Bad Company

Writing under his own byline in the New York Times Magazine last week, President Reagan condemned organized crime as "this dark, evil enemy within." He praised a commission he had appointed for exposing "the all too rarely discussed problem of those institutions and professionals--such as corrupt banks, unions or crooked lawyers--whose veneer of respectability helps make them the mainstays of organized crime."

Two days later, the President's commission turned around and bit its creator. The Commission on Organized Crime noted that the Reagan Administration had "contacts" with one corrupt union, the Teamsters, and its president, Jackie Presser. The report warned that such sociability with a tainted union "can lead to an erosion of public confidence and dampen the desire to end racketeering."

The commission, headed by Federal Judge Irving R. Kaufman, charged that mobsters are "increasingly using labor unions as a tool to obtain monopoly power in some industries." It said the Teamsters, the International Longshoremen's Association, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union and the Laborers' International Union are all "substantially influenced and/or controlled by organized crime."

Although Teamsters President Presser was the target of a federal strike force that wanted to charge him with embezzling funds from his Cleveland local, the Justice Department last year decided not to prosecute. A federal grand jury is now probing the reasons for this decision. One reported explanation was that Presser had been used by the FBI as an informant on Mob activities.

The Teamsters was one of the few unions to support Reagan in the 1980 election. After Reagan won, Presser was made a consultant on union matters to the President-elect's transition team. He was a guest at the White House in 1983 when he met with Ed Meese, then a Reagan aide and now the Attorney General. After the 1984 election, Reagan and Meese visited Presser to thank him for his support.

Asked about the report, Meese replied that any meetings with labor leaders were "not designed or intended to interfere with the proper investigation of organized crime," although the Administration's intent was not the issue. Meese might also have replied that such improprieties have not been confined to the Reagan Administration. The commission pointed out that some New York officials had been character witnesses for Anthony Scotto, a vice president of the Longshoremen's Union, before he was convicted in 1979 of racketeering. The commission's counsel noted that Jimmy Carter had even campaigned with Scotto in 1976.