Revolt Against Jimmy

By a study of his career, no one would ever guess that Harold Gibbons, a vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was any thing but a true-blue fan of Jimmy Hoffa's.

A tough fellow with a talent for talking like a college professor, Gibbons, 53, teamed up with Hoffa in 1948, by brains and brawling turned his St. Louis local into a key link in Hoffa's chain, became a leader of the Teamsters' powerful Central States Conferences. He worked tirelessly to smooth over the trail of disputes Hoffa left behind him, served as Hoffa's top propagandist, eventually was named Hoffa's executive assistant in Washington.

But last week the loyal servant turned against his master: Gibbons not only resigned as Hoffa's aide but joined a move to oust Jimmy from the Teamsters' presidency. Turning in their resignations at the same time were four other Hoffa assistants.

The trigger for the rebellion was reaction to the assassination of President Kennedy. In Hoffa's absence, Gibbons closed down the Teamsters' $5,000,000 Washington headquarters, issued a statement of regret. When Hoffa found out about it, he flew into a tantrum. "I'm no hypocrite," he yelled. "Who told you to do this?" Hoffa later went on to gloat that his archenemy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, would be "just a lawyer now."

For years Gibbons had absorbed Hoffa's crudities in the interests of his handsome (about $30,000) salary and his secret hope, confirmed only to his closest associates, that one of Bobby Kennedy's lawsuits would stick, send Hoffa to jail, and place Teamster power in Gibbons' own hands. But after the most recent dressing-down by Hoffa, Gibbons took stock of anti-Hoffa senti ment on the 15-man general executive board, and seemed ready to go along with a demand for Hoffa's resignation by ten of the 15 board members, as reauired by the union constitution.

Gibbons' move was not the only threat to Hoffa. He faces trial next month on charges of jury tampering in a Nashville conspiracy trial, another trial at a later date on charges of providing false information about $20 million in loans granted by the Teamsters' Central States pension fund in Chicago.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.