Lillian Roberts, executive director of District Council 37, New York City's largest municipal union, called yesterday for members of her badly divided union to close ranks, a day after she eked out victory in a hard-fought election to retain her position.þþBut the union leader she narrowly defeated, Charles Ensley, went on the offensive yesterday, asserting that her campaign used improper and divisive tactics to win. þþÿShe ran one of the most mean-spirited campaigns to smear people,'' said Mr. Ensley, president of the local representing 15,000 social workers, one of the 56 union locals in District Council 37. ÿTo smear people personally in a union campaign, I find that offensive. Her divisive tactics, her use of race and gender, it has no place in the labor movement.ÿþþAsked about Mr. Ensley's criticisms, Ms. Roberts responded in a written statement: ÿThe campaign is over, and it's time for all of us to go forward, to close ranks, and to work together for a fair contract.ÿþþAt a delegates meeting Tuesday night, 327 delegates, each representing several hundred union members, voted 66,295 for Ms. Roberts and 58,479 for Mr. Ensley. þþMs. Roberts was elected to a three-year term. She was first elected executive director 23 months ago when the district council emerged from a trusteeship imposed by its parent union after a corruption scandal.þþThe Bloomberg administration and other union leaders were watching this election closely because the district council, with more than 120,000 members, often sets the tenor of labor relations with City Hall. In addition, it often negotiates the first contract in each bargaining round, setting a pattern for other municipal union contracts.þþMr. Ensley, who is black, criticized Ms. Roberts, who is black, for devoting so much of her campaign literature to attacking Mark Rosenthal, who is white and was Mr. Ensley's running mate for treasurer. Mr. Rosenthal, who was running for re-election as treasurer, lost on Tuesday to Maf Misbah Uddin, president of the union local representing city accountants and actuaries.þþMs. Roberts's mailings repeatedly assailed Mr. Rosenthal for earning more than $200,000 a year - his salary is $218,000; hers is $250,000. One mailing repeated several times in large, block letters, ÿRosenthal goes to the bank.'' Another mailing accused him of trying to squeeze dues money out of poor welfare mothers.þþMr. Ensley said, ÿMark is absolutely beside himself that he was the target of most of the smears and untruths they put out.''þþMr. Rosenthal declined to comment yesterday.þþMr. Ensley, whose camp was forecasting a victory by 8,000 votes, admitted surprise at his defeat.þþÿWe were stunned,'' he said. ÿIt was clear that people who had committed to us switched.''þþMs. Roberts, whose union's contract expired 19 months ago, has pledged to negotiate a strong new contract. But she faces the same stumbling block as do other municipal unions: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's insistence that there will be no raises without productivity increases to pay for them, in the form of relaxed union work rules.þ
Source: NY Times
