Public Employee Press


A vigorous contract enforcer
Research and negotiations director retires

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Evelyn Seinfeld, the union's director of research and negotiations, retired in April after more than 40 years at DC 37.

"Evelyn has touched the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of city workers through her highly specialized work on civil service issues, contracts and legislation," DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido said. "We all owe her a big debt of gratitude for the central role she played in building up the contractual language and practices that govern labor relations in New York City."

"With her unmatched institutional memory, Evelyn has given all of us the tools we need to carry out the union's mission of enforcing worker rights," said David Paskin, the new director of research and negotiations.

Seinfeld began her career with the city in 1970 as a librarian at Brooklyn Public Library. In 1975, Al Viani, then the director of the union's Dept. of Research and Negotiations, hired her as a research librarian.

Seinfeld moved up the staff ranks as an assistant director and associate director before becoming the Research and Negotiations director in January 2011.

Throughout her career, she maintained her identity as a librarian, working as the negotiator for Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482.

"She has always wanted to remain a member of the local," Local 1482 President Eileen Muller said. "She knows our contract backwards and forwards. With her institutional knowledge, she was invaluable. We could always count on her to tell us the proper avenues to take."

Over the years, Seinfeld was a major contributor in union negotiating victories, including crafting pension protection legislation, winning due process rights for provisional workers, preserving civil service rights, saving 400 Local 372 members from layoffs in 2011, ensuring that tens of thousands of DC 37 members received payments for wage deferrals imposed during the1970s fiscal crisis and serving as the chief negotiator of the 2010-17 economic agreement.

"Everything I know in the field of research is because of Evelyn," said Sr. Assistant Dir. Moira Dolan, reflecting the feelings of many staffers in the Research and Negotiations Dept.

"I had to constantly rely on her for costing out contract provisions, knowing the negotiations history of union locals, understanding civil service issues, being up to date on layoff and recall rights - you name it," Dolan said.

Seinfeld is soft-spoken. But when members' rights were threatened, as the union's chief contract enforcer, she vigorously took on management.

"Evelyn is a true believer in the union and the union movement," said Director of Human Resources Amy Kadlub, a close friend of Seinfeld. "Because of her quiet disposition, some people assumed she was a pushover," Kadlub said. "But if you talk to her adversaries across the table and the people in our building who know her well, they will all affectionately describe her as a dog with a bone. She knows the facts. She'd catch anyone who attempted to violate the contract."