In an unusual display of internal friction, Lillian Roberts, the executive director of District Council 37, has filed a lawsuit accusing most of the union's board members of race, sex and age discrimination for cutting her salary. þþMs. Roberts, 76 and black, stunned the union's executive board at its Wednesday meeting by inviting in a process server to hand legal papers to 17 board members, notifying them of her suit. The council is the largest union of municipal employees.þþThe suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accuses the 17 board members - five of them black - of discriminating against her last February when they voted to cut her salary to $175,000 from $250,000. The 29-member board is controlled by allies of Charles Ensley, a black union leader whom Ms. Roberts narrowly defeated in an election last January.þþFaye Moore, who is black and a defendant, said the suit was frivolous and an abuse of the legal process. ÿIt comes across as a desperate act,ÿ she said. ÿI'm insulted that a woman who contributed so much to the labor movement in the past gets to the point where she doesn't like what's happening and she uses being a black woman as a crutch. I celebrate being a black woman, but I don't use it as a crutch.ÿþþThe union's treasurer, Maf Misbah Uddin, joined the suit and accused the board members of discriminating against him for being Asian-American when it cut his salary to $140,000 from $180,000.þþIn last winter's campaign, Ms. Roberts and Mr. Uddin repeatedly criticized Mark Rosenthal, who was then the union's treasurer, for having a base salary of $180,000, which they said was too much. þþMr. Rosenthal, who lost his re-election race against Mr. Uddin, said: ÿHe accused me of earning too much, and now when they cut his salary, he accuses all these people of discrimination. It's absurd.ÿþþIvan Smith, the lawyer for Ms. Roberts and Mr. Uddin, said, ÿIn the 60-year history of the executive director's position, it has always been held by males, and no executive director's pay has been cut until now. And in the 60-year history of the treasurer's position, it has been held by people who were Caucasian, and that salary was never cut until now.ÿþþSeveral defendants said they cut Ms. Roberts's salary only after surveying the pay of other municipal union leaders and concluding that hers was out of line. But her supporters say that the presidents of several union locals within District Council 37 earn more than Ms. Roberts.þþþþ
Source: NY Times
