Teamster's mob fighter quits
He accuses Hoffa of dragging feet on cleaning up union
Associated Press
Teamsters President James Hoffa, right, in 1999 with Ed Stier, insisted Thursday his union is "fully committed to remaining free of the influence of organized crime and corruption."
WASHINGTON — The former federal prosecutor hired by the Teamsters Union and heralded as the man who would help eliminate organized crime and corruption has resigned, claiming that President James P. Hoffa has reneged on his commitment to reform the union.
“I have become convinced that Jim Hoffa is no longer committed to an aggressive effort to clean up the union,” Ed Stier said in an interview Thursday, one day after sending a letter of resignation to each member of the union’s General Executive Board.
Stier’s allegations, vigorously denied by Hoffa, may derail or delay the union’s efforts to rid itself of government supervision. The union agreed to government oversight in 1989 in settlement of a racketeering suit in which the Teamsters were accused of being a “subsidiary of organized crime.”
Stier, the founder of New Jersey’s organized crime and corruption office, said in an interview that Hoffa failed to take the necessary action to end corruption in a Texas local and “undermined” his efforts to investigate the presence of organized crime in Chicago locals.
Since taking office in 1999, Hoffa has made ending government supervision his top priority.
“Based upon Jim Hoffa’s reaction to our report, in which we have made it clear that we have substantial reliable information that organized crime again threatens the union, I have become convinced that my continued efforts and those of our investigators to create an anti-corruption program for the Teamsters Union would be futile,” Stier said in his resignation letter.
Hoffa called Stier’s allegations “false and reckless” and insisted the union remains “fully committed to remaining free of the influence of organized crime and corruption.” Hoffa said the union intends to continue to cooperate with law enforcement “in pursuing any remnants of organized crime that may still exist in our union.”
Teamsters General Counsel Patrick J. Szymanski said Stier was overreaching in his investigations of union corruption and was costing the union $150,000 a month. Stier’s report on the extent of organized crime influence in Chicago has been turned over to the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York, where the original racketeering suit was brought, and to the court-appointed Independent Review Board, Szymanski said.
“Frankly, we think that when the government looks at this, they will understand we haven’t changed our position and that we are still firmly committed to running a clean union,” Szymanski said. He said many of Stier’s allegations were based on anonymous sources.
The Teamsters’ 1999 hiring of Stier and his team of investigators, all former law enforcement agents; the creation of Project RISE (respect, integrity, strength, and ethics); and development of a code of conduct were frequently cited by Hoffa as evidence that the union was determined to remove all vestiges of organized crime.
Stier said that Hoffa used his influence as general president to hamper and delay efforts to end corruption in the Texas local where thousands of dollars were stolen. He also said Hoffa failed to take action against those accused of being associated with organized crime in Chicago. Witnesses who testified against their leaders now feel “abandoned,” he said.
As a result of Hoffa’s actions, Stier said there is a “danger” that organized crime, which had mostly disappeared from the union, may come back.
“Because the General President plays such a critical role in enforcing standards of conduct within the union, my position has now become untenable,” Stier wrote in his letter of resignation. “I can no longer permit my presence in the union to act as an endorsement of his sincerity.”
It will now be up to members of the union’s General Executive Board and Teamster leaders around the country to decide “whether they let things slide back to where they were before or they take action to clean it up,” he said.
Stier stressed that his criticism is not directed at the union as a whole, but to one man: “Jim Hoffa.”
“This is a tragedy,” he said, “because the men and women of the union are going to suffer because of this. Their expectations have been raised. They have made a substantial commitment to support the union’s anti-corruption program. This is going to be a terrible setback.”
When he was hired in 1999, Stier said, he remembers “clear as a bell” telling Hoffa and the executive board that they must be prepared to hold their friends and political allies accountable if they are found to be corrupt.
“Don’t start down this road unless you are prepared to do that,” Stier said he told the union leadership. “You will be worse off if you start and then turn back than if you had never started at all.”
You can reach Richard A. Ryan at (202) 906-8207 or rryan@detnews.com.
