Outearning the Boss

As head man of the Teamsters union. Jimmy Hoffa is an absolute but generous ruler, firm in the conviction that there is money enough in the Teamster till for every loyal lieutenant. Last week Anthony ("Tony Pro") Provenzano, 45, burly Hoffa protege and chief of Union City, N.J., local 560, reached in for an even larger share than the boss takes.

At a meeting of the local, third largest in the Teamster stable, Tony Pro was voted a raise of $50,000. That brought his salary to $95,000, a tidy $20,000 more than Hoffa makes, and $75,000 more than Tony was drawing only two months ago. The union voted him a first raise of $25,000 late last December.

Not everyone approves of the way Tony does business. A federal grand jury has charged that he violated the Taft-Hartley Act by living rent free in a $26,000 home provided by a trucking firm. Nor was there complete agreement on Tony's raise. At the meeting--attended by no more than 400 of the local's 14,000 members--40 Teamsters were against Tony in a stand-up vote. One challenged him to submit the raise to a secret ballot of all members. In retrospect, Tony himself seemed to be having second thoughts about whether he should take the raise. His position is already precarious with many of his men. He managed to win re-election as president by only a narrow margin last December, though even a narrow win was obviously enough to give him a big welcome at the bank.

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