2 DC 37 Locals Need Fair-Election Lessons

Last fall, a recently-departed official of Schools Local 372 of District Council 37 called with a story about the president of the union, Santos Crespo, allegedly having moved to seize control of the union by shutting out board members and replacing capable staffers with people whose loyalty he could count on.

She put me in touch with two officials of the local who had grown disillusioned enough with what was happening that they were preparing to mount a challenge to Mr. Crespo in the upcoming election: Shaun Francois, an executive-board member who was the chapter chair for the loaders and handlers division of Local 372, and Donald Nesbit, who was the secretary of that chapter. Over the course of a phone call that lasted nearly an hour, the two men accused Mr. Crespo of having politicized the local to such a degree that one of his aides had declined to have several members be included as plaintiffs in a lawsuit the union was bringing against the Department of Education because they weren’t his allies.