Roberts Embarrasses Herself

Roberts Embarrasses Herself

District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts is not shy about making clear her priorities.

A bit over a year ago, at her first executive board meeting after the union won a major court victory regarding civilianization in the Police Department, rather than savoring the moment, she presented dissidents on the board with copies of a lawsuit accusing them of showing age, race and sex bias by cutting her salary by $75,000 earlier in 2004.

Apparently not content to let her suit play out in the courts, last week Ms. Roberts and her allies used the end of a five-hour union budget meeting to bum-rush a resolution through to rescind the pay cut and retroactively compensate her for the 22 months in which she's been scraping by on $175,000 a year. This maneuver - which could and should be overturned by the DC 37 executive board at its Dec. 14 meeting - came just three days after the union opened negotiations on a new contract.

Perhaps, given her dismal excuse for a wage deal 20 months ago, Ms. Roberts believed she could not afford to count on doing well enough this time to make the pay restoration palatable. Or maybe she believed a return to her old salary would relieve her of the stress that helped lead her to that last contract, which has been widely scorned by other labor leaders.

Whatever the explanation, Ms. Roberts has once again embarrassed her union, and herself, by demonstrating that what really matters to her is getting her money by any means necessary.