Razzle Dazzle

Bum-Rushing Democracy

By RICHARD STEIER

Those entering John Adams High School July 18 for the vote on Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181's tentative contract for school bus employees were greeted by a wall sign proclaiming, "Welcome Back to School." Any thought that the message was premature was banished by the ensuing proceedings in the school auditorium, where Local 1181 President Sal Battaglia conducted a seminar in subverting democracy.

The agreement with school bus companies had actually been reached 13 days earlier, but neither side had disclosed details other than that the accord did not include any givebacks by the union. Local 1181 officials had ignored a request by a dissident faction of the union, Members for Change, to send members a rundown of the deal's provisions, arguing that it was traditional to wait until the meeting where the vote was held.

Less-Honorable Traditions

Of course, if you believe Federal prosecutors, it has also been a union tradition for at least the past three decades to serve as a cash cow for the Genovese crime family, whose boss, Matty "The Horse" Ianniello, has reputedly exercised control over the union and its benefit funds through its longtime secretary-treasurer, Julius "Spike" Bernstein.

Mr. Bernstein was recently forced to take a leave from his position as a condition of his making bail after he took his second Federal pinch in 11 months, this one for allegedly shaking down a bus company owner to ensure that his company wasn't unionized. An indictment brought a year ago accuses Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Battaglia and Mr. Bernstein's girlfriend, Local 1181 Recording Secretary Ann Chiarovano, of being part of a racketeering conspiracy with Mr. Ianniello and other ranking members of his crime family.

Disseminating the contract's terms beforehand ordinarily might have been helpful in speeding the meeting along, a definite priority given the sweltering heat inside John Adams's un-air-conditioned auditorium. One supporter of Mr. Battaglia's regime seated toward the back several times murmured, "Keep it short and sweet, Sal," even though she, like virtually all the other 400 people inside, had yet to learn any of the pact's details.

The Local 1181 president obliged. After beginning the meeting with a recitation of "The Pledge of Allegiance," he whipped through the contract's details while offering commentary on the tenor of negotiations, a critique of the recent newspaper coverage of the contract talks ("Don't believe what you read in The Times or the other rag papers"), and conducting a vote, taking barely a half-hour for the entire production. It was a breath-taking performance, for reasons that had nothing to do with the stifling heat.

The Chief-Leader/Michael O'Kane WAITED FOR TURN THAT NEVER CAME: Gloria Flaherty, handing out leaflets against the contract process used by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, lamented later that union President Sal Battaglia had promised dissidents the opportunity to voice their objections but then pushed through the ratification vote without allowing any discussion.

One of the more remarkable aspects of it was that the ATU International, stung by recent criticism of its failure to act against the union's leadership in the wake of the racketeering indictments (the trial of Mr. Battaglia, Mr. Bernstein, Ms. Chiarovano and Mr. Ianniello and his friends is slated for September), was finally moved after Mr. Bernstein's latest indictment to dispatch one of its vice presidents to monitor Local 1181's operations.

That vice president, Joseph Welch, was on stage and introduced to the crowd by Mr. Battaglia. He soon made clear that he was there strictly as an observer, looking on with no visible response as attempts were made by the dissidents to voice their dissatisfaction with the process.

When Raymond LaRoche, one of the more outspoken dissidents, sought to protest the lack of any prior examination of the deal's terms, and the failure to give members at the meeting any kind of fact sheet, Mr. Battaglia responded by saying he would get his chance to speak later.

Raises Delayed 6 Months

The Local 1181 president then began running through the contract. His presentation was not the best-organized - he began detailing provisions affecting only the mechanics among the 8,400 employees affected before talking about the raises: 3 percent effective next Jan. 1, and then 4 percent and 3.5 percent at the beginning of each of the following two years.

Mr. Battaglia stated that the raises were in line with those granted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to two ATU locals representing city bus personnel in Queens and Staten Island; what he didn't mention was that those hikes came at the beginning of each contract year while the Local 1181 raises are paid six months into each year of their deal, which runs through July 1, 2009.

Local 1181 members will wind up with the same salary at the end of the contract as if the raises were paid at the start of each contract year, but they will lose a significant amount of cash because of the six-month delays in implementation.

A bus driver making the maximum salary of $50,908 under the old contract would get $763 less in cash during the new deal's first year, $1,049 less in the second year and $954 less in the final year, for a total of $2,766 below what he or she would have received if each raise was effective on the first day of each contract year.

Pension Upgrades

Mr. Battaglia announced that the bus owners had agreed to increase their weekly per-member pension contributions by $4 in each of the first two years of the deal and by $3 in its final year, with employees required to pay $2 more the first two years and $1.50 more at the start of the third year. Service credit for pensions would be counted through 40 years, compared to the old maximum of 35, and next March the Local 1181 board will decide how much pension allowances should be increased. "I can tell you this: you will get a decent raise, well overdue," Mr. Battaglia said to the cheers of many in the crowd.

There were times when the enthusiasm seemed manufactured, as when one union member gave a lusty bellow of approval at Mr. Battaglia's announcement that bus drivers who maintained good records would have their annual safety bonus increased from $75 to $100. It had been clear from the outset, however, that the union leadership had done a better job than Members for Change of turning out its supporters. Although nearly three-quarters of the local's membership is black and Latino, a clear majority of those in attendance were white.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Battaglia had called the contract "a bittersweet victory." He now said that he had been referring to the negotiations over health benefits, raising a question as to whether the union had in fact been forced to make some concession in that area, just as the other ATU locals were compelled to have their members contribute 1.5 percent of their earnings toward their health insurance premiums.

A Lie of Omission

"They were very adamant about getting the 1.5 contributions from every member," Mr. Battaglia told the crowd. He then delivered what appeared to be the sweetest news about the deal: "There will be no contributions for your health-care benefits." And although by his estimate health-care costs have risen over the past few years by between 14 and 18 percent, "As of this day there will be no raise in your deductibles."

There was a significant omission in Mr. Battaglia's presentation on the issue, however, and it was tipped off by his use of the phrase, "As of this day," in talking about an increase in deductibles.

Limit Owners' Payments

To provide savings beyond those generated by the six-month delay in each pay raise to keep the cost of the contract in line with those that ATU Locals 726 and 1056 reached with the MTA, Local 1181 was forced to agree to a fixed management contribution for health-care benefits in each year of the contract. According to the chief negotiator for the bus owners, Jeffrey Pollack, the contribution rate will be set at $748 per member in the first year of the deal and rise to $838 in the second year and $939 for the third.

If health-care usage by Local 1181 members exceeded the amount contributed, it would be the union's responsibility to deal with it, either by reducing benefit levels or increasing member co-pays.

Instead, he concluded his presentation by telling the crowd that the local's board unanimously recommended approval of the deal. "We had no strike, no interruption of service," Mr. Battaglia said. "I think we did one helluva good job. We did not give back anything."

Blocks Debate

He asked for a motion to put the contract to a vote, and Mr. LaRoche and other dissidents called out for a chance to discuss the contract. Mr. Battaglia replied that this wasn't the point at which to raise that issue; that all he was asking for was a vote on the motion, not an actual contract vote.

Most of those present stood up to show their support for the motion; only about 20 persons stood up to oppose it.

At that point, Mr. Battaglia moved for a vote on the contract, without further discussion, despite the protests of the dissidents, and the deal was quickly ratified and the meeting broke up. Mr. Welch, the International ATU vice president, did not return a call the following day about this deviation from Robert's Rules of Order, and so it's not clear whether he was so surprised by Mr. Battaglia's steamroller tactics that he forgot to provide the monitoring for which he ostensibly was imported by International President Warren George.

'Don't Know If It's True'

"It's the same thing every year - they don't tell you what's in the contract," Mr. LaRoche said outside the school. When it was pointed out that Mr. Battaglia had in fact cited the economic details, he responded, "If you don't see it in writing, how do you know it's true?"

Another dissident from Members for Change, John Bizbano, compared the meeting to "being in Tiananmen Square. It's not that I was against the contract. But give us three or four days to sit at the kitchen table and look at it."

Gloria Flaherty was exasperated over Mr. Battaglia's success in preventing any debate on the terms. '''Sit down, you'll get a chance to talk,''' she said in wry imitation of Mr. Battaglia. "I'm still waiting for my chance."

Mr. LaRoche said the fact that 95 percent of the union's members had not attended the meeting dealing with their wages and working conditions for the next three years was a far more telling statement than the overwhelming support for the deal from those who turned out.

'Members Are Afraid'

"They don't stand up," he said of those who oppose the way the union is being run by officials under indictment for being wholly owned subsidiaries of a Mafia family, "because they're afraid they'll go home and someone is going to kill them. But they're already killing me - they are killing my pension, they are robbing my pension."

One man who voted yes on the deal interrupted Mr. LaRoche to say, "You are right, 100 percent, but you're not going to beat the system." He declined to give his name.

Another of the dissident group's leaders, Simon Jean-Baptiste, said he was skeptical of the deal's terms as enunciated by Mr. Battaglia. "I want to see the contract in writing," he said. "This is the way they've been running the show for the past 25, 30 years, but we have a right to ask them to do things the right way. We pay the leadership; they're not working for free. We're not in a Third World country - this is America."

Banking on the Feds

He said he was not disappointed by the outcome of the contract vote. There is still the hope that the Federal racketeering trial will do what the International ATU has been too cowed to do by convicting the union's leadership and cleansing Local 1181 of the stench of mob domination.

Mr. Jean-Baptiste said he also believed that the complaints of the dissidents were beginning to have some effect on the rest of the rank and file. "Three years ago, it was total intimidation," he said of the atmosphere permeating Local 1181. "People were afraid to be seen talking to us."