Public Employee Press

Local 154 mobilizes upstate workers
One grievance wins a member $80,000

Amalgamated Professional Employees Local 154 is mobilizing upstate, where it has set up a shop steward network, updated members about union business and filed many out-of-title grievances.

The local represents nearly 30 Research Assistants who work in the upstate watershed. The workers collect and test water samples for acidity and impurities, ensuring that the drinking water consumed by city residents is safe. They work in Ashokan and Gramsville in the Catskills and Valhalla in Westchester County.

“It is nice that people are making the effort to reach out to us,” said Christine Guarino, who was elected as Gramsville shop steward when Local 154 President Juan Fernandez, DC 37 Professional Division Director Stephanie Velez and DC 37 Rep Marianela Santana visited the Catskill workers. Richard Stratton now serves as the shop steward in Ashokan. The union team visited Valhalla in July.

“We are eager to improve the representation of our upstate members,” Mr. Fernandez said. “Meeting face-to-face with members is certainly more productive than merely communicating through the telephone. We want to encourage our members in Westchester and the Catskills to identify more with the union and see that it is responsive to their needs.”

At the meetings, the union team has informed members about their benefits, updated them about DC 37 activities and sought input about their workplace issues.

Out-of-title work is a big problem for the upstate workers. Local 154 has about 20 out-of-title grievances in the works. Ms. Santana has worked on the grievances with Assistant General Counsel Leonard Polletta of the DC 37 Legal Dept. Recently, former member Glenn Horton won an out-of-title-work grievance that earned him back pay of about $80,000.

Thanks to the grievance, the Dept. of Environmental Protection promoted him from the Local 154 title of Research Assistant to Associate Project Manager Level 1, a title in Civil Service Tech Guild Local 375 that pays about $15,000 more a year.

“While we’re sorry Glenn is no longer a part of our local, we were very happy to be able to support him in the grievance process, which has significantly furthered his career,” Mr. Fernandez said. “Improving our members’ livelihood is what the union is all about.”

Besides out-of-title work, another important issue is workplace safety. Some of the researchers work in a building where there is PCB and mercury pollution. (Now banned, PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are synthetic organic materials that were used for industrial and commercial applications, including electrical materials and paints.) The DC 37 Safety and Health Dept. is working on the matter and some members have volunteered to be tested.