Public Employee Press

Union eyes new Med Examiner mortuary

Union members got a Friday afternoon tour on April 29 of the new state-of-the-art mortuary at Queens Hospital Center, where they will soon be doing their jobs — assisting doctors in autopsies, transporting bodies to the facility, and all of the other tasks that make up their day as employees of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The OCME is part of the city’s Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene. It investigates cases of persons who die in New York City from criminal violence or in other suspicious or unusual manners.

In addition to rank-and-file members, the participants in the inspection of the facility included DC 37 Hospitals Division Director Johnnie Locus, Council Rep Barbara Perrotte, Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 Vice President Togba Porte, Grievance Reps Edwin Badillo and Esther Hopkins, Steve Shaw, vice president of Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983, and Rebecca Porper, a principal program coordinator in DC 37’s Safety and Health Dept. Daniel Stevelman, assistant commissioner of operations, and Nicholas Fusco, assistant commissioner for capital and facilities management, conducted the walk-through for the OCME.

Fans of the popular TV show CSI would appreciate the topics discussed as the tour progressed throughout the building. Local 420 member Steve Oliveras has been a Mortuary Technician for four years. “It’s lovely,” he commented. “I’m a little worried about the autopsy tables,” he said. His concerns centered on drainage and other specialized aspects of his daily labors.

Shop Steward Raymond Smalls, a member of Local 983, has been driving at the location for fifteen years. “There is a new garage which is a nice feature,” he said. “At the old morgue, it was worrisome, because everyone could see and we always had to worry about closing the doors,” he pointed out. Mr. Smalls also liked the fact that the new morgue is on the ground floor.

“Because the autopsy room is on ground level and no longer in the basement, it can no longer be hidden away from sight,” said Ms. Porper. “It’s spacious and well-lit and the autopsy tables were designed so that they carry any air expelled from the bodies away from the breathing zone of the workers,” she explained.

The free-standing building is in the last stages of construction. Before the opening, Verizon will hook up the communications equipment. The history of the city’s morgues could be called CSI NY — for Constant State of Improvement.

After a long-standing record of noncompliance with safety and health standards, the city morgues are on their way to being the safest in the United States. The morgues in the public hospitals are now run by the OCME because the DOHMH asked the mayor to have the city assume control of the facilities. The new facility at the Queens Hospital Center is one big step forward in the quest to implement change within the OCME morgues.