THE CHIEF-LEADER welcomes letters from its readers for publication.
Correspondents must include their names, addresses and
phone numbers. Letters should be submitted with the understanding
that all correspondence is subject to the editorial judgment of this
newspaper. Letters can be e-mailed to: RSTEIER@RCN.COM or
mailed to: Richard Steier, Editor, 277 Broadway, Suite 1506, NY, NY
10007.

Letters to the Editor: A Distortion for Political Gain

Letters to the Editor
A Distortion for Political Gain

To the Editor:

We, the delegates of Local 375 of District Council 37, strongly condemn Local 375 President Claude Fort and his Second Vice President Michelle Keller's attempt to use race/gender to censure Housing Authority Chapter President Mitchell Feder at the June Delegates meeting.

Claude Fort/Michelle Keller introduced a resolution asking delegates to "repudiate and condemn the degrading and crude sexual innuendoes made by Brother Mitchell Feder about Sister Lillian Roberts at the local's executive board meeting on June 7, 2006." In an accompanying memo attached to the resolution and signed by Michelle Keller, she stated "such remarks publicly degrade and demoralize Union Sister Lillian Roberts as a sexual object, in dealing with Mayor Bloomberg." Sister Michelle Keller further stated that such remarks go beyond the pale as racist remarks.

At the June 7 executive board meeting, a lively discussion took place about ongoing contract negotiations with the city. Many members including Brother Feder spoke about the need to take a strong stance to get a good contract and not to yield to many concessions the city is demanding from the unions.

During the discussion, metaphors such as "in bed with the Mayor" and "on her knees" were used in the context of the negotiations. Such metaphors are very common to describe one's association with others and to beg favors from others.

Only depraved minds such as Claude Fort and Michelle Keller's will relate such comments to racial/gender/sexual innuendoes to discredit their potential opponents in the upcoming Guild election scheduled to take place this year in November. This is as low as someone in leadership can stoop.

It is beyond one's comprehension that at a time when contract negotiations with the city have reached a crucial stage, any union leader will do such demeaning things as to drag Lillian Robert's name into controversy. Such controversial acts distract the union's focus from "bread and butter" issues. For that, both Claude Fort and Michelle Keller must apologize to Sister Lillian Roberts, to the labor unions and to Brother Feder. Our Guild takes great pride in being a most diversified union among DC 37 locals, with members coming from a myriad of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. With one stroke of insanity, Claude Fort and Michelle Keller have helped polarize the delegates into two distinct groups which was evident when the call was made for separation of the house to vote on the resolution. By taking the low road, Claude Fort and his cohorts have done serious damage to the Guild's image, and their actions are a disgrace to this union.

Claude Fort and Michelle Keller are well aware that the group Committee to Rebuild the Guild (CRG) is emerging as the main opposition to them. Brother Feder is a prominent member of CRG. Claude Fort's action to censure Brother Feder at the June delegates meeting and his other previous unconstitutional actions taken against Brother Feder and other opponents indicate the level of desperation he will pursue to divert attention from his own failures to fight for the members' interests.

Many executive board members who were present at the June executive board meeting where this alleged discussion took place refuted the verbatim description presented by Claude Fort and Michelle Keller at the June Delegates meeting. As a matter of fact, many delegates wanted to table the motion until the recorded tapes of the June executive board meeting minutes are played to the Delegates' Assembly for them to sort the truth from fiction. But Fort and Keller rushed this resolution through, without playing the tapes, to discredit their opponents.

In conclusion, we must ask every Civil Service Technical Guild member to strongly condemn Claude Fort and Michelle Keller for using race as a tool to extract narrow political gains for themselves. We specially request our union brothers and sisters to send a clear message to the Claude Fort Team that there is no place for divisiveness in our great local.

UMA KUTWAL, FRED NEWTON, PAUL KOPELMAN, VEERAPPAN CHOCKALINGAM, EZRA GHAZAL, VAINO ADAR