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THE CHIEF-LEADER welcomes letters from its readers for publication. GUILD'S POLITICAL HIT Guild's Political Hit
At Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375's last delegate meeting June 21, no valid union business took place. A celebration of Eastern European culture interrupted by the four Democratic candidates running for State Attorney General seeking our support took a considerable portion of meeting time. Most disturbing that evening was the action by Second Vice President Michelle Keller. Before any legitimate order of business took place, she requested a special order of business to adopt a resolution at this delegate meeting to condemn a brother for statements she claimed he made at the executive board meeting, and which she interpreted as being offensive both sexually and racially. Since most of the delegates had not been present at the executive board meeting, the delegate forum was totally inappropriate, and I along with a number of other delegates resented this obvious political posturing. The background seems to be that when the subject of the contract was discussed at the executive board meeting, some members frustrated with the lack of progress and lack of strong demands by labor made negative comments such as Ms. Roberts being in bed with the Mayor and that she is on her knees. Since such expressions as "in bed with" (meaning cozy relationship) and on his/her knees (meaning begging) are common colloquial expressions bandied about in discussions of politics and contracts, it appears that Ms. Keller deliberately was injecting race and sex to attack Mitchell Feder because he is white and Executive Director Roberts is a black woman. It should be noted that Mr. Feder denied ever using the phrase "in bed with" at that meeting, but did say "on her knees," which he said he meant as "begging"; however, he had apologized to those whose minds wandered off the curb and interpreted the phrase to mean something more depraved. What struck a number of us was that during discussion of the motion on the resolution, there were a few people who came to the microphone categorically denying what Ms. Keller attributed to Brother Feder, yet not one person corroborated Ms. Keller's accusation. Furthermore, if Ms. Keller was so offended at the executive board meeting, why did she not act then? Given that the accuser presented no physical evidence, nor did any other party confirm her charges, democratically this matter should have been removed from consideration. In a few months, the local will be having elections. Mr. Feder has already indicated that he is running for office and consistently has been a recognized and vocal member of the local. Three years ago, when I ran against Ms. Keller, we prided ourselves on not sinking to low tactics such as negative campaigning. Now, I am very disappointed by this action of condemning a member without ever presenting evidence. It shows that our local is a "house divided." It is this divisiveness that needs to be eliminated. Using race-baiting tactics and going against another member to destroy his reputation is unacceptable, especially when no evidence is presented. That evening unsubstantiated charges, repudiated by a number of witnesses, resulted in a motion to assassinate someone's character being approved because an emotionally charged atmosphere had been created. Since we are a technical guild and in our work for the city we must be guided by data and the facts, using emotion to accuse someone else is unprofessional. We are a union and we are responsible for representing our members. That evening, one of too many, we failed our members. Unfortunately, the ability to conduct a meeting where true union business takes place is rare for the Tech Guild! STACEY MORIATES, Local 375 Delegates-Chapter 32 |
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