increase. However, management agreed to remove the half-pay loaded return trip proposal. The two-tier wage system was retained, but the wage difference between incumbents and new hires was dramatically reduced. The employers also agreed to let members vote on any concessionary economic proposals during the life of the contract (under the previous agreement, only Teamster leadership voted on these changes), and were able to make permanent a temporary provision allowing companies to divert freight from terminals where there have been layoffs. But the pact's initial rejection and the snap strike were both seen as blows to Presser's leadership. Commission on Organized Crime In early 1985, the President's Commission on Organized Crime issued a sealed subpoena ordering Presser to testify about mafia influence in the Teamsters union. Presser filed suit to have the subpoena thrown out. In March, a federal court refused to bar the subpoena. The Commission held its April 1985 hearings in Chicago, and focused those sessions on organized crime involvement in labor unions. During the hearings, Commission members charged that the mafia controlled the Teamsters, the Laborers, HERE and the International Longshoremen's Association. Former mobsters described numerous syndicate cash bribes and other payments to Presser. Other witnesses testified that Presser had given his approval to the Brotherhood of Loyal Americans and Strong Teamsters (BLAST), a group set up to intimidate TDU members. Testimony before the panel indicated that Presser ordered BLAST members—including regional and local Teamster leaders and staff—to disrupt TDU meetings during the 1983 Teamster national convention. BLAST members drove speakers from podiums, tore down banners, seized and threw away literature, beat TDU members and ejected them from the convention hall. "We should be doing more of that. I'm going to tell you, I'm not going to let up on these people," one witness quoted Presser. During his own testimony, Presser invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 15 times. Presser's silence angered the Commission's members. In October 1985, the Commission renewed its efforts to question Presser after it was revealed that the Department of Justice had decided not to prosecute him for padding the payroll at Local 507. In the fall of 1985, the Commission heard testimony from former Teamsters president Roy Williams about Presser's connections to organized crime. Under a grant of immunity, Williams testified extensively about Presser's offer to fix a 1974 criminal case for $10,000 and his desire to obtain kickbacks for helping