Public Employee Press

Brooklyn-Queens Day arbitration award:
“Monumental” victory for Local 372 members

DC 37 won a major decision last month against the Dept. of Education, which had forced members of Local 372 to work on a holiday. An impartial arbitrator ruled that DOE had violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it required the members to work on Brooklyn-Queens Day, June 8, 2006, and again in 2007.

DOE was directed to pay the members who worked those days with compensatory time off plus a 50 percent cash premium and to restore leave days to those who did not work and used their own leave time for the holidays.

“I consider this to be a monumental victory for our members,” said Veronica Montgomery-Costa, the president of Local 372 and DC 37. “We have been enjoying this holiday since 1959. I guess the Dept. of Education felt that they could take it away from us.”

Since at least 1959, and continuing through 2005, the DOE and its predecessor, the Board of Education, had closed all schools in Brooklyn and Queens for the “Brooklyn-Queens Day” holiday.

Sometimes called “Anniversary Day,” the holiday is commemorated on the first Thursday in June;when it falls during the same week as Memorial Day, it’s celebrated the following week.

In 2006 and 2007, however, the Dept. of Education required Local 372 members in Brooklyn and Queens to work on the holiday.

The schools were open those days for teacher training, because in 2005 DOE and the teacher’s union negotiated a change in their contract, authorizing the day to be used for professional development. The change was implemented in 2006, but no such change was sought from Local 372 or negotiated with the six Local 372 bargaining units that represent School Aides, Family Workers, Substance Abuse Specialists, Neighborhood Workers, Hourly School Lunch Employees and Per Annum School Lunch Employees.

Union lawyers challenge DOE
In March 2006, on behalf of Local 372, the DC 37 Legal Dept. filed a group grievance challenging DOE’s decision to order the members to work on the holiday. Unable to resolve the case, the union took the issue to arbitration, and a hearing was held at DOE on May 23 with Assistant General Counsel Alan M. Brown representing the union.

At the hearing the union called as a witness Adele Trapp, the oldest active employee of the Department of Education. The 94-year-old School Aide, who works at JHS 215 in Brooklyn, explained the history of the holiday.

The chairman of the arbitration panel agreed with the union and ruled that the DOE violated the contract when it ­required members to work on Brooklyn-Queens Day in 2006 and 2007.

He ordered DOE to cease and desist from requiring bargaining unit members in Brooklyn and Queens to work on the holiday unless the department negotiates an agreement on the subject with the union.

“This is a landmark victory,” saidDC 37 General Counsel Eddie M. Demmings of the decision, which some estimates have suggested could affect as many as 15,000 members.