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NYS Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit
6/15/2010
- Cheryl A. Felice, President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2010
CONTACT: CHERYL A. FELICE, President
631-589-8400 (office)/631-767-1941 (cell)
Or
RANDI DELIROD, AME Public Relations
631-589-8400
NYS Supreme Court rejects a lawsuit to overturn AME’s 2009 General Election citing no irregularities were found.
Bohemia, NY- The Suffolk County Association of Municipal Employees, Inc. received a ruling on Friday, June 11, 2010 in favor of upholding the union’s 2009 general election for Executive Board held in April 2009. Cheryl A. Felice, president of the 8,500 member union, the largest independent union in the state, said her slate was “elated” with the decision issued by Hon. Peter H. Mayer, Justice of the Supreme Court- State of New York. Justice Mayer granted the motion to dismiss, citing “there were no irregularities in the voting process and concluded the election was conducted in accordance with the organizational bylaws.”
Felice was critical of petitioner, Linda McGregor, the losing candidate for executive vice president for filing the action, when she “admittedly lost by a significant margin for the Executive Board.” McGregor registered the least amount of votes in a 3-way race. The action also alleged that Felice, who was the incumbent president in the 2009 election, was prohibited from distributing a membership mailing related to lay-offs and health insurance during the campaign, a claim the courts also rejected. In his decision, Justice Mayer affirmed “Felice was obligated, as president, to inform the members of those issues.”
Cheryl Felice is a 26-year veteran of AME and a member of the union’s Executive Board for 19 consecutive years. She became the first AME president to win a third consecutive term in April 2009 when she out-polled four others in the race for president.
McGregor also filed and lost an internal grievance to toss out the AME election in May 2009. Felice contends, “when McGregor did not win her election and she did not win her grievance to overturn the election, she became an activist to decertify the union. It’s unfortunate that a rival who wanted to lead our membership chose to burden the courts and exhaust tens of thousands of dollars in membership dues with her baseless allegations.”
AME won the fierce battle against the Communication Workers of America (CWA) in December 2009, denying the 700,000 member international union a 30 percent showing of support to even call for an election to oust the independent union. In fact, CWA lost 2 of the 3 decertification elections they held and organized only 32 workers in 2009.
The Suffolk County Association of Municipal Employees is the labor union for the 8,500 active and retired Suffolk County employees.
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