AFSCME to Rule
Ejection From '372' Meeting Challenged

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

A judicial panel from District Council 37's international union will decide next week whether Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa violated the rights of her former challenger, Larry Davis, when she had him removed from a union meeting.

VERONICA MONTGOMERY-COSTA: Right to limit attendance.

Mr. Davis charges that Ms. Montgomery-Costa and Executive Vice President Santos Crespo improperly removed him from a District 24 union meeting in Queens last October. Ms. Montgomery-Costa stated in testimony before the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Judicial Panel that Mr. Davis had no right to attend the meeting because he works in District 5 in Harlem.

Wants An Apology

Mr. Davis is requesting a public apology by Ms. Montgomery-Costa and her staff and an acknowledgement that all members are allowed to attend any meeting of the local. She has contended that Mr. Davis is the one who violated the AFSCME constitution by interfering with the ability of the union to conduct its business.

"I think it's unfair because I'm a Local 372 member in good standing and I was at the meeting to sit and observe," said Mr. Davis, who is a Parent Support Officer and has been a Local 372 member since 1992. "All I was doing was sitting in the back of the room with my mouth shut. Even at DC 37 delegates' meetings, they allow observers."

The Chief-Leader/Eric Weiss LET US MEET: Local 372 shop steward Tony Ferina (left) and former presidential challenger Larry Davis charged that President Veronica Montgomery-Costa violated the union's constitution by barring members from attending meetings in districts where they don't work.

District 24 did not hold a meeting for 16 months between June 2005 and October 2006, even though district meetings are supposed to be held four times a year. Union officials at the Oct. 24 meeting that Mr. Davis tried to attend apologized to members for the lapse, saying that the union representative in charge of the district, who has since been removed, failed in his duties.

Tony Ferina, a School Aide and shop steward in District 24, said he invited Mr. Davis to the meeting because of previous problems with the meetings.

Mr. Ferina said he notified union officials that the meetings weren't happening, and presented President Montgomery-Costa with a 300-signature petition at a general membership meeting requesting a district meeting. When a meeting was called for June 2006, the union representative in charge, Rudy Walker, did not fill out the proper paperwork, and the 150 members who showed up were unable to meet because the building was locked.

'Asked Him to Help'

"Since the union wasn't satisfying the members," said Mr. Ferina, who ran with Mr. Davis on a slate opposing Ms. Montgomery-Costa in 2005, "I turned to Larry Davis to please come down and observe, and help me to help the members in case we had another catastrophe."

Ms. Montgomery-Costa declined to comment for this story.

In her written testimony, Ms. Montgomery-Costa stated that the union needed to bar non-district members because district meetings are held to address only those issues that concern members who work in a specific district. She pointed out that members have other opportunities to voice their concerns, such as chapter meetings - held for members in particular job titles - and general membership meetings.

"Local 372 has the right to promulgate and enforce reasonable rules," Ms. Montgomery-Costa said in her testimony, "such as limiting the attendance at district meetings to members employed in the district, which are consistent with AFSCME's Bill of Rights and which ensure that Local 372 officers, including myself, are able to fulfill our constitutional duties of presiding at union meetings for the purpose of conducting union business."

She admitted at the hearing on Feb. 20 that there are no written rules that a member may not attend a district meeting where she or he is not a member, according to Mr. Davis.

No Standard Policy

A survey of other large locals found varying rules. Local 372 is DC 37's biggest, with 24,000 members.

"If someone from outside my chapter comes in," said Mitch Feder, a Housing Authority chapter chair for Local 375, "I suppose I could kick them out, but it would not be brotherly of me."

Mr. Feder said if there was a question about a member's attendance, he would recommend a vote of the members present; according to Robert's Rules of Order, which DC 37 follows, the vote would be the final decision.

"In my case, I've never refused anyone entry," he said.

Officials and members at two of the other large locals, 371 and 420, said they generally allow members to stay in meetings unless they become disruptive. Other local leaders said they did not think it was appropriate for members to attend chapter or division meetings that did not directly concern them.

At DC 37 delegates' meetings, there is an observers' section where members and staff usually sit. The delegates have the right to go into private executive session if they choose.

'Issue of Democracy'

Mr. Ferina said he had been kicked out of some district meetings where he was not a member. Mr. Walker ejected him from a District 25 meeting just a few weeks before the aborted District 24 meeting in June 2006.

"I'm a shop steward, and we hadn't had a meeting for a year, and I needed information for my members about summer-time pay," he said.

Mr. Davis said he had been asked to leave other district meetings, but had been allowed to remain and participate in District 3 and 6 meetings in the past.

A ruling is expected by AFCME's Judicial Panel Chair John Seferian by March 22.

"I am very interested in what his ruling will be," said Mr. Davis. "To me, this is a basic issue of union democracy."