American Notes Labor

After the burly 300-lb. man was sworn in before the commission, he responded easily to the first two questions: Yes, I am Jackie Presser. Yes, I am the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. But that was it. The head of the nation's largest labor union refused to respond to all other questions on the grounds that his answers might be self-incriminating. The President's Commission on Organized Crime, which subpoenaed Presser to testify during its Chicago hearings on labor racketeering, may ask a federal judge to charge the president of the 2 million-member union with contempt.

If Presser, who was the only major labor leader to endorse Ronald Reagan's presidential bid in 1984, is convicted of a crime, he will be the fourth Teamsters president of the past five to go that route: Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa served time, and last week Roy Williams, 70, who now suffers from emphysema, was ordered to enter a prison hospital to see if he is well enough to begin serving a term for conspiring to bribe a former Senator. Presser is also under the threat of a federal indictment in Cleveland for the alleged embezzlement of about $250,000 from his local there.