Questions Fort's Motives
To the Editor:

At the June 9 Civil Service Technical Guild Chapter 2 meeting, which was attended by Guild President Claude Fort, Behrouz Fathi and George Dames, various issues were raised and discussed by both sides.

The issue here is, not only is Claude Fort taking away four release days from Chapter President Behrouz Fathi and two days from George Dames, which they were given since 2004. Rather, he stripped them of their duties and told the membership to contact his appointees on any and every issue. Mr. Fort has also dealt a devastating blow to the union movement by lame-ducking these two dedicated officers.

The release days taken from Brothers Fathi/Dames were given to Scarlino and Lezeau. Behrouz Fathi and George Dames are two people elected by the Chapter 2 members, and the members know that they are capable, hardworking, and they have been getting significant results for many out-of-title grievances. Fathi and Dames have won awards for members that amount to approximately $143,000 over the years in their posts. Claude Fort should return the duly elected responsibilities to Brothers Behrouz Fathi and George Dames.

The Chapter 2 members asked Larry Scarlino to prove to the members that he is qualified for the position of Grievance Chair, a position he was not elected to but rather appointed to by Claude Fort. As a matter of fact Mr. Scarlino is not an officer in the chapter.

When the question of his qualification was posed directly to Mr. Scarlino, however, immediately Mr. Fort said he wanted to respond for Mr. Scarlino. The members take it that Mr. Fort does not have enough confidence and trust in Mr. Scarlino's previous union experience to trust him answering to his union qualification for this position. It was insisted that the members wanted Mr. Scarlino to answer the question directly. Mr. Scarlino started his response by stating that a union member claimed racial remarks were made against him. Mr. Scarlino went on to say he met with Lawrence Reuter (former New York City Transit president) and ended his response with, "I saved your jobs." Since the members were unable to follow up with a question of how Mr. Scarlino saved the members' jobs, the members still would like Mr. Scarlino to explain how he did so and how he helped the member with the alleged racial charge.

Mr. Scarlino insulted the intelligence of the members at the meeting by not explaining what he did to qualify him for the position he is now appointed to, and even worse by his claim of saving the members' jobs without providing a shred of evidence or relevant information.

The members will be surely doomed if this is the way Mr. Scarlino intends to represent them. The members were right in their decision to repeatedly reject Mr. Scarlino in his bids for election as an officer of the chapter.

KERIETH A. MAIR