With a vote still more than three months away, the president of New York's main union of social workers opened his campaign yesterday to take charge of the city's largest municipal union, District Council 37, by announcing his slate of running mates and a long list of local presidents who already support him.þþÿThis is not about us being opportunists and seizing power,ÿ the union president, Charles Ensley said in a telephone interview. ÿIt's about the union.ÿ Mr. Ensley hopes to unseat Lillian Roberts as the council's executive director.þþHis announcement brings the union's 123,000 members a step closer to what promises to be the closest election battle at any large New York union since the 1980's. It also complicates negotiations between the city and the union, whose workers have been without a contract for more than a year. þþDistrict Council 37, the nation's largest municipal union, is an umbrella group that negotiates for 56 locals. þþThe union was once considered one of the city's mightiest, but the 1990's brought a series of corruption scandals that badly tarnished its image. Ms. Roberts, who returned to the union after a 20-year absence, was overwhelmingly elected executive director last year in hopes that she would right the organization.þþInstead, Mr. Ensley said, she has demonstrated a misunderstanding of the give-and-take of modern labor negotiation and done little to improve the union's standing. þþHer membership has been among the hardest hit by the city's layoff of 3,000 workers, and Mr. Ensley accused her of bungling negotiations for her workers' severance pay, among other missteps.þþFor her part, Ms. Roberts shrugged off Mr. Ensley's criticism yesterday, saying that she needed to concentrate on the contract negotiations rather than worry about campaigning. She conceded that a tough re-election battle would put her in a tricky negotiating position. þþÿIt does make it difficult, but he doesn't care about that,ÿ she said. ÿI have to care about that.ÿþþÿI believe my responsibility right now is for the members and to fight for a fair contract for them.ÿþþMr. Ensley insisted his goal was not to undermine Ms. Roberts in her negotiations and said he would applaud, along with everyone else, if she won a fair contract. Either way, he said, he still plans to run in the January election. þþMr. Ensley will be joined by four other local presidents on his slate: Gloria E. Acevedo, of Local 436, who is running for president; Mark Rosenthal, of Local 983, who was elected treasurer in 2002 on Ms. Roberts's ticket but will be running for the job this time as Mr. Ensley's running mate; and Carolyn Harper, of Local 1251, who is running for secretary. þþThe group was scheduled to appear at a news conference last night with 26 other local presidents who have already thrown their support behind Mr. Ensley. Together they represent more than half of the 56 local presidents, and more than 67,000 workers, roughly half of the council's 123,000 members. þþWhile the local presidents do not elect the council's leadership — a group of 80 delegates who represent the various locals do the voting — the local presidents have traditionally had a strong influence over their delegates' selections. þþ
Source: NY Times
