Shorts: transit, communications, release time...

Send to friend

SUBSCRIBE to Union Democracy Review!

In Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181:
Its former president, Salvatore Battaglia, was sentenced to 57 months in jail, a $50,000 fine, and ordered to pay $180,000 to the local. He faced charges that, while a member of the Genovese crime family, he received thousands of dollars from employers in bribes and extortion. Other former local leaders have been found guilty on similar charges. In earlier years, when it should have been obvious that the local was under corrupt domination, and even recently when federal indictments were first announced, Warren George, the ATU international president was not stirred into action; the union magazine praised the local leaders (then accused, now in jail!) for their great services. He trusteed the local only after guilty pleas and looming convictions had created a public scandal.

In Communications Workers Local 1034, the 16,000-member local of public employees in New Jersey, the international finally removed its president, Carla Katz. She had achieved celebrity-notoriety status in 2005 when it was revealed that the wealthy Governor Jon Corzine had paid off her $400,000 mortgage and favored her with other gifts, type, number, and value unreported. Before his election, but no longer, they had been a loving pair when Corzine was a Senator. But the charges against Katz were not affair-related. The international accuses her of spending over $700,000 of the local's money without authorization and of suppressing members' rights. She denies the charges, claiming that the international has retaliated against her for opposing ratification of the local's recent collective bargaining contract.

A question remains: What took the international so long to act? Katz had been local head for nine years. A local opposition caucus had accused her of similar derelictions. They were intimidated, maneuvered out of their rights, and barred from the ballot. After their appeals to the international and to the Department of Labor went nowhere, the dissident group fell apart, demoralized.

In late October 2007, Jonathan Berg and Linda Kukor, two local vice presidents; and Dan Antonellis, a shop steward, filed charges against Katz with the international; eight months later, it acted, but too late to help the old opposition.

"Release time":
Shop stewards and other local union reps who still work at their regular jobs need some time off to do their union jobs. The local union chief officer, usually the president, usually has the power to authorize this kind of release time. The employer continues to pay the union rep the regular rate. The union's right to release time is intended to enable it to fulfill its responsibilities toward its members; but some union officials use it as a patronage weapon to reward cronies and punish critics. That's what seems to be occurring, for example, in two NYC public employee unions.

The Chief-Leader has reported how Roger Toussaint in TWU Local 100 denies release time to elected division heads who are his rivals and releases his own factional supporters for the work. And now, also according to The Chief, it seems to be happening in AFSCME District Council 37’s Local 375, the big local of city technical employees. President Claude Fort is accused of the retaliatory elimination in the 1000-member Chapter 2 at NYC Transit of release time for the chapter grievance chair and the reduction from full time to only one day a week for the chapter’s president. The AFSCME Judicial Panel is considering a host of charges against Local 375 officials accused of assorted undemocratic practices.

Carpenter correction:
A typo in our last issue confused the names of two officers of Local 608 who faced trial on corruption charges. They were Michael Forde and Martin Devereaux. On June 10, a jury found them not guilty.

In AFSCME Local 372:
In June, Veronica Montgomery Costa won her fourth term as president of this local of Department of Education employees. Although the local claims 25,000 members, only 1,256 valid votes were cast in the three-way race. She got 877; her two rivals, a combined total of 357. M-C has been able to parlay the few hundred votes that elect and reelect her and emerge with enormous power in the peculiar world of District Council 37. With the local's 25,000-weighted votes at the Council, she is able to swing council elections to Lilian Roberts for executive director and to win the post of council president for herself.

Legal Momentum, the women's legal rights organization, has won a victory in its campaign for justice for a member of Laborers Local 731 in New York City. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission upheld the complaint filed by attorney Gillian Thomas. The company, according to the complaint, discriminated against the woman laborer on the basis of her age and sex, and then blacklisted her for protesting. The union was charged with failing to represent her. The EEOC found "reasonable cause to believe that violations have occurred."

Interfaith Worker Justice is a network of religious groups of all faiths concerned with labor issues. Its supporters join in union organizing campaigns around the country. Example: In Twin Cities MN, they risked arrest in a civil disobedience campaign that helped win a contract for 800 security guards in SEIU Local 26 just two days before a strike deadline. For info: 612-332-2055 or www.workersinterfaith.org .