Public Employee Press

PIER 76
$8.7 million home for horses,
nothing for tow pound workers

By JANE LaTOUR

When the elite Mounted Unit of the New York Police Dept. needed a new home, the city built the horses a palace in less than six months. But union clerical and blue-collar employees at the NYPD’s nearby tow pound have worked for years in a frigid, fume-ridden firetrap — and nobody’s doing anything for them.

The new stables include a heated 6,500-square-foot training ring and spacious stalls as well as unit headquarters and locker rooms for Troop B. “Through a real team effort and a lot of hard work we are putting our officers and their mounts in this spectacular facility,” said Mayor Bloomberg at the opening ceremony in 2007. “It is only fitting that the horses have the best possible accommodations in Manhattan,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

Attached to the shiny façade of the $8.7 million facility on Pier 76 is the Manhattan Tow Pound — dingy, disgusting and dirty. Union members at the tow pounds do tough jobs and bring in over $500 million a year in city revenue.

Local 983’s Motor Vehicle Operators tow vehicles to the garage at Pier 76, where all the exhaust fans are broken and diesel fumes hang in the air. The place is ice cold in the winter and steamy in summer. Personnel lockers line a distant wall. Members of Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 collect fines and process paperwork in a rickety old trailer.

“There’s a serious problem here with cleanliness and the fumes. The environment has caused members to be carried out by the Emergency Medical Service,” said Clerical Division Council Rep Nate Hurt. “We’ve been promised new structures, but we haven’t gotten them.”

Towing revenue climbs

Despite the terrible conditions, workers continue to fill the city coffers with revenue. “This place brings in money six days a week around the clock,” said Cashier Annette Richardson, who will mark her 20th anniversary at Pier 76 in June. “They’re towing in big tractor trailers and tour buses, and those fines start at $370.”

NYPD’s own data show an ever-increasing number of tows. “There’s no question that parking fines and towing revenue have gone up by hundreds of millions of dollars,” Comptroller John Liu said in August.

But not a penny goes for the employees’ working conditions. “Our workstations are crowded, they’re uncomfortable, and they’re far from ergonomic! We’re breathing all kinds of things and boxes are piled high all over,” said Local 1549 Shop Steward Linda A. Hall, a cashier at the site since 1992.

Cashier Annette Richardson said, “All kinds of things that I breathe here trigger my asthma. When you come in, you smell the horses and the fumes from the tow trucks and the towed vehicles. I lost a whole month’s work due to the poor air quality.”

The whole facility is an employee’s nightmare — rugs are taped down, floors are cracked, there’s no ventilation in the bathroom, and a storage room jammed with boxes blocks the exit. “The Fire Department came in here in 2003 and labeled that a fire hazard,” said Richardson.

“The conditions here are unhealthy and disgusting,” said Principal Program Coordinator Lisa Baum of the DC 37 Safety and Health Dept.

“The NYPD has horses that are treated better than these members,” Local 983 Recording Secretary Clarice Wilson said in 2007. Despite management promises, nothing has changed.