Reid Routs Ramsey To Take Command At Local 768

The head of District Council 37 Local 768 was unseated by his longtime rival Nov. 19, with challenger Fitz Reid winning 533 votes to Darryl Ramsey's 394 to avenge a two-vote defeat in their previous face-off.

FITZ REID: A clear-cut victory this time.

Speaking in a phone interview the next day, Mr. Reid, who is aligned with the reform wing of DC 37, said he felt he had won a mandate in the 3,900-member local and planned to initiate change to mobilize members and get them more actively involved in the political process. Except for one race which will require a runoff, the other officer contests all went decisively to members of his slate.

'Grievances to Resolve'

"We take over tonight, and we assume all the responsibilities, and we're first going to focus on all these outstanding grievances," he said. "We have to find creative solutions to the problems, because opportunities are begging right now. We have a mandate to do that. We have a responsibility."

One of Mr. Reid's first actions will be to give Local 768 a Web site, which it currently lacks, echoing his use of the Internet in his campaign. "Within two weeks, we'll have a Web site up, so we can get the proper information, and get feedback from members," he said. The Web site will be used for information on outstanding grievances, among other things.

Mr. Reid will also focus on the status of agency fee-payers in the union, who pay dues but are not union members. "We have to take the initiative to go to the sites, meet the workers, get all of them to become union members," he said. "Right now they are paying the equivalent of dues [but] they are not paying members, they are agency fee-payers ... they are not exerting their responsibility to function in the union."

Local 768 represents health service employees, and so Mr. Reid will visit hospitals and other sites in an effort to unite the many different titles of the union under one flag. "Take in a hospital, you might have 20 different types of workers, 10 in the same local, they might not know it," he said. "We want to have solidarity."

Reaching Out to Roberts

Mr. Reid said he planned to ask DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts "to get the support to go and mobilize the members." Although he and his reform colleagues have criticized her leadership, he said, "We can't have division in the union. There's one DC 37."

Mr. Reid's 14-percentage point triumph was a turnaround from the disputed December 2006 result, which Mr. Ramsey won by only two votes, with eight ballots left uncounted that Mr. Reid felt would have delivered him victory, because they were all from Public Health Sanitarians, the title he holds in the local. A lawsuit filed to challenge the result was eventually withdrawn after the intervention of U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, because Mr. Reid feared the repercussions a legal battle might have on agency fee-payers.

Other victors in the race, all from Mr. Reid's slate, were Dennis Stewart, who steps into Mr. Reid's old post of vice president; Joseph Toval, the new first vice president; Esbeth Bradley, who will be second vice president, and Caroline Hilton, who will be treasurer. The balloting for recording secretary had Reid running mate Vylma Meneses 108 votes ahead of Michele Wilson from the Ramsey slate, but because she failed to capture a majority in the three-woman race, there will be a runoff election.