Officials with New York's largest union of janitors and doormen said yesterday that the union would soon agree to a new code of conduct governing its political activities to help resolve an investigation by Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney.þþMr. Morgenthau began investigating the union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, more than a year ago, after several of its staff employees told his office that they were coerced into campaigning for Mark Green, the Democratic candidate for mayor in 2001.þþSeveral union workers said in interviews that they told a grand jury convened by Mr. Morgenthau that union officials had illegally pressured them to campaign for Mr. Green during their regular union workday and to take personal days to campaign for Mr. Green.þþUnion officials have repeatedly denied that they violated the law in supporting Mr. Green.þþÿWe've cooperated with the district attorney in the past, and we'll continue to do so,ÿ said Karen Crowe, communications director for Local 32BJ, which represents more than 60,000 building service workers at thousands of office and apartment buildings in the New York metropolitan area.þþOne union official, who insisted on anonymity, said Local 32BJ and Mr. Morgenthau's aides were completing an agreement that would increase oversight of the union's political activities. The union official said the union had forwarded a proposed code of conduct to the district attorney's office, with some union officials saying they hoped an agreement on such a code would settle the investigation.þþBarbara Thompson, Mr. Morgenthau's spokeswoman, did not return telephone calls yesterday.þþThe district attorney's efforts to get the union to adopt a new code of conduct were reported in The Daily News yesterday.þþOfficials familiar with the negotiations between Local 32BJ and the district attorney said the union had agreed to hire a new law firm that would keep close watch on the union's political activities. Critics of the union's president, Michael Fishman, said the law firm would effectively serve as an outside monitor whose role was to ensure that the union did not break the law in future political campaigns.þþBut one union official denied that the law firm would serve as a monitor, saying it would, like many law firms, merely advise its client on how to stay within the law.þþMr. Fishman is running for re-election this September, giving his supporters incentive to play down the scope and seriousness of any agreement with Mr. Morgenthau.þþBut Dominick Bentivegna, an elected union official running against Mr. Fishman for the local's presidency, said yesterday that he told the grand jury that top union leaders had ordered numerous illegal campaign activities.þþÿEvery union staff member was forced to take personal days, vacation days and work for Mark Green and their candidates,ÿ he said. ÿWe were forced to do campaign work during working hours. We had quotas to meet to recruit union members to campaign for Mark Green. We had to get on the phones to recruit members, and then we had to leaflet at subway stations during work hours. It was all illegal.ÿþþA document given to Mr. Morgenthau shows that on Dec. 5, 2001 the local's executive board reported $731,874 in political expenditures, including $161,659 for member mobilization, $118,596 for membership mailings and $59,982 for buttons and T-shirts. þþWillie Vargas, a doorman on the Upper East Side who worked for four months as a paid organizer seeking to unionize janitors in New Jersey, said he backed Fernando Ferrer, then the Bronx borough president, for Mayor, but was strong-armed into campaigning for Mr. Green.þþÿI was there, and there was a lot of pressure on us to make sure we were working for Green on Primary Day,ÿ he said yesterday. ÿIt was plainly stated that if you want to get anywhere in this place, this is how it is.ÿþþIn another document given to the district attorney, the union's vice president, Kevin Doyle, told the union's top staff workers — its supervisors and delegates — that they were expected to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Primary Day and that they would be assigned to specific locations and be responsible for giving out assignments. þþ
Source: NY Times
