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DC 37 prez gets leadership award

DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa received the 2009 Leadership Service Award of the Federation
of African-American Civil Service Organizations.

The organization honored Montgomery-Costa, who is also president of Board of Education Employees Local 372, April 25 at their 54th annual awards celebration and dinner dance at Ricardo’s by the Bridge restaurant in Astoria.

The federation acknowledged her many contributions to the labor movement, such as spearheading an innovative pilot project to help 500 Local 372 members take advantage of their eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit and her role in “increasing the membership of the local and transforming it into a fiscally sound and ethically administered organization.”

The award plaque said the union leader “has earned the respect and admiration” of the federation and that the union community “benefits from her leadership.”

Also acknowledged in the program for his long history of community service and union activism was the late Kevin D. Smith, who served as president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Clerical Administrative Employees Local 1655 and secretary of the Federation of African-American Civil Service Organizations. The federation was founded in 1955 and is a lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.