The president of District Council 37's parent union stripped the council's executive director, Lillian Roberts, of many of her powers yesterday, saying that the city's largest municipal workers' union had become paralyzed by political divisions.þþGerald W. McEntee, the president of the parent union, announced that he was creating a seven-person committee that would handle much of the power normally exercised by the union's executive director.þþMr. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, further warned that if Ms. Roberts and her opponents failed to find a way to cooperate, he would send deputies from union headquarters to help run District Council 37. þþTwo years ago, the district council ended a three-year trusteeship that Mr. McEntee had imposed after the council was rocked by a scandal in which more than 20 council officials were convicted of embezzlement or vote fraud. þþMr. McEntee announced the changes yesterday, telling the council's board that many union officials were mocking District Council 37 as a dysfunctional organization. District Council 37, once the premier, most innovative municipal union in the nation, represents 121,000 workers in 56 separate locals, and its contracts often set the pattern for all city unions in contract negotiations. þþLast January, Ms. Roberts eked out a re-election victory over Charles Ensley, the president of the union local for social workers, while Mr. Ensley's backers won control of the council's executive board. That created an effective stalemate. þþSeveral times Ms. Roberts took actions that the board reversed. Soon after she was re-elected, the board cut her salary by 30 percent.þþLast week, Ms. Roberts suffered an embarrassing setback when the board voted overwhelmingly to reverse her decision to dismiss one of the union's top lawyers. At a six-hour board meeting last week, the lawyer, Richard Ferreri, asserted that Ms. Roberts had dismissed him in retaliation because he told a union ethics officer that she was not telling the truth during an investigation into her steering a $180,000-a-year legal contract to her nephew's law firm.þþMs. Roberts told the board that she dismissed Mr. Ferreri because she was trying to cut a budget deficit and because he had completed his work. þþLate yesterday, Mr. McEntee, Ms. Roberts and Mr. Ensley issued a joint statement saying: ÿWe had a very productive meeting today to discuss the future of District Council 37. Our focus was on solidarity and unity. We all remain committed to building the strongest union we can.''þþThe seven-person committee will include Ms. Roberts and two of her supporters and Mr. Ensley and two of his supporters. Lee Saunders, the union's trustee for three years and an assistant to Mr. McEntee, will be the committee's seventh member and will help coordinate its efforts.þþRay Markey, an Ensley supporter and the president of a local representing librarians, said Mr. McEntee set up the committee because of dismay that Ms. Roberts was not reaching out to her opponents to move the union forward.þþÿMcEntee's decision was great because it forced Lillian Roberts to come to the realization that a whole bunch of other people were elected in addition to herself,'' Mr. Markey said. ÿIf she is going to run the union for the benefit of the membership, she has to make some adjustments and realize she can't make all the decisions while ignoring the other people who were elected.''þþIn a statement, Ms. Roberts said that the union's officials ÿmay disagree at times, but like all families, we work, play and fight together.'' þþShe added, ÿThe common objective of the leadership and staff at the council is to serve the members.'' þþAt yesterday's meeting, Joel Giller, the council's general counsel, said his investigation could not determine definitively whether someone had carved a swastika into a door at union headquarters. The door belonged to Danny Ambrosini, a union official closely allied with Mark Rosenthal, who is Jewish and ran unsuccessfully for re-election as secretary-treasurer. Mr. Rosenthal was on Mr. Ensley's slate, and Ms. Roberts focused most of her campaign attacks on Mr. Rosenthal, often accusing him of being money-hungry.þþMr. Giller said several union officials had told him that they saw scratches in the door that looked like a swastika, while other union officials said the scratches did not resemble a swastika.þþ
Source: NY Times
