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PEP Jan-Feb 2016
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Public Employee Press

Snapshots
Edited by Alfredo Alvarado
Mike Riggio rides into retirement

Longtime union activist Mike Riggio retired in January after serving as director of the DC 37 White Collar Division since 2006.

"I was hired as a welder at the aquarium in 1986," Riggio said. "And I swore not to get involved with the union. But when I heard zookeepers complaining after management denied them overtime pay, I stepped up."

"It was a defining moment in my life-helping my coworkers get the overtime pay they rightfully deserved. We stuck together and we won," Riggio said.

After he served six years as shop steward and executive board member, union local members elected Riggio president of New York Zoological Employees Local 1501. He later joined DC 37 staff as a Council Rep in 1996 and was promoted to White Collar Division assistant director in 1999.

Riggio also serves as a board member of the DC 37 Cultural Institutions Health & Security Plan Trust.

One of his greatest accomplishments, he said, was helping to negotiate full reimbursement of Medicare Part B payments for DC 37 retirees who worked at New York City's world-class zoos, historical societies, botanic gardens and the New York Aquarium.

An avid biker, Riggio's retirement plans include spending more time on favorite pastimes - fishing and riding with his wife on their union-built Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

 
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