Tech Guild Favoritism

To the Editor:

I am responding to your article, "Tech Guild In Turmoil Over Chapter Votes" (March 21 issue). In it, Claude Fort was quoted, "I had to make it clear that we do not get involved in chapter elections; it is the members' decision."

His dirty little secret however, has been exposed. The devoted readers of The Chief-Leader and District Council 37 loyalists now know that Mr. Fort is a liar.

It takes an ego of epic proportions for Mr. Fort to publicly state that he does not interfere with chapter elections, no matter how deluded he is. The historical record and the facts clearly speak for themselves. He can no longer claim that there is a conspiracy conjured up by "dissidents" in Local 375 to disgrace him; Mr. Fort has done a fine job all by himself.

I base this claim on Mr. Fort's track record, along with his associates, of interfering in chapter business and abusing their union positions to make political hits, all for the purpose of undermining various chapter presidents whom the Old Guard wants to replace because of their dissenting views on how the local is being administered - or should I say, mismanaged.

Fact 1: The political hit against Chapter 25 President Mitchell Feder. Mr. Fort allowed 2nd VP Michelle Keller to bring forth a racially charged motion condemning Brother Feder for criticizing DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts (for the very bad 2004 contract), in part, for a statement that he did not even make and which two witnesses categorically denied that he made!

Fact 2: For more than two years, Mr. Fort has virtually ignored the Chapter 4 and 11 presidents, Muhammad Sheth and V. Chockalingam, who represent the Department of Design and Construction's nearly 700 Tech Guild members. He has met many times with Commissioner Burney and Labor Relations, each time not inviting the members' duly elected chapter presidents.

Mr. Fort repeated the above in another well-known instance when he ignored Ch. 32 President Richard Stadnycki and allowed Ch. 8 President Steve Awad to represent all or most of DEP's more than 1,000 Tech Guild members (represented by 4 Tech Guild chapters) at various labor/management meetings; now, Brother Awad, the former Chapter 8 President, who is on record as attending fewer than five executive board and delegates meetings over a six-year period, is running against Brother Stadnycki for Chapter 32 president.

Fact 3: Mr. Fort has abused union resources to help undermine various chapter presidential opponents by publicizing his favored incumbent chapter presidents in the Guild's monthly "Action Bulletin". This "Action Bulletin" is put together by the Guild's private marketing advisor who is under contract to Local 375. This full-color monthly news-like publication is used by Mr. Fort to highlight his close allies and those he wants re-elected. This free union publicity on behalf of the favored incumbent chapter presidents is then mailed to all the members at union expense with the intent to show the chapter members that their chapter president is working diligently for them. It is done so that they will win favor with the members while undermining their opponents' attempts to run against them at the chapter level.

Fact 4: While ignoring chapter presidents by not allowing them to attend labor/management and/or agency meetings, Mr. Fort invites lower-level chapter officials or chapter delegates whom he favors to give them special attention and exposure. These favored lackeys then disseminate information learned or passed on to them by Mr. Fort back to the members. The intent is to undermine the elected chapter president(s) while heightening their own presence in the chapter(s).

In one well-known case of this abuse of power, Mr. Fort's favored footman at the Housing Authority, George Sona, failed in his attempt to get elected; he received just 23 votes in a three-way chapter presidential race. For almost an entire year, Mr. Fort included Brother Sona in labor/management meetings, often to the exclusion of the duly-elected Chapter 25 president, and then used Brother Sona to deliver union and Housing Authority news to the Ch. 25 members while bypassing the chapter president. This was President Fort's attempt to undermine Ch. 25 President Feder's position and relationship with his members; it failed miserably.

Mr. Fort's ability to govern as a president is slowly diminishing if not already eroded. If he would only stop preaching to the delegate body about how the "disloyal" members of Local 375 are always disrupting meetings and preventing the local from conducting business, he might realize that he is the one guilty of such acts.

Mr. Fort, when is the last time you actually conducted a meeting and stuck to your printed agenda? Did you realize how silly you looked arguing for over 15 minutes with Chapter 2 President Behrouz Fathi about how his motion(s) were out of order at March's delegates meeting? It was very entertaining! However, I was not amused when I rose to the microphone with a "Point of Order" waiting patiently to be recognized and you in return said, "I do not recognize you."

You, Mr. Fort, are your own worst enemy.

JEFF OSHINS, Department of Health Chapter 10 Delegate Local 375, DC 37