Trades Barbs With Roberts
Ensley Runs Again At DC 37

By RICHARD STEIER

A year ago, when 56 percent of District Council 37's delegates torpedoed a resolution that would have transferred their power to elect the union's officers to rank-and-file members, Charles Ensley said the vote was tantamount to re-electing DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James RAINING ON 'TOP-DOWN' MODEL: Charles Ensley, who plans to again challenge Lillian Roberts's bid for re-election as executive director of District Council 37, faults her for, among other things, failing to get rank-and-file members more involved in operations. 'It's a top-down model over there,' he said. "It's a staff-driven union. We're looking to democratize the process.'

Mr. Ensley, the president of Social Service Employees Local 371, alluded to the fact that the winning margin was supplied by delegates from two locals representing nearly 40 percent of DC 37's members, Department of Education Local 372 and Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549.

Pessimistic Forecast

"I think it's clear," he said then, "that unless there's a dramatic change in the leadership of the two largest locals, Ms. Roberts, or whoever is designated by her and the international union, will win" when the next DC 37 election is held in January 2007.

There has been no change in leadership at Locals 372 and 1549, and having negotiated a wage contract 3-1/2 months ago that was overwhelmingly approved by her rank and file and praised even by many of her critics, Ms. Roberts has a stronger record to run on than when she narrowly turned back Mr. Ensley's challenge in 2004.

Nonetheless, when nominations are held Nov. 28, he will be offering himself once more as an alternative to the woman he claims has made DC 37 and its members "the pariahs of the labor movement."

Mr. Ensley is unwilling to concede that Ms. Roberts secured good contract terms in July, even as other labor leaders described her deal as a vast improvement on the April 2004 pact she negotiated with the Bloomberg administration shortly after she was re-elected. He has argued that the 9.42 percent in raises over 32 months is unlikely to keep pace with inflation, and that the lack of givebacks under the deal is noteworthy only because of the concessions she made 2-1/2 years ago to help fund a 6-percent raise over three years.

"The contract, even though 97 percent of the people who voted wanted it, wasn't a good one," Mr. Ensley said in a phone interview.

Roberts: He's Out of Step

'NEVER OFFERS SOLUTIONS': District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts accuses once and future challenger Charles Ensley of 'trying to tear this union apart by any means possible.'

Ms. Roberts replied in a statement, "Is Mr. Ensley really saying that the 97 percent of members who voted for the contract are incapable of thinking for themselves - including his own members who voted for the contract despite his opposition?"

She noted that in addition to the economic gains, the contract included an agreement by the city to support legislation that would end the requirement that DC 37 members live within New York City, permitting them to reside in six suburban counties within the state as well. In other areas, Mr. Ensley asserted, Ms. Roberts has continued to stumble, and retains the support of a slim majority of delegates and of the leadership of DC 37's international union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, because of political maneuvers.

'Rules by Perks'

"She governs by perks - giving people release time," he said, referring to Ms. Roberts's discretion as to which elected officials within DC 37 are given part or full release from their city jobs to tend to union work.

Her loyalty to AFSCME, he indicated, was rewarded when her secret agreement to extend the contract of a consulting firm by a full year at $10,000 a month was cited as a violation of the union constitution but she escaped with just a reprimand. In contrast, a former president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 who spent $11,000 on mailings without getting authorization from his board was ordered to make full restitution, and when he didn't do so, was deposed from his job and later stripped of his union membership.

What is particularly striking, Mr. Ensley said, is that while Ms. Roberts has proven her skills as a political in-fighter, she has allowed the Council's external political clout to evaporate during her nearly five years in office.

'Can't Draw a Crowd'

"We're not a player," he asserted. "We can't put 10,000 people in the street; we can't even put 1,000 people in the street. We have lost our political clout. We have no presence in Albany - we did not have one piece of legislation passed and then signed into law by the Governor" this year.

Ms. Roberts scoffed at his claim that she couldn't get members to turn out for rallies, contending that "in 2005 when we were fighting for a contract, we had a demonstration of more than 30,000 people on the streets at Broadway and Park Row."

Union officials later said the rally she referred to took place in April 2003; this newspaper reported the crowd, which included members of other municipal unions, as 20,000.

Ms. Roberts said that DC 37 played a role this year in the approval of legislation expanding benefits for first-responders who become ill as a result of their work at the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks five years ago. She said all the major Democratic candidates for statewide and national office had met with her this year, and that she dealt regularly with key members of Congress and Mayor Bloomberg. She accused Mr. Ensley of being "something of a legislative no-show" because he has skipped DC 37's annual trips to Albany to lobby members of the Assembly and State Senate.

'Still in Free-Fall'

Mr. Ensley maintained, however, "The Council is still in free-fall. We've done no organizing. There's more rhetoric than actually delivering for the members. We can do better."

Ms. Roberts, who scolded her rival for his "toxic pre-campaign comments," said that DC 37 has had organizing efforts restricted by the AFSCME charter but that it was currently engaged in attempting to organize a group of workers whom she did not identify.

She cited a collaboration with the Bloomberg administration that gives housing preference to union members, including mortgage assistance; a day-care program the union is creating for members, and a recent settlement of a class-action lawsuit in which DC 37 was a plaintiff that she said will save members millions of dollars in prescription drug costs.

Mr. Ensley and other leaders of the reform movement that emerged within DC 37 even before the revelations in 1998 of massive corruption among top union officials (which resulted in more than two dozen criminal convictions and the imposition of a 40-month administratorship by AFSCME), have long sought to have direct election of DC 37's officers.

Two Leaders' Leverage

They contended that much of the corruption festered because the former DC 37 executive director, Stanley Hill, was too dependent on the support of the then-presidents of Locals 372 and 1549, Charles Hughes and Albert A. Diop, to question suspicious financial transactions in which they engaged.

Between them, the two men controlled enough delegate votes to virtually assure the election of whomever they backed for executive director. Both were eventually convicted of stealing millions of dollars in union dues - with Mr. Diop also found guilty of rigging a 1995-96 DC 37 wage contract vote - and sentenced to prison. Mr. Ensley and the reformers were unable, however, to convince AFSCME's leadership to support taking the power of election away from DC 37 delegates and giving it directly to union members, and the initial vote on the issue found more than two-thirds of the delegates opposed.

Ms. Roberts came to power as a proponent of direct election, but she voted against it in the summer of 2005, and Mr. Ensley claimed that while she proclaimed herself neutral on the issue when it went before the delegates again last October, she lobbied behind the scenes for its defeat. One of her spokeswomen sidestepped a question about that charge at the time.

'Trash-Talks Own Union'

Ms. Roberts said last week, "In one respect Mr. Ensley has a very solid record. No one has done more to undermine solidarity at DC 37. I don't call promoting divisiveness and trash-talking your own union in the press great examples of 'union democracy.'''

The Ensley forces could gain a few delegates from the Tech Guild officer elections that will be held later this year, and some more if a lawsuit brought by the three-vote loser of last December's election for president of Health Service Employees Local 768 leads to eight unopened ballots being counted. It is also possible that Hospital Workers Local 420 President Carmen Charles, who had been a Roberts loyalist until she voted in favor of direct elections, could join Mr. Ensley's camp. He already has, he said, the support of 19 or 20 of the 56 local presidents.

'Big Two' Won't Budge

He has no illusions, however, about converting Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery Costa - Ms. Roberts's principal union ally - and Local 1549's Eddie Rodriguez, who defected from Mr. Ensley's side following the last election.

"Those are the two barriers, obviously, that we face," Mr. Ensley said. "In at least one of the two locals, we know we have support. People sit through those [DC 37 delegate] meetings month after month just like we do, so they know what the problem is. All you have to do is sit in the room with [Ms. Roberts] for any meeting to see that she does not have a clue. We think the stakes are too high to vote on the basis" of past loyalty. Mr. Ensley, who has headed Local 371 since 1982, said that at age 65 (Ms. Roberts will turn 81 in January) he is preparing to move on from his current post regardless of whether he wins the race for executive director.

"We need to change the tone of the Council," he said. "Instead of sloganeering about how members come first, we have to demonstrate through action that members come first. We're comfortable with the [campaign] message, and we think it will resonate with anyone who's familiar with DC 37."