Public Employee Press

New leadership at Municipal Labor Committee

Harry Nespoli, president of the New York City Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, was elected chair of the Municipal Labor Committee in September.

In the September election, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts was re-elected to her leadership post of executive vice chair. She had moved up to that position in December 2007 after serving as the secretary of the Municipal Labor Committee.

The MLC also selected DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Dennis Sullivan for its new executive director position. Sullivan was named to the position on an interim basis for a six-month period. As executive director, Sullivan will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the committee.

The MLC is the umbrella group of nearly 100 public employee unions that represent a total of 350,000 members who work for the City of New York and related employers such as the Health and Hospitals Corp. and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Its primary purpose is to represent the unions on health care, pensions and other benefits.

The MLC member unions chose Nespoli to replace Randi Weingarten, president of the New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, who was recently elected president of American Federation of Teachers. In light of her increased workload as head of both the UFT and the AFT, which represents 1.4 million teachers nationwide, she decided to step down as head of the MLC. Weingarten will continue to serve at the MLC as co-chair, Nespoli’s previous position.

Nespoli identified key issues the MLC will face in the near future:

• facilitating the settlement of contracts of municipal unions that remain open,
• continuing to fight to preserve health and pension benefits of municipal employees, and
• working with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to protect city services during the current fiscal difficulties facing both the city and state.

“Harry has the temperament, the thoughtfulness and the track record to take the MLC through these tumultuous times,” said Weingarten.