100 DC 37 pickets demand: One member, one vote!

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One hundred members of AFSCME District Council 37, from various locals, picketed their union's headquarters in Lower Manhattan on September 27, chanting loudly in unison: One member, one vote. They want to change the system for electing top district officers. Currently, officers are elected by council delegates from some 50 affiliated locals. The picket line, demonstrating for direct membership election, is the first sign of a serious campaign within DC 37 for the change.

September 27 had been set for a vote by the council delegates on the proposed amendment to the council bylaws, but the meeting was postponed until October 25. Nevertheless, the demonstration went ahead. The organizers have already announced a second picket line for October.

The present system allows the presidents of a few big locals to select the top officers by private deals among themselves without regard for the preferences of the union's 120,000 members. The proposal for direct elections first became popular a few years ago after prominent leaders of DC 37 were found guilty of stealing millions from the union and of rigging the vote in a fraudulent contract ratification referendum. But no one waged a campaign for its adoption, and the support remained purely verbal. At one point, it seemed that the proposal would coast in. In the last election for DC 37 executive director (voting by delegates) Lillian Roberts, the successful incumbent, and Charles Ensley, her challenger, were pledged to support the change. But Roberts, in a turnaround, is now opposed. Ensley, president of the big Social Service Local 371, remains on course. He was there on the line on September 27 and addressed encouraging words to the others.

The difficulty is that any change to the DC37 bylaws requires a 2/3 vote of the council delegates, so that they are asked to strip themselves, and the presidents of the big locals, of a cherished power. Even if the advocates can leap that hurdle, they face the possibility of a veto from the AFSCME national office. The proposal would never have been submitted for a council delegate vote if not for two fortuitous facts: Robert Schirmer, president of Museum Local 1503, heads the district Law and Rules Committee and could press the issue before the DC37 executive board. On the executive board, the Ensley forces hold a slim majority and could force the issue to a delegate vote despite Roberts's opposition.

Up to now, Alonzo Meyers, a Local 154 council delegate, has been a lone voice, sending a series of letters to council delegates urging a vote for the change. Now however, for the first time, there seems to be the start of an organized campaign for the change, a campaign that is trying to rally the membership and reaches into the locals. The new support seems to have been inspired by Dolores Bailey, a member of Ensley's Local 371. She brought together the One Member One Vote Coalition, which sponsored the picket line. "Hold your leadership accountable," read one coalition handbill. "If your local's president doesn't believe in these rank and file demands, VOTE HIM/HER OUT OF OFFICE," urged another.

Among the picketers, joining Bailey and Ensley, were Lynne Taylor, president of Library Local 1930, Roy Commer, former president of Local 375, Carol Lang who was maneuvered out of running for Local 384 president and other local officers. Larry Davis served as picket line captain, introducing speakers and leading the picketers in loud and spirited chants. He had run for president of Local 374 against incumbent Veronica Montgomery Costa who was reelected with only 417 votes in this 26,000-member local. She was elected council president under the current system and opposes any change.

The picketers were barred from the area near the union office and corralled into a tiny circle near the roadway because, they were told, they were not allowed on union property. AUD's Herman Benson, who addressed the picketers briefly, said, "The same spirit that bars you from your own union property, would bar you from electing your own union officers."