Public Employee Press

Moving DC 37 ahead

Walthene Primus was elected Secretary at the DC 37 Delegates Council meeting in January.

With 91,000 plus votes, she won by a landslide the three-way race to fill the executive position vacated by former Local 1070 President Cliff Koppelman, who retired.

Her election occurred at the Delegates Council's monthly meeting on Jan. 26. The union's more than 300 delegates cast weighted votes representing a portion of their locals' membership. Primus brings four decades of experience to the office. She chairs the DC 37 Women's Committee and serves on AFSCME's Women's Advisory Committee of DC 37's parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Mayor Bill de Blasio recently appointed Primus as one of seven commissioners to the newly created Commission on Gender Equity. Primus is a strong advocate for the rights of female workers, who make up almost 60 percent of the union's membership. She is committed to ensuring that all women are respected on the job, and also are paid equal wages and get opportunities for training and promotions.

"We have to engage members to raise their appreciation for the union in their lives," she said. "Membership in DC 37 impacts the whole person - it protects their jobs, wages and health so they can sustain their families, and live in safer communities that receive better services."

As a child of the Great Migration, Primus moved to Brooklyn at age 5 from St. George, S.C, and she has been working since she was 15. Her civil service career began in 1977 at the New York City Housing Authority.

Primus served as was a shop steward for NYCHA Clerical Employees Local 957 for almost 15 years before members elected her president. She's been a DC 37 Executive Board member since 2002. "I am looking forward to moving DC 37 ahead," Primus said.

"The labor movement faces vicious attacks from conservatives that are far more serious than our members may realize. I'm here to support our executive director and take our agenda to the next level."

— Diane S. Williams