Letters to the Editor:
Fort's Failures at Tech Guild

To the Editor:

I am responding to your article entitled, "DDC Bought Fort" (Jan. 5 issue). Now that the Tech Guild, Local 375 of District Council 37, is in the final stages of our local-wide elections, the run-off, which is between our incumbent president, Claude Fort, and his opponent, the Guild's most democratic member, Brother Mitchell Feder (Chapter 25 president of the Housing Authority), I would like to review for your readers and our fellow Guildists some highlights of President Fort's two terms so that the members can decide if he warrants a third term.

President Fort was sworn in in January of 2001. The following is a listing of 12 of his administration's successes or failures as some may interpret:

1. As a DC 37 Vice President, he voted "yes" for the 2004 contract, which included the members' third zero-percent raise in the past 10 years while the city enjoyed a near $2 billion surplus; he told his own DDC (Dept. of Design and Construction) Ch. 11 members, that he voted "... yes for the contract so that they (the members) could vote no!" And he voted "no" to the most recent contract "... to squeeze another half-percent out of the Mayor." Thus he risked DC 37 voting down the contract for his members, like the TWU 100 did, for about 75 cents a day, or less than $200 per year after taxes!

2. He "rigged" the first CPA Auditor Search Committee's choice by dictating the chosen firm, which was rejected by both the executive board and delegate body primarily because his chosen firm was approved to conduct audits of city agencies, making it a "conflict of interest" to perform our union audits too. His bungling and interference with the CPA search caused a 10-month delay in the uncovering of the bookkeeper's embezzlement!

3. Of the $2.44 million that the Guild's bookkeeper admitted to embezzling, it could be argued that much of it was stolen under President Fort's own nose during his first 30 months in office; he had authorized the payment of over $210,000 for a "forensic" audit that has never materialized, and to this day, the Guild has no idea how much was actually stolen or how far back the theft goes!

4. He failed our Fire Department Inspectors by refusing to assist them in their quest to obtain "uniformed status" so they can then negotiate better contract terms, especially in obtaining a step-pay plan. It had gotten so bad, the FDNY Ch. 21 members voted unanimously to disaffiliate from Local 375 and join EMS Local 2627!

5. He voted against "One Member, One Vote" which is a unionist movement within District Council 37 for the democratic process of direct election of the Council's officials: executive director, president, secretary and treasurer). By voting "no," President Fort once again showed his position in not empowering the members with their most democratic right: the right to vote!

6. During two different AFSCME Judicial Panel trials, he actually lied during sworn testimony. In one trial he knowingly submitted a false and doctored set of meeting minutes to protect himself from filed charges in which he was eventually found guilty for the fourth time by the AFSCME Judicial Panel.

7. President Fort and his allied Guild officials (5 union officers in all) have been found guilty by the AFSCME Judicial Panel Chair, John Seferian, a total of 11 times for failing to abide by the union's constitution! The most serious verdict was for his allowing two "unauthorized" Guild officials to sign union checks in place of himself and the first vice president.

8. He tried to "rig" the options given to be voted on by the Guild's general members concerning the 1-percent AIC (Additional Income Compensation) funding the city included in our contract six years ago. The Guild's first emergency summer delegates meeting had to be convened so that delegate participation and voting could take place, which President Fort purposely side-stepped because he wanted the executive board to "fix" how the funding was to be distributed amongst our members! He has now publicly stated that he will decide how the most recent 0.34-percent AIC contract funding will be utilized without delegate participation once again.

9. He knew in March 2006 that AFSCME was proposing a $3 monthly dues increase and he purposely did nothing through June to allow the executive board or delegate body to voice their opinion(s) by voting it up or down.

10. President Fort was informed by two DDC Guild members in early 2006 that the agency was intending to install hand-scanners but ignored them. It was four months later in June of 2006 that he started to fight the use of this intrusive and degrading device in his home agency; this after DC 37 had already approved the use of this device three years earlier.

11. He has done very little concerning the disastrous after-effects of the reorganization of the Capital Projects Division at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) where about 300 Guild members work. NYCHA's management is currently contracting-out construction inspection services that our in-house Guild member Inspectors can perform at a much lower cost to the tax-payers!

12. President Fort's two illegitimate promotions and 19-percent raise that he received "in absentia" in 2005 from his home agency, DDC, sends a clear message to his members where he stands... President Fort stands for himself first, members second. DDC spokesman Mr. Martine's explanation of why President Fort received the Level 2 promotion doesn't make sense. Why? The DDC promotion documents state that Mr. Fort was performing Level 1 work, not Level 2 work; that Mr. Fort "will" (future tense) be performing the higher-level tasks; his current duties do not state that he is supervising anyone, but supervision is only mentioned under the "Proposed Duties."

How this promotion came about, no one knows, and to this day, he has yet to explain what he did to deserve it.

In conclusion, my fellow Tech Guild members must decide whether or not Mr. Fort deserves another term and if the Guild can survive three more years under his leadership.

JEFFERY OSHINS, Delegate, Health Dept. Chapter 10, Local 375