ACS Betrays Trust

To the Editor:

I read with great interest your story about the vindication of Ralph Vanacore in the Dec. 29 Chief. The behavior of some officials in ACS vis-à-vis Mr. Vanacore was corrupt, dishonest, full of overweening pride and an example of hubris more fitting for a totalitarian dictatorship than a supposedly enlightened municipal government.

It is shameful that the two mayoral appointees to the Board of Collective Bargaining were so affected and infected with invincible ignorance and blindness that they were incapable of discerning the truth.

It is commendable and typical of Local 371's unparalleled decency that they stood by Mr. Vanacore. The corrupt officials who hounded him should be fired! The ACS has unfortunately won because it cannot return to him the years viciously stolen from him. I certainly wish him success in his legal suit. Years ago the chief counsel for a different union was having a conversation with me and I asked why so many cases were permitted to proceed to arbitration when it was clear than an arbitrator would uphold the grievant. This attorney told me that the agencies didn't give a damn, and in the meanwhile the grievant was being punished and an arbitrator's award was only the taxpayer's money!

In some cases, guilty parties manage to convince an arbitrator that a reasonable question exists. In this case, which is almost without precedent, it is obvious that high agency officials betrayed their trust and were guilty of an almost-criminal conspiracy, as well as a gross violation of collective-bargaining agreements.

The individuals who conspired and concocted charges against Mr. Vanacore should never ever again be in a position to waste vast sums of the taxpayers' money in order to railroad an innocent employee.

GEORGE SILBERMAN