Traverse City Record-Eagle from Traverse City, Michigan • Page 5

rday, August 1875 PageS Hoffa case ripples reach GT region By MARTIN SOMMERNESS Record-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY The Grand Traverse region became involved in the i a a a case of Teamsters president James R. Hoffa Thursday morning. After learning of the vanishing of his father, the union leader's son flew from the Cherry Capital Airport to join his mother in Pontiac. James P. Hoffa, son of the ex-convict labor leader, was vacationing in northern Michigan with his wife and daughter when he was notified of his father's disappearance.

"He called up and said he needed to get to Detroit in a hurry," said Barbara Howell of Lake Central Aviation on Airport Access Road. "He iddn't say where he was calling from and at the time I didn't know whether or not he was the same Hoffa," she said. Howell said Hoffa called the charter service about 8:30 a.m. Thursday. The union leader's son was flown from Cherry Capital Airport to the Pontiac- Oakland airport in a twin-engine aircraft piloted by Bob Westmacotte of Lake Central Aviation.

"I didn't think anything about it until I heard the news today (Friday)," Westmacotte said. "I usually talk to the passengers, but he'seemed concerned about getting to Detroit and about his father, so he didn't, talk at all. Holla's wife and daughter came to the municipal airport to watch the 9 a.m. take-off for southern Michigan. Westmacotte said he and the younger Hoffa landed: downstate at 9:50 a.m.

Thursday. The older Hoffa was reported mluing by his family Wednesday evening when he failed to come home. Hoffa was last geen Wednesday morning when he left his Lake Orion home. The unlonlit's abandoned automobile was found morning -by Bloomfleld Township police in a shopping Center parking lot near a restaurant where Hoffa supposedly had a luncheon date. JAMES P.

HOFFA FRANK JAMES HOFFA GIACALONE Disappearance latest development in Teamster battle DETROIT (UPI) James R. Hoffa's disappearance is the only the latest and most sensational development in an undeclared war rocking the foundations of the most powerful labor union In the United States. At the root of the unrest is a personal struggle for supremacy between the 62- year old Hoffa and Frank E. Fitzsimmons. his handpicked successor as.

boss of the 2.2 million members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters. a Warehousemen a Helpers of America. Both men are tough, streetwise, resourceful survivors of some of the bloodiest struggles in the American labor movement. Their followers range from hotheads willing to use fists, clubs and bombs to the moneymen and managers who live in serene suburbs and control the for- tunes and direction of the union. Hoffa is more flamboyant and better known the "Jimmy" whose own life and the Teamsters growth have run parallel for more than 40 years.

There is little doubt he would.still lead the union he ruled with an iron fist for 14 years if he had not gone to prison in 1967, the result of unrelenting federal pressure applied mainly by the late Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy', first as senator and then as his brother's attorney general, was his most formidible foe. Hoffa still uses an obscenity when he names Kennedy. After years of investigation and prosecution, Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering and mail fraud in 1964 and sentenced to -13 years in prison.

Ironically, he had become Teamsters president when his predecessor, Dave Beck, went to jail. But this time, Teamsters took orders from behind bars. Hoffa did not quit, but continued to direct his union from the federal penitentiary at Lewiston, Pa. His own Local 299, its 15,000 members making it the single largest and most powerful local'in the nation, re-elected him president after he entered prison. One of his most loyal, and key lieutenants in the local was Fitzslm- mons.

Then in mid-1971, hoping to gain a parole. Hoffa cut all ties with the union and members dutifully elected his handpicked candidate Fitzsimmons. Teamsters officials agreed Fitzsimmons was a caretaker who would watch things until "Jimmy" was free to resume control. It did not work out that way. Hoffa was freed just 'before Christmas in 1971 but under a commutation order signed by then President Richard M.

Nixon, he was banned from union politics until 1980. Fitzsimmons showed few signs of the loyalty that Hoffa demanded and expected. Relations between the two men cooled, then soured. As Hoffa launched a court battle to overturn the ban. Fitzsimmons announced Ms intention to seek another five-year term in 1978.

Hoffa already had said that he would seek t'he presidency again if he won his legal battle. But as the two factions squared off. violence and turmoil erupted. A bomb three weeks ago shattered a car owned by Fitzsimmons' son, Richard, now vice president of Local 299. Fitzsimmons was in a bar across the street and escaped injury.

Earlier, another bomb destroyed a personality profile ill i ken asks help on fund LANSING I Gov. William G. Mllliken urged Michigan's congressional delegation Friday to help reverse the Senate's adoption of a new formula for allocation of federal wastewater fund. In an action Milliken termed "highly disturbing," the Senate earlier this week adopted an amendment to the water pollution construction fund formula that will reduce the amount currently allocated to Michigan by $279 million Police file view bid rejected LANSING -(UP! i The stale Senate has defeated a move that would have given six legislators the right to examine secret State Police files on subversive activities, drug pushers and organized crime. Or, a unanimous voice vote Friday, the Senate struck an amendment from the Department of State Police 1975-76 budget bill that would have provided 1'or the legislative overview.

Opponents said allowing legislators to examine the files, even on a con- ficential basis, would result in embarrassing information being leaked. Liquor sans vote law signed LANSING a'PD Legislation allowing local governing units to circumvent a vote of the people in legalizing liquor by the glass has been signed inlo law bv Gov. William G. Milliken. The bill" enacted Friday, will go into effect.April 1.

1976 and will the nation's economic crunch has drastically limited the amount of insurance a school can get and raises rates dramatically when It is available. Schools may get insurance aid LANSING (UPI) Legislation has been introduced in the Senate to create "a state-operated fire insurance program for public schools. The bill was sponsored by Sen. William Faust, D-Westland, who contends the nation's economic crunch has drastically limited theamount of a school can get and raised rates dramatically when it is available, Billboard ban bill introduced LANSING (UPI) Legislation to tighten up Michigan's Highway Advertising Act of 1972 has been introduced in the state House. The measure, sponsored by Rep.

Perry Bullard, is aimed at getting billboards off the roadside a goal Bullard says has not been attained under the law's current language. By United Press International There is only one "Jimmy" in. organized labor James Riddle Hoffa, whose mastery of the brutal ins and outs of Teamsters politics gained him unshakable loyalty among thousands in the country's'largest union. Even out of power, Hoffa remained powerful. They say he never drove a truck, but he ruled the truckers with an iron fist.

They say he never read a book. "I read contracts," he i once said, "not books." His disappearance Wednesday, officially reported 24 hours later his family, touched off fearful speculation among police that it might spark more violence in a union with a strong of, violence, Hoffa cut all official ties with the I a i a Teamsters. Chauffeurs. Warehousemen and Helpers of America while in federal prison four years ago. But he considered his handpicked successor an ungrateful interloper meant to keep an eye on things until he was free and schemed openly at seizing control again.

Success wouid return him to the heart of the union that in many ways is a personal creation of Hoffa. Hoffa came to from Brazil, with his mother after the death of his father, a prospector in the Indiana coal mines. When he began organizing workers in workers in 1930. Hoffa was barely 17, a high school dropout working in a grocery store warehouse: That was the year the union granted him a charter to organize a local, It was Local 299, now the largest and richest of all locals, a springboard for- successive International presidents. The turning point Hoffa came in 1932 "huge i of strawberries landed at a Kroger supermarket dock where Hoffa worked.

Fellow workers followed him in refusing to handle the fruit, without a contract. Within 24 hours, the company traded the threat of tons of spoiled berries for a contract. That same 'ar, Hoffa ran for the presidency the Detroit area Teamsters coui il and won easily. By his own jount, there were no more than 100 Teamster members in all of Detroit. The years that followed were filled with brutality, payoffs and fear.

Hoffa himself once bragged that he was arrested 18 times in one day in 1939 and his two-fisted style prompted an admirer to say he was "all muscle from the neck'down;" Police records show 16 arrests or series Of arrests between 1938 and 1946, But until, his federal conviction in 1964, he had been found guilty only three times and fined small amounts. By 1946. Hoffa was a national labor figure with enough enemies to fill a union hall. Some of them remain entrenched in Teamster politics today. His private life was less well known, He was married and had children, one of them a son who is now a lawyer with several Teamster clients.

did not drink and did not smoke and for years lived modestly in a middle class Detroit Later, he acquired plush summer and winter homes and a private preserve and moved to a suburb 30 miles north of Detroit. His appetite for work was monumen- tal. "Employers never sleep," he once said, "why should When the stormy Dave Beck became International president in 1952. he divided the Teamsters empire into four regions and Hoffa became boss of the Midwest. Five years later.

Beck was in prison and Hoffa was boss of all Teamsters. His reign was unchallenged until the "feds'' began looking into the way he ran the Teamsters. There were allega- tions he built his empire on brutality, fraud, sweetheart contracts, kickbacks and fear. He was acquitted on a charge of taking a $1 million kickback for guaranteeing a labor peace, but on the trial's last day he was charged with bribing two of the jurors and a prospective third juror. He was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Two months later, Hoffa was convicted of mail fraud and misuse of a $20 million Teamsters pension fund. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Unlike Beck, he ran the union from behind bars until 1971. His old Local 299 re-elected him to a three-year term as president in that year. Then, hoping to obtain a parole, he resigned and over power to one of his loyalist lieutenants.

Frank E. Fitzsimmons. He planned to take over again when he completed his term, but Fitzsimmons, entrenched in power, showed no sign of giving way. CINEMA ElkRapidf- 264-8601 Shows 7 and 9:30 pm Sun-Mon-Tues 'The Four Musketeers" PG Strike averted at Detroit News DETROIT I Editorial employes at the Detroit News overwhelmingly approved a new contract Friday, averting a threatened strike at the larg st evening circulation newspaper in the nation. Willard Hatch, chief for Newspaper Guild Local 22.

said the vote was 106-23. Union i i a recommended approval of the contract earlier Friday after suggesting rejection of the pact just the day before. Hatch said the change followed a morning bargaining session which resulted in substantial progress. Guild administrative assistant Helen Fogle said the two-year pact "is going to be worth a considerable amount" to the MO editorial which in- clad reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists and clerks. She Mid the pact included substantial wage increases and "decent job Mcurity provisions." Job security was one of the major obstacles holding up HA Tbe two-year pact was the first union- Negotiated contract covering the editorial workers.

EN JOY SUNDAY BRUNCH at READ'S INN 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Scrambled Eggs Sausage-Bacon Buttermilk Pancakes Our Own Special Toast Sweet Rolls Assorted Juices and Fresh Fruits Baby Beef Short Ribs with buttered egg noodles Assorted Cold Cuts Potato Salad SUNDAY Under 10 yri.Vi price; visit ui and enjoy our view of Weit Bay coupled with the free enter-c tainment of Tennii Courtt, Colorful Children'! Ploy Area and a Lovely Park. Open Mon. thru 7a.m.

9 p.m., Sun. 9a.m. 2 p.m.. 5 Serving delicious brwkfiiti, lunches, dinners and snacks. 2 We're juit one block off the Parkway on Division 5- 947.4340 DON'T "COURT" DISASTER SEE AN INSURANCE "PRO" FIRST BONDS IHSUMN MUTUAL FUNDS Your Ptottclion It Our Profession agency 412 National Bank Building Phone yacht owned by David Johnson, a staunch Hoffa ally who is president of Local 299.

He was not' hurt, A shotgun blast three years ago cost George Roxburgh, a trustee of 299. one eye and other bombings and beatings have heightened tensions and. police say. have sparked a chain reaction of revenge and retaliation. Hoffa said recently he knew the person responsible the attacks.

He said the man was a "mental incompetent" and implied he was encouraged by another person. He refused to identify the persons. StiH in OH Iff" Fmt Chilling Sforti fquipment OLD TOWN HEWS by AL BARNES WEEK OF JULY 30, 1875 Telegraph poles are being sea i i a a Northport and the wire Js being strung. It won't be long before the two settlements will be only minutes apart, thanks to modern ingenuity. a balloonist with a circus which was standing in Chicago, has not been heard from and is presumed dead.

He went aloft in his balloon, in company with a Chicago newspaperman, and was last seen heading out over the lake. They are presumed drowned as it lias been a week since they went aloft. There has been a change in the arrival and departure of mail from this community. We have not been advised as to the purpose of the change. The little slab building, erected behind the school house, came to grief in a gale of wind this week.

The frail structure was erected by the boys and was used as a gymnasium. Mr. Jackson, who has a pond net near Cutler dock, caught a sturgeon last week which weighed 120 pounds. He sold it to Mr. Bauld on the City of Traverse.

The new chair car came up from Grand Rapids this week and we tried its comforts. We fee! that the customers will gladly pay an extra 50e for the comfort a chair between here and Grand Rapids. The proprietor of the Campbell house has installed an immense tank of sufficient elevation to run water to all parts of It is an excellent protection against fire. Water to fill the tank is'taken from a well and pumped by a new windmill. We are advised that the postof- fice will now issue and pay Canadian money orders.

We have been wondering when we wouid admit we have a neighbor to the north. Advice on deportment. We quote for you one of George Washington's rules for decent behavior in company. "In the presence of others, sing not to yourself in a humming voice or make a drumming sound with your fingers or feet: Jog not the table or desk when another person is trying to write or -do figures." Medical advice of a century ago. To cure chopt (sic) hands, wash them in soft soap mixed with red sand: This has bcnn iried by medical men and approved.

Sugar in water as a wash is also sometimes effective..