Wynn, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers. Law enforcement officials said the reaffiliation undercut their effort to put the Teamsters under federal control. Attempted merger with ITU A month after his election, Presser proposed a merger of the Teamsters and the International Typographical Union (ITU), a 70,000-member printers' union. AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, however, opposed the merger because the Teamsters were not members of the labor federation. The Teamsters and Typographers went ahead with their merger talks anyway, even as Kirkland supported an ITU group opposed to the merger. After nearly a year, merger seemed imminent despite a lawsuit by a small group of ITU members opposing the merger. But in the election for ITU officers held just days prior to the merger vote, the incumbent ITU president Joe Bingel and executive council leadership was ousted from office and an anti-merger slate elected. The merger referendum did not pass. Presser continued to push merger with the Typographers, even as the new ITU president Robert Mc Michen and executive council leadership signed a merger agreement with the Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU). That effort collapsed in March 1985 after ITU members rejected merger with the GCIU. Again Presser reached a merger agreement with the ITU, and once more Kirkland went on the offensive against the merger. But in August 1985, ITU members once more rejected merger with the Teamsters. In July 1986, the ITU finally agreed to a merger with the Communications Workers of America. That merger was approved in November 1986, ending Presser's attempt to woo the ITU. The ITU ceased to exist. The printer locals joined the CWA and the mailer locals joined the IBT. Second Reagan endorsement The Teamsters had endorsed Ronald Reagan for president in 1980, creating a furor within the American labor movement. However, AFL-CIO officials expressed hope that the Teamsters would endorse the Democratic candidate in 1984. This hope proved wrong. Presser announced on June 7, 1983, that he intended to endorse Reagan for re-election. A formal endorsement did not come in January 1984 as expected, and Presser strongly criticized the AFL-CIO for endorsing Democratic candidate Walter Mondale too early in the primary cycle. Worried Republicans waited throughout the spring and summer for a Teamster endorsement, but it was not forthcoming. In early August, Presser finally told White House aides that Teamster support for Reagan hinged on whether Reagan would remove Donald Dotson