Public Employee Press

NAACP honors Local 1549's Alma Roper and Local 371's Joe Nazario

The New York Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People honored Local 1549 Executive Vice President and DC 37 Vice President Alma Roper and SSEU Local 371 Secretary Treasurer Joseph Nazario Dec. 2.

"I felt honored to receive the award surrounded by my family and fellow trade unionists," Nazario said. "No matter how much we push forward towards equality, our opponents try to push us back. We have to keep up the struggle."

Roper said the New York branch "has played a major role in our quest for freedom, equality, and justice, and a major role in my life as an African American woman."

Roper is vice president of the 165th Street Block Association and a Parent Teachers Association activist at Brooklyn's Cornerstone Baptist Church. Nazario, an NAACP life member who started as a Hospital Care Investigator and union delegate in the 1960s, is active in the Hispanic community and labor organizations.

Roper became a Police Communications Technician in 1989 and a grievance rep in 2008. Both Nazario and Roper are members of the NAACP.