jackie Presser had formed an alliance with Anderson, which gave him enough votes to win the presidency.

Jackie Presser himself informed the FBI shortly after the mob meeting that he "had the support of all the East Coast families" and that he would be the next Teamsters' president.

Jackie Presser was elected president of the Teamsters on April 21,1983.

Jackie Presser pledged to re-invigorate the union, organize new members, and end trucking deregulation.

Jackie Presser said he had no opinion as to whether the Teamsters should rejoin the AFL-CIO.

Shortly after his election, Jackie Presser told his FBI contacts that anyone who sought to do business with him needed to go through the mafia first.

Reports later showed that Jackie Presser was paid more than a half million dollars in salary in 1983.

Jackie Presser received $216,000 as secretary-treasurer and executive officer of Local 507, $42,500 as vice chairman of the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, and $59,500 as president of Teamsters Joint Council 41 in Ohio.

Jackie Presser was not involved in the settlement, and the civil suit against him continued.

The agreement, which included Jackie Presser, turned operation of the pension fund over to a federal court until the year 2007.

Jackie Presser quickly established his control over the Teamsters during his first six months in office.

Jackie Presser appointed Robert Holmes, a Detroit Teamster leader, as director of the Central Conference of Teamsters; Paul Locigno, a Teamster staffer from Ohio, as director of government affairs; Wallace Clements, a staff political coordinator in the Deep South, as political director; and Vicki Saporta, a longtime organizer, as organizing director.

Jackie Presser strengthened the union's research and lobbying shops and established the Titan System, a computer networking system which established email communication throughout the union for the first time.

Jackie Presser began a major lobbying effort, particularly against a proposed labor racketeering bill.

On November 8,1983, Jackie Presser underwent triple bypass heart surgery in Cleveland.

On October 24,1984, Jackie Presser named Weldon Mathis secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters.

Jackie Presser was paid $224,000 in salary by Local 507, $59,500 by Teamsters Joint Council 41, $18,100 by the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, and $229,000 by the international union.

At the regularly scheduled Teamsters convention in May 1986, Jackie Presser was elected to a full five-year term as Teamsters president.

Jackie Presser arrived in the ballroom accompanied by composer Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, four muscular men dressed as Roman centurions bearing him on a golden sedan chair.

Theodus conceded after the first hour of balloting, but Jackie Presser ordered the roll call to continue to the end to humiliate Theodus.

In October 1987, Jackie Presser led the Teamsters back into the AFL-CIO.

Jackie Presser had repeatedly said he was uninterested in reaffiliation, and AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland had been deeply angered by Jackie Presser's attempt to merge with the ITU and to raid AFL-CIO affiliated unions with members in the publishing industry.

Jackie Presser continued to push merger with the Typographers, even as the new ITU president Robert Mc Michen and executive council leadership signed a merger agreement with the Graphic Communications International Union.

Again Jackie Presser reached a merger agreement with the ITU, and once more Kirkland went on the offensive against the merger.

Jackie Presser announced on June 7,1983 that he intended to endorse Reagan for re-election.

Jackie Presser agreed to do both, so long as laid-off union members were given preference in re-hiring.

Jackie Presser pushed for limits on the use of non-union subcontractors and subsidiaries, as well as wage and pension increases.

Jackie Presser sought a two-year replacement agreement that would provide a wage increase.

Jackie Presser opened contract talks nearly a year early, and won a moderate wage increase.

Carhaul: Shortly after ratification of the UPS pact, Jackie Presser began negotiations on behalf of Teamster truck drivers who deliver new automobiles to dealerships.

In early 1985, the President's Commission on Organized Crime issued a sealed subpoena ordering Jackie Presser to testify about mafia influence in the Teamsters union.

Under a grant of immunity, Williams testified extensively about Jackie Presser's offer to fix a 1974 criminal case for $10,000 and his desire to obtain kickbacks for helping to arrange a 1975 Teamsters pension fund loan to organized crime figures so they could purchase a Las Vegas casino.

Jackie Presser planned a five-year legal, public relations, legislative and political counter-attack to keep the Teamsters free from court supervision, and sought and won AFL-CIO support for his proposals.

Jackie Presser led a massive lobbying effort in Congress to oppose the takeover on fiscal and libertarian philosophical grounds designed to appeal to Republicans.

The 1981 investigation into Jackie Presser's payroll-padding at Local 507 finally led to a decision by the US Department of Justice to prosecute Jackie Presser in June 1984.

Jackie Presser's attorneys claimed that the FBI had given him permission to initiate and maintain the payroll-padding scheme as a means of shielding him from mob suspicions.

Justice Department leaders eventually undertook a prosecution of one of the FBI field agents who handled Jackie Presser, claiming that he had not been authorized to give Jackie Presser permission to engage in the payroll-padding scheme.

Jackie Presser had surgery to remove two cancerous tumors in January 1987.

Jackie Presser's cancer returned in June 1987, and he spent several months undergoing chemotherapy and recuperating.

Jackie Presser underwent surgery again in the fall of 1987 to remove another cancerous tumor.

Jackie Presser suffered additional heart and pituitary gland problems throughout the winter and spring of 1988.

On May 4,1988, Jackie Presser told the Teamsters executive board that he was taking a four-month leave of absence due to his health problems.

Jackie Presser was diagnosed with a brain tumor 10 days later, and underwent surgery to have the tumor removed.

Jackie Presser died in Cleveland on the evening of Saturday, July 9,1988.

Jackie Presser was four weeks shy of his 62nd birthday.

Jackie Presser and his first wife Pat had two children, a daughter Bari was born on 1953 and and a son, Gary.

Jackie Presser was the first labor leader to be named to the Greater Cleveland Growth Association board of directors.

Jackie Presser worked with the Special Olympics and organized tournaments for blind golfers.