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Teamster’s Local 237 Sues NYC for Wage Discrimination

Mary Alice Miller
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This week the country commemorated 50 years since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the first federal antidiscrimination law that addressed gender-based pay disparities. But here in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg has been practicing his own form of gender discrimination: predominantly female School Safety Agents are paid $7,000 less than predominantly male Special Officers who work in shelters, hospitals and public buildings. After several attempts to remedy the pay disparity during contract negotiations, Teamster’s Local 237 is suing Bloomberg.

“Mayor Bloomberg needs to engage on this issue now. We don’t understand why the city has chosen to drag this suit out against the brave women who are putting themselves on the line each and every day to ensure the safety and well-being of our public schoolchildren,” said Local 237 President Gregory Floyd. “Mr. Mayor, equal pay for equal work is one of our fundamental rights. Let’s act now to end gender-based discrimination among city employees.”

There are 5,000 School Safety Agents, 70% of whom are female. They are subject to the same collective bargaining agreement as Special officers who are 70% male. School Safety Agents perform substantially the same job duties as Special Agents. Both School Safety Agents and Special Officers are peace officers empowered to make warrantless arrests and searches, confiscate weapons and other contraband, carry handcuffs and use deadly force when reasonably necessary. Both are employed to provide security at public buildings and facilities within NYC. Both are subject to the same collective bargaining agreement regarding holidays, health insurance, overtime, shift differential, payroll, time and leave, line of duty injury benefits, layoffs and personnel rules, retirement benefits, and the handling of Workers’ Compensation claims by the city’s Law Department. School Safety Agents and Special Officers are also part of the same pension plan.
School Safety Agents and Special Officers have centralized personnel administration that handles all payroll matters as well as creation of job descriptions and titles. Both titles file online to take competitive exams which are substantially similar. Both titles require a minimum score of 70%. School Safety Agents undergo training at the NYC Police Academy. Special Officers must undergo training through the City University of New York Public Safety Academy. Both titles work under similar job conditions. School Safety Agents and Special Officers also wear substantially similar summer and winter uniforms and carry similar equipment.

In fact, the city has previously asserted that the School Safety Agent and Special Officer titles are comparable. Yet, the current maximum annual pay rate for a School Safety Agent is $35,323. The current maximum annual pay rate for a Special Officer is $42,332.

The starting salaries of School Safety Agents and Special Officers are approximately equal, but within three years of service they diverge dramatically to the $7,000 a year pay differential in favor of Special Officers over School Safety Agents although School Safety Agents and Special Officers continue to perform substantially similar work under similar working conditions.

The same $7,000 a year pay differential in favor of Special Officers over School Safety Agents continues at the slightly higher pay levels for supervisory personnel –called “Sergeants” for Special Officers and “Level 3’s” for School Safety Agents, – despite modest longevity increases.

The Teamster Local 237 lawsuit contends that the city intentionally pays School Safety Agents and Special Officers different compensation despite the fact that they perform substantially similar work under similar working conditions.

According to the Teamster brief, the union made strenuous efforts to obtain parity in compensation between School Safety Agents and Special Officers during negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement in 2008, but the city flatly refused. When the city was notified that the union would likely commence a lawsuit, the city continued to refuse to remedy the pay disparity. According to the brief, The city’s attitude expressed at the collective bargaining table was: “So, sue us.”

Teamster’s Local 237 alleges that the city is violating the federal Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act and the NYS Human Rights Law by willfully compensating the predominantly female School Safety Agent workforce at a lower rate of pay than it compensates the predominantly male Special Officer workforce. The minority of males in the School Safety Agent title are also direct victims of the city’s willful discrimination in regards to pay, as they are compensated at a lesser rate of pay than Special Officers because they are employed in the predominately female School Safety Agent title.

On behalf of School Safety Agents, Teamster’s Local 237 is requesting that the court permanently prevent NYC from engaging in pay discrimination and enter a judgment for back pay.

Assemblyman Walter Mosley Tackles Tough Issues

Mary Alice Miller
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Assemblyman Walter Mosley


Walter Mosley, newly elected assemblyman for the 57th AD, has been in office for a mere six months. In that time, he has taken hard stances on issues ranging from affordable housing at Atlantic Yards, payday lending, human rights of the formerly incarcerated and tenants. “As a member of the Assembly, as a trustee, I was elected to make sure that people don’t take advantage of my constituents and I likewise advocate on their behalf,” said Assemblyman Mosley.
At the top of Mosley’s list is promised affordable housing at Atlantic Yards. Mosley sits on the Corporations and Authorities Committee. He and Committee Chairman Assemblyman Jim Brennan are in consultation with Ken Adams at Empire State Development Corp. “One of the main concerns that we have outstanding is whether or not the building affordable housing is necessary to extend to 25 years,” said Mosley, “as opposed to 10 years that was originally agreed to build the affordable housing component of this project.”

Mosley wants to know why the 15-year extension is needed given that the economy seems to be bouncing back — particularly Wall Street, the dire need for housing and the developer building module components at the Navy Yard which makes for faster building, expediting the entire process. “With all those factors in place, we don’t believe an added 15 years is necessary or will be conducive to the original demands that the community made in lieu of the agreement to build here,” said Mosley. “Clearly, the restraints that they had post-2008 when the market collapsed and the housing bubble burst are not there. That excuse is no longer afforded to them.”

Concerned that local taxpayers see a return on their subsidies for Atlantic Yards, Mosley said he doesn’t want to see people forced out due to attrition because either they are not going to be here, they’ll move or they might not be eligible because maybe their situation changed. “We want to be able to take advantage of affordable housing now,” said Mosley. “We do not want to lose sight of the purpose for why the site was even given the opportunity. It wasn’t about basketball. It wasn’t about the NBA. It wasn’t about the Nets. This is about survival for the middle class and people who want to still live in Brooklyn, who still want to raise their family here in Brooklyn. The world knows about Brooklyn. The borough president did a great job branding Brooklyn. Now it is time for the state to take care of Brooklyn.”

Mosley sits on the Banks Committee which has been subjected to intense lobbying from the payday lending industry and check cashing associations who want to be able to offer that service to poor working people and those on fixed incomes. “Fortunately, we have a chair – Annette Robinson – who knows all too well this issue. She dealt with Rent-a-Center and that whole industry which kind of parallels what [the pay day lending industry] wants to do in terms of exorbitant interest rates and fees and penalties for nonpayment,” said Mosley. “We see as a potential draining of resources and equity coming out of our community as opposed to staying in. As a member of the Banking Committee, we don’t see the benefit, particularly in our communities where there is a culture of people — a shark-type mentality — trying to take advantage of people who might not be fully aware of their rights. I was put in this position to protect the rights and liberties of my constituents and not allow them to be possibly taken advantage of.”

Mosley said he does worry about the online access, which is federally regulated. He is hoping to minimize the impact by keeping commercial outreach to late-night television.

As a member of the Codes Committee, which deals with anything that has a monetary or penal penalty, Mosley is sponsoring legislation suggested by Chief Judge Lippman that would give judges a little more sentencing discretion regarding Class D felonies which would save money for the state and taxpayers while at the same time minimizing someone’s need to be incarcerated. He is also working on a bill that would add the opportunity for the formerly incarcerated to file a discriminatory claim by a public entity with the Division of Human Rights, in addition to the current Article 78 proceeding in the Court of Claims. “If you’re part of a protected class – whether you are a woman, minority, mentally or physically disabled – you should be given the same opportunity to file a discriminatory claim,” said Mosley. “This one discrepancy, which sets aside formerly incarcerated, is another injustice that we are going to try to correct so that we don’t further punish individuals who have already paid their debt to society. We are going to continue to advocate for it. Hopefully, we will get it through the Assembly and the Senate, and then make it to the governor’s desk.”

Mosley is working on technical legislation to curb potential abuses from landlords who have outstanding building violations yet claim major capital improvements that increase rent in perpetuity. In the wake of natural disasters and weather patterns like last year’s earthquake that led to the collapse of a building on Myrtle Ave. and the Manhattan building façade that fell during Hurricane Sandy, Mosley wants to put an emphasis on safety that needs to be provided by building owners. He also wants the state to assist the city with increased personnel for building-by-building oversight and compliance.

Mosley is skeptical of a bill that would allow homeowners and apartment tenants to rent short-term stays online. “To me, it sets a poor precedent for public safety,” said Mosley. “It’s one thing to go to a hotel where there are amenities like video cameras, on-site security and personnel to ensure safety. But when you’re talking about the ability for a private dwelling to rent out for 30 days, 60 days or a week to someone you might not have properly vetted, you don’t know their criminal history, their propensities, why they are here and you don’t know what you are exposing the tenants living there full-time to – particularly our elderly, our young and those who may be physically or developmentally disabled – you don’t know what you’re exposing the general public to.”

Pointing to the growing hotel industry, particularly in downtown Brooklyn, Mosley said, “We want to be able to take advantage of the tax dollars that come in – particularly tourists from other countries. We want to be able to take advantage of that and raise revenue for a state which is cash-strapped. I think the fiscal implications, along with the public safety issues, are something that I have some serious reservations about.”

Parents, Education Law Center asking Feds to investigate city high school Admission Policy

Stephen Witt
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While history has yet to determine how well the city has fared under mayoral control of public schools, the lame duck Bloomberg Administration’s Department of Education appears to be going out facing a complaint to the federal Office of Civil Rights that the city is setting up black and Hispanic students for failure.
The complaint, filed May 20, alleges that the DOE’s current policy of letting parents and students pick their choice of high schools is skewered so black and Hispanic pupils often wind up in struggling schools with more high-needs pupils.
“Our point is African-American and Hispanic students unproportionately end up in schools with lower graduation rates,” said Education Law Center attorney Wendy Lecker, who filed the complaint on behalf of parents and students.
Currently city high schools admit students on the basis of academic records, state test scores, attendance, student preference, available space and other factors.
The federal complaint cites city statistics that show high schools with more black and Hispanic students had graduation rates of 48% in 2010, compared with an average city graduation rate of 65%.
Lecker pointed out in a recent WNYC SchoolBook editorial that while the Bloomberg administration prides itself on data in its efforts to reduce New York City’s achievement gap, its own data demonstrates its policies have contributed to widening that gap.
“As far back as 2006, the DOE was advised by its consultants, the Parthenon Group, that concentrating high-needs students — defined as over-age/under-credited students and low performing students — in particular high schools reduces the overall graduation rate of those schools,” wrote Lecker.
Lecker wrote that Parthenon’s study revealed that large concentrations of high-needs students affected the entire school population, negatively impacting students who may have otherwise succeeded in high school.
For instance, she wrote, students who entered high school barely proficient on state tests had the same graduation rate as highly proficient students if they were placed in a school with a low concentration of high-needs students. However, when that concentration increased, the graduation rates for barely proficient students dropped twenty percentage points, while the graduation rates of the highly proficient students remained constant.
DOE officials countered that eliminating the achievement gap is a core goal of the city’s school reform strategy under Mayor Bloomberg.

”The s administration inherited an unequal system, where zip code often determined a child’s fate,” said Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg in an emailed statement. “Today every student has the freedom to apply to any school throughout the city.”

A DOE spokesperson also cited 2011 graduation statistics that show the gulf between white students and their black and Hispanic classmates has shrunk by a quarter since 2005.

But Lecker said the DOE is missing the point that sticking large numbers of black and Hispanic students in low-performing high schools, which may include a high concentration of students with special needs and ESL students, is putting them at a strong disadvantage.

Lecker drew similarities to these types of situations to what’s happening in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently closed 50 schools and where that city is now facing several lawsuits because of this.
Emanuel opened up a lot of charter schools that curiously have a lower percentage of low-performing, special needs and ESL kids, she said.

Now the students from Chicago, which has a huge gang problem that aren’t in charter schools will have to cross gang boundaries to the shrinking public schools that serve all kids, she added.

Finalists for Medgar Evers College Presidency to Visit Campus Next Week

Editor, Our Time Press
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May 30, 2013 | Two nationally prominent educators who are finalists for the presidency of Medgar Evers College will meet with key stakeholders on campus next week.

John Garland is the first president-in-residence at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and served as the longtime president of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, leading the historically black university through two cycles of reaccreditation.

Fayneese S. Miller is dean of the University of Vermont’s College of Education and Social Services and a professor of human development, educational leadership and social policy.

A third finalist will be announced next week.

The presidency of Medgar Evers College attracted a high-quality pool of more than 50 candidates, which is approximately the same number who applied for the City College presidency two years ago. The University search committee selected 14 candidates for extensive interviews and approved three finalists to visit the campus.
Each will visit the campus for a daylong schedule of meetings with executive administration and deans; department chairs; higher education officers; students; and representatives from the College Council, Faculty Senate and Professional Staff Congress. A meet-the-candidate forum and two Community Council panels will follow those meetings.

“It comes as no surprise that the search for a new president of Medgar Evers College attracted so many applications,” said Trustee Valerie Lancaster Beal, who chaired the University’s search committee. “We look forward to the input of the campus community, which the chancellor will consider in making his recommendation to the Board of Trustees.”

The search committee included CUNY Trustees, the presidents of Medgar Evers’ Community Council and the alumni association, elected student government leaders and a president of a CUNY senior college.

John Garland, as president of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, led the historically black university through two cycles of reaccreditation, rebuilt its financial and administrative systems, oversaw a 150 percent increase in enrollment, refurbished facilities, built eight new academic and residential buildings, and developed a facilities master plan and academic and administrative strategic plans. He also established new academic programs and created the College of Science and Engineering.

As a Marine corporal E-4, Garland received the Purple Heart for wounds received as an infantry squad leader in Vietnam. He was a staff attorney with the Federal Communications Commission. At the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, he recruited and trained more than 100 lawyers to represent veterans who received less than honorable military discharges. He codirected an employment project for the Center for Law and Social Policy, challenging the Nixon administration’s impounding of funds before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Before the U.S. Supreme Court, he filed an amicus brief for the National Medical Association (which advocates for physicians and patients of African descent) in an employment discrimination case.

Garland started a legal service program for low-income residents of 11 rural counties in North Carolina. He was general counsel of the University of the District of Columbia. At the University of Virginia, he was associate general counsel, executive assistant to the president and then associate vice provost for intellectual property. He now serves as the first president-in-residence at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which assists the students, faculty and executive leadership of the 47 public historically black colleges and universities, and was appointed by the secretary of the Navy to the Board of Visitors (which advises the president) of the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.

He received a B.A. from Central State University and a J.D. from the Ohio State University College of Law.


Fayneese S. Miller is dean of the College of Education and Social Services and professor of human development, educational leadership and social policy at the University of Vermont. As dean she is the chief academic, fiscal and administrative officer of the college, which has some 17 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs. She retired an inherited deficit within two years and, during the recession, balanced budgets without freezing or eliminating positions; actively fundraised; and, over seven years, hired the largest number of diverse faculty at UVM. She charged a committee with studying undergraduate education at UVM, resulting in creation of first- and second-year experiences for all students, among other changes. Reorganization led to increased research collaboration, decreased course duplication, better faculty morale, greater student satisfaction and higher graduation rates.

Previously, she was associate professor of education and human development at Brown University, a past director of Brown’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, and developer and first chair of its first ethnic studies program. As a social psychologist, she specializes in the psychosocial development of youth, with emphasis on alienation, social identity and cross-racial friendships. With funding from the Eli Lilly Foundation, she conducted research on black males. For the Rhode Island Supreme Court, she studied perceptions of racial/ethnic bias, and for the Rhode Island Family Court she looked at school-based truancy courts. She serves on the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Truancy Prevention Association Board; in collaboration with that agency, she wrote a bench book on truancy for family court judges. She recently completed a book, “Transforming Learning Environments: Strategies for the Next Generation,” and co-authored a forthcoming book on adolescent social behavior with George Liebowitz.

Miller earned a B.A. in psychology at Hampton University, an M.S. in experimental psychology and a Ph.D. in experimental social psychology at Texas Christian University, and did postdoctoral work at Yale University and applied social psychology.

Medgar Evers, located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is a growing school of approximately 7,000 students who overwhelmingly are the first in their family to go to college. It offers both associate and baccalaureate degrees. At its founding in 1970, it was named for the civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1963 with the hope that “his ideals will inspire students and faculty … in their pursuit of truth as the surest path to human freedom and social justice.”

In recent years, the University has invested more than $300 million in new and newly renovated campus facilities, including a new $235 million, state-of-the-art academic building and a $22 million School of Business and student support services building. Meanwhile, the college has expanded its faculty, particularly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), nursing, business social work and library science. The newest hires bring impressive academic and professional credentials, along with research backgrounds in venues as varied as NASA, South Africa and Vietnam, in disciplines as cutting-edge as stem-cells, remote sensing of greenhouse gases and renewable and sustainable energy.

Parent's Notebook

Aminisha Black
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MontVerde Academy, Florida held its 100th high school graduation May 18th. Dakari Johnson, my fifth grandchild to graduate high school and 172 other students from 27 other countries speaking 20 different languages received their diplomas and added their choices of colleges totaling 219 for the Academy. This event fueled my vision of creating families, communities and ultimately a world where differences are accepted – where individuals from birth are appreciated in anticipation of what they individually bring to make dynamic families, communities, nation and world. During this month dedicated to Mothers the PN ask that mothers , grand and great grandmothers join us in taking responsibility for our children’s freedom and success, empowering them to create a different world.

Whether the topic is poor performance in school or juvenile crime, the issues of “no father in the home, teenage mothers , grandparent as guardian, foster care immediately surface. The composition of today’s families become the focus rather than the needs of the individual child.

Given all the possible appearances of today’s families, in principle its job remains the same. From the beginning of time the family has been the foundation of society, being its smallest unit. A child is nurtured in the family. Moral, spiritual, educational and social development occurs here. Relationships with family last a lifetime regardless of quality.

The role nor the importance of family has not changed. The statistics that institutions publicize as theirs, whether it be schools, prisons or foster care agencies, are really statistics on the effectiveness of families. While the role of the family has not changed, our practice has. Adults spend more time at work, work related activities, affiliations, personal leisure time activities and less time with their children. The appearance of families documents the social revolution of our culture. High divorce rates that create one-parent homes or homes with step parents, single women birthing and raising children alone, same sex partners, large numbers of children in foster care all contribute to the changes in a family’s composition. Add to these the fact that today more mothers are employed (if lucky) outside the home, possibly altering the effectiveness of the tr additional two-parent home.

While there may be legitimate reasons for giving parenting a lower priority the challenge is to arrange your life, however it looks, so that the children in your care get what they need in order to thrive. We have become resigned to reading statistics as if they actually belong to the institution issuing them. Therein lies the danger of diminishing the importance of family. When institutions , especially those under capitalist control, become responsible for the education and socialization of our children, failure is the only predictable outcome. If the family and community abdicate their responsibility, children become the fodder for the maintenance and expansion of governmental businesses, i.e. extended school days/years, special education, foster care, jails. While agency statistics are just that – numbers, the family and the community are intimately affected by the plight of the human being behind the statistic.

Children (humans for that matter) have needs and unless those needs are met, we can expect behaviors ranging from inappropriate to low achieving to destructive. Children need food, shelter, physical and emotional security, love, a sense of belonging, and values in order to thrive. They also need to develop skills in order to become self-reliant, productive members of society. These needs are non-negotiable. The first step in parents regaining their place of influence is establishing and maintaining consistent practice of recovering and developing self esteem in all members of the family by recognizing and placing emphasis on their worth. Contact Parents Notebook@parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

PN ALERTS!!!
***June 9th – 2pm – Dr. Glory’s Youth Theatre: FREE family event – “Everything is a Part of Everything!” an artistic, modern day dramatic musical that debates the role and responsibility of the Family in Global Warming and Earth Sustainability. Location: The Riverside Theatre – 91 Claremont Ave. bet. 120th and 122nd St. FREE. RSVP by calling 212-870-6784.
*** Clinton Hill Branch of the BPL will be closed this summer for Renovations.
*** A Suggestion from Bro. Ogundipe: Check with your neighborhood libraries to see how they dispose of books for whatever reason. Some librarians are willing to hold them for member selections.

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