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Trustee Ends His Oversight of District 37; Chief Chosen
By: Steven Greenhouse
The trustee who has run District Council 37 for three years in an effort to cleanse it of corruption announced last night that he was ending the trusteeship, confident that the union had been restored to health. At last night's meeting of union delegates, the district council reached deep into its past and elected Lillian Roberts, who was the council's No. 2 official in the 1970's, as the union's new executive director. Union officials said they hoped that these two moves would show that District Council 37, the giant union of municipal employees, had broken with its corrupt past and was ready to resume its position as one of the city's strongest, most outspoken unions. As head of the 125,000-member union, which represents municipal workers from accountants to zookeepers, Ms. Roberts, 74, will immediately become one of the city's most powerful and visible labor leaders. Her ascendancy could fuel tensions between District Council 37 and the Bloomberg administration, however, because Ms. Roberts developed a reputation for militancy as a leader of the district council in the 1960's and 1970's. The council's contract with the city expires July 1. "The union will be more progressive, more militant and a lot tougher with the city," said Mark Rosenthal, an anticorruption whistle-blower who was elected as the council's treasurer. "That's going to be one of the big things with Lillian." Lee Saunders, the trustee the parent union sent in to run the council, told the union's delegates last night that it was time to lift the trusteeship and let the district council run its own affairs. Mr. Saunders, who has run the council since November 1998, said he had installed financial reporting and auditing systems to stop future corruption and had named an ethical- practices officer whom union members could contact about any corruption problems. Four years ago, the union was embarrassed by a scandal in which more than 20 officials were convicted of embezzlement, vote fraud and other crimes. The presidents of two of the council's 56 union locals were convicted of stealing more than $1 million. Several council officials were convicted of stuffing the ballot box in 1996 to guarantee approval of a widely disliked contract that included a two-year wage freeze. Among the reforms introduced by Mr. Saunders is the establishment of a neutral third party who will on count ballots in the council's elections and ratification votes. "We've put a lot of checks and balances in place," Mr. Saunders said. "We've put amendments into the constitution that will ensure fiscal integrity." In an interview, Ms. Roberts indicated that she had shed some of her past militancy, saying she understood that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg faced daunting budget problems. "We are aware there are some restraints based on what happened with 9/11 and we want to be very responsible about that," she said. "We want to help the mayor find some of the items where savings can be found." For years, it appeared that Victor Gotbaum, who headed the district council from 1964 to 1986, was grooming Ms. Roberts to succeed him. She oversaw the union's hospital workers' division, and she led its efforts to organize more than 10,000 workers in the city's public hospitals. But in a surprise move in 1981, she became New York State's labor commissioner under Gov. Hugh L. Carey. While many district council officials said Mr. Gotbaum had forced Ms. Roberts out, perhaps out of concern that she was so militant, Ms. Roberts has always maintained that it was her decision alone to leave the district council. Mr. Gotbaum criticized Ms. Roberts's elevation, suggesting that she was too old to run the union and that a younger generation should take over. Ms. Roberts rejected such criticisms. "I don't even feel the age," she said. "If I was one of my critics, I wouldn't want to wrestle with me." Ms. Roberts has a reputation as a union leader who keeps close to the rank and file and vigorously represents their interests, although some council officials have criticized her administrative skills. In 1945, she began working as a hospital aide in Chicago, where Mr. Gotbaum took her on as a protégée. When the parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, moved Mr. Gotbaum to New York to lead District Council 37, he brought Ms. Roberts to be his right arm. Ms. Roberts emerged as the consensus candidate to head the district council after two factions rallied behind her. As evidence that District Council 37 has returned to health, Mr. Saunders pointed out that its current contract provided a 9 percent raise over 27 months. He also talked of its successes in numerous political campaigns, including its vigorous support of Liz Krueger, a Democrat who was elected to the State Senate on Manhattan's East Side. "I think D.C. 37 is a vibrant and aggressive union once again," Mr. Saunders said. "It's time it returns to the place where it rightfully belonged." FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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