Fort Hiding Truth

To the Editor:

We are responding to The Chief article and editorial in the March 21 issue concerning the Tech Guild's chapter elections. Local 375 President Claude Fort's statement denying interference in the chapter elections is far from the truth.

You be the judge, based on the following facts, whether there is any credence to his claim of non-interference in the election process.

In reality, Claude Fort did everything within his power to prevent incumbent chapter presidents opposing him from being re-elected. He hand-picked candidates at the Housing Authority, Transit Authority, DEP, and at DDC chapters and openly supported their candidacies against incumbent presidents of these chapters.

He prompted members to vote for his hand-picked candidates to get better service from the local, implying that lesser service to the members of these chapters is directly related to opposing political views of incumbent chapter presidents. At the Transit Authority chapter, Claude Fort walked the floors with the incumbent president's opponent and distributed union calendars during election time.

Fort tried direct influence to help his friend/supporter Mike Kenny, candidate for DDC Chapter 4 president, get elected against incumbent candidate Muhammad Sheth, a vocal critic of Claude Fort's policies. While Muhammad Sheth was on an overseas vacation, Mike Kenny and Claude Fort colluded to call for a combined meeting of chapters 4 and 11 without notification to the respective chapter presidents under the guise of providing updated contract information. Claude Fort lauded Mike Kenny, former Safety Chair of Local 375 and current presidential candidate in the Chapter 4 election, for his work in monitoring surveillance cameras at DDC. This meeting took place just before the ballots were mailed to the chapter members.

This event was a major violation of the constitution. Endorsement of candidates by the elected officers of a local in chapter elections is considered interference and a serious constitutional violation. A former Guild president was removed from office by AFSCME after charges of interference in the chapter elections were brought against him.

Both Muhammad Sheth and V. Chockalingam, presidents of DDC chapters 4 and 11, respectively, are the least favorite of Claude Fort because of their continuous efforts to dig up the truth behind Fort's promotion in Feb. 2005 to Civil Engineer Level 2 at DDC while serving as union president.

Other examples of Claude Fort's so-called "hands-off" chapter election process: Steve Awad, former DEP Chapter 8 president, was given two days' release time and HHC Chapter 3 President Siddiqui got one day release time to do union-related work at their chapters. On the other hand, Claude Fort turned down the request from presidents of chapters 4 and 11 for release time to do union work. Out of 35 chapters in the local, only two chapter presidents (chapters 8 and 3) besides the New York City Transit Chapter 2 president were provided this privilege, simply because of their loyalty to Claude Fort. No wonder Claude Fort was not in a hurry to press these chapters to hold the elections in a timely manner. By the way, the article in The Chief termed Steve Awad a union activist. The fact is, Steve Awad has not attended more than three or four executive committee or delegate meetings in the past four years. Instead, Mike Gimbel, one-time staunch political enemy and now close confidant of Claude Fort, substituted for Steve Awad.

Fort has created a cadre of loyal supporters by appointing them to various committees that pay stipends. He has created 25 appointed committees on top of constitutionally required nine standing committees. These committees cost members close to $200,000 per year in terms of stipends for the committee chairs and committee members and meeting expenses.

Claude Fort's modus operandi is to reward those who side with him and intimidate others who oppose him. He reduced Behrouz Fathi's release days from five to four at the Transit Authority because of Fathi's public criticism of Fort's policies. Like a seasoned politician, Claude Fort has penchants for making outrageous "Pie in the Sky" promises to the members to maintain his hold on the power. One such promise Claude Fort made in the recent past to 1,100 Transit Authority Chapter 2 members is that he is negotiating with TA management to get a $10,000 raise for each member over and above the negotiated contract signed between the city and District Council 37. In another instance, Claude wrote to members that he is lobbying in Albany for a bill that will grant special wage packages for Local 375 members.

The mother of all outrageous things Claude Fort has done is to let go over 200 members of Tech Guild at the Fire Department chapter to join other unions under DC 37. Claude Fort did not notify the executive body, nor did he seek approval of the delegates body, governing body of the Local, prior to taking this unprecedented action. In many respects, Claude Fort has become a total authoritarian who will not tolerate any dissent.

Claude's tyrannical ways were on display at the past Wednesday's delegates' meeting, where he did not allow delegates to amend the Guild's budget that was presented at the meeting for consideration. Fort abruptly cut off the discussion on the budget with the help of his cronies, who put in a motion to "call the question" to ward off further criticism of wasteful times in the budget.

We could not be more in agreement with your editorial that the time has come to put a stop to this nonsense. We are working to develop a new democratic leadership that is more in tune with the realities and will be ready to replace the Claude Fort administration.

VAINO ADER (Delegate), V. CHOCKALINGAM (Chapter 11 President), UMA KUTWAL (Chapter 36 President)