Wrongful Disqualification
New School Aide Vote is Ordered

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

A District Council 37 Local 372 dissident who had been barred from running for the local's executive board will get a second chance after DC 37's parent union overruled the local's decision to remove Tony Ferina from the ballot.

TONY FERINA: 'Some hanky-panky gong on.'

He had been running to represent the School Aide chapter, which covers 14,000 of the local's 24,000 members. Only 33 ballots were cast in the election at issue.

The decision of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Judicial Panel stated that "the spirit and intent of the AFSCME Constitution is that members shall be given every opportunity to fulfill their constitutional rights to run for office in AFSCME elections."

Mysterious Status Shift

The local had disqualified Mr. Ferina after announcing that the member who nominated him, Belinda Boyd, was not in good standing.

It was still not clear how or why Ms. Boyd's status was changed from dues-payer for five years to a non-dues payer. She was reported as a dues-paying member from 2001 until 2005, according to AFSCME. Sometime between 2005 and July 2006, DC 37 notified AFSCME that Ms. Boyd was no longer a member in good standing, but the School Aide says that she never asked for the change nor was she notified about it.

VERONICA MONTGOMERY-COSTA: Witnesses didn't make case.

"[President Veronica Montgomery-Costa] is supposed to promote democracy," said Mr. Ferina after learning of the ruling, "and here she took every opportunity to deny me to run in the election. It's a congratulations for the members, really, and now hopefully this will be the wake-up call."

The panel acknowledged that, since the member who nominated Mr. Ferina was not in good standing, there had been a "technical violation" of the union's rules. But it concluded that the violation "did not affect the outcome of the election" since Mr. Ferina, who is in good standing, could have nominated himself.

"The questions that arose over this local election were ones that only an AFSCME judicial panel could clarify," said Ms. Montgomery-Costa in a statement. "They have now done so. I am pleased that this matter has now been resolved and that we can go forward with our election process."

New Election to Come

The hearing took place on Jan. 9 and Ms. Montgomery-Costa brought more than a dozen union staffers to testify against Mr. Ferina.

An election must be scheduled within 45 days of receipt of the decision, which was handed down on the following day.

Ms. Montgomery-Costa said that the local's election committee was currently in the process of scheduling a new election.

During the hearing, the local disclosed that the result of the Nov. 13 election, which pitted incumbent Lillie Taylor against challenger Barbara Richardson, was a tie of 15 to 15, with three contested votes. The local had previously not released the results.

Not Much Enlightenment

When asked why Ms. Boyd's status had changed and why she had not been notified, DC 37 spokeswoman Zita Allen would only say, "The Council looked into the matter thoroughly, checking our records in every respect, and we found as of mid-2006 Belinda Boyd was not a member of Local 372 of DC 37, but an agency fee-payer."

When asked how AFSCME was notified of Ms. Boyd's change of status, an AFSCME spokesperson declined comment.

Ms. Boyd said that she did not understand how her status was changed. "No one ever contacted me," she said. "I was not aware at all that it had happened." She said that she had signed a membership card when she first became a School Aide at Far Rockaway High School in 2001. She transferred to Newtown High School a month later, where she said she signed another membership card.

Mr. Ferina handed in an affidavit at the hearing from Beatriz Chapur, who stated that in 2001, when she was a shop steward at Newtown, she presented a membership card to Ms. Boyd.

No Right to Vote

Ms. Boyd was issued a membership card in 2005, for 2006 to 2007, according to AFSCME's International Affiliate Relations Department, because DC 37 had reported her as a member. But sometime between issuing the card in 2005 and July 2006, DC 37 notified Affiliate Relations that Ms. Boyd was an agency fee-payer, not a dues-paying member of the local. Agency fee-payers are covered by the union contract but cannot obtain some union benefits and do not have the right to vote in union elections.

Nancy Fang and Bill Kradachie, who are also School Aides at Newtown, have been trying to establish their membership for about two years but are still not designated as members in good standing. They signed cards in late 2005, and again in April 2006 when they found out they weren't members. They were alerted after asking their shop steward why they were not receiving union mailings.

Mr. Ferina, who is currently the shop steward at Newtown, said that in 2005 he personally handed Ms. Fang's and Mr. Kradachie's cards to union rep Sandra Davis, who has since been fired. Last April, he handed them to the new union rep. He once again gave signed cards to the union rep last month and that time included one from Ms. Boyd. None of them have had their status changed to dues-payer.

"I think there's some kind of hanky-panky going on," said Mr. Ferina. "I am going to run for executive board again, but if members don't step forward and say we need to take back the union, my work will be in vain."