Letters to the Editor: AFSCME Intimidates Critics

To the Editor:

Your recent story about a $5-$10,000 court-cost penalty being imposed on former Local 375 President Roy Commer by a judge at the request of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, with the knowledge and support of District Council 37, smacks of the worst kind of intimidation.

In going for Commer to reimburse court costs, AFSCME's Gerald McEntee is sending a message to crush all dissent. Readers will recall that Commer's offense was slight - unauthorized union mailings which merely informed members about a routine delegate election in which Commer was not involved. For this technical violation of union rules, he went down, losing union membership and his presidency.

He sought redress in the courts to regain his union presidency but lost at trial when a jury did not understand the scope of DC 37's institutionalized corruption in the 1990s and AFSCME's role in looking the other way.

Roy Commer is widely known for being one of the few who spoke up and exposed the vote-rigging that led to DC 37's infamous double-zero 1996 contract during the biggest economic boom in the city's history. Because we had those two years of flat wages, we lost all of the future benefits of pay increases we would have gained in a fair contract. For this reason, and because that contract set the pattern for all city workers, that massive give-away is still costing workers billions of dollars in lost wages and pension payments.

Commer also had to contend with chicanery in his own election for president of his union, when ballots went missing from a locked room, forcing a re-run which he won. AFSCME now wants to punish Commer and send an unmistakable message to those who would express dissent and exercise their constitutional right to free speech and free association.

I didn't see AFSCME - or DC 37 - going to court to force Charlie Hughes, Al Diop, Stanley Hill, Marty Lubin, Mark Shaplo or any of the other cheaters and their enablers to make full restitution for their titanic rip-off of union members.

I am going to send a personal check to Brother Commer to help in paying this tax on free speech, and I encourage all progressive union leaders to do the same.

FITZ REID, Executive VP, Local 768, District Council 37