Union power struggle

Fight continues over Local 7 presidency

Gene Davis, DDN Staff Writer

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The daughter of a union boss is refuting claims that her dad is trying to hijack the election of Colorado’s biggest union.

The newly elected Local 7 president and secretary-treasurer yesterday accused current union president Ernest Duran of “trying to steal the election from the workers.” Crisanta Duran, Ernest’s daughter and associate legal counsel for the union, called the accusations unfounded.

“We obviously don’t have the power to do that,” she said.

Last week, Duran fired Cindy Lucero, the woman who recently defeated Crisanta in the union secretary-treasurer race. And before the union president election began, Duran fired Kim Cordova, the woman who ended up beating him for the position. Regardless of being fired, the two women are set to take over their new leadership roles on Jan. 1.

Crisanta said she isn’t able to discuss why Lucero and Cordova were fired unless they sign a release. But she denied that they were fired for a sinister reason, and pointed out that Cordova changed her own story for why she was fired three times.

“We just have a huge amount of liability if we release any information at all in regards to personnel decisions,” she said.

During the election campaign, Crisanta and Lucero accused Duran of nepotism. Duran hired Crisanta and her brother, Ernest III, to union positions that paid more than $100,000.

Crisanta said that she and her brother’s past qualifications speak for themselves and should clear her father from the nepotism charge. Crisanta is a licensed attorney who has won several arbitrations, and her brother helped a run successful campaign against an anti-union initiative.

Seeking a second election

The Durans are calling for a second election so the union members can vote again. Crisanta believes that because almost 2,000 members self-reported that they did not receive ballots, union documents were stolen, and people lied to members in the media about how and why funds were spent, the election was not fair. Only 13 percent of the union members turned in ballots.

“It is in the best interest of the union membership to make sure there was a fair election,” said Crisanta.

Meanwhile, Lucero disagrees on the need for another vote.

“Members are telling me they elected us fair and square, and want Duran to honor the workers’ vote,” she said in a statement yesterday.

It is up to the U.S. Department of Labor to decide whether there should be another vote.

The controversy over Local 7 leadership started after KMGH-Channel 7 ran an investigative piece revealing that Duran spent union dues on international trips, lavish dinners and Broncos tickets, to name a few.

Crisanta in September defended the spending to Denver Daily News reporter Peter Marcus. She said that an executive board and an audit committee within the union itself approved every penny.

The controversy over Local 7 leadership came as 17,000 unionized grocery workers were working to reach a contract agreement with King Soopers, City Market and Albertsons.

Since KMGH ran the investigative piece, the grocery chains have not come back with another offer, according to Crisanta. She partly contributed the lack of progress to Cordova, Lucero and others creating controversy.

“To air internal union issues out to the public…doesn’t hurt us, it really does hurt the membership’s ability to be able to get a fair contract,” she said. “We have tried since the election to focus completely on negotiations.”

Cordova agreed that contract negotiations are what matters right now. However, she placed the blame over the lack of progress on Duran.

“Duran needs to remember he works for the workers…and what the workers want is a contract, not back-room union politics,” he said.

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