Public Employee Press

Arbiter awards $18,000 to Local 1549 member

India Nelson has an outstanding record of winning grievances. As a chief shop steward for Clerical-Administrative Local 1549, Ms. Nelson heads up the stewards who enforce the contract at the Food Stamps office in downtown Brooklyn.

“India and I were a great team,” said Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez. “We won a lot of grievances together.” Now, one of those grievances, filed back in Dec. 2000, when Mr. Rodriguez was a Grievance Rep, has paid off for Local 1549 member Dorothy Murray-Weathers.

Three years after filing a working-out-of-title grievance, Ms. Murray-Weathers won an arbitration award of $18,000. “I think I finally got what I deserve,” she said. A Clerical Associate III in the Human Resources Administration since 1995, she was doing the work of a Principal Administrative Assistant I in the Eligibility Verification Review program. The $18,000 she was awarded amounts to the difference in salary between the two titles.

Unfortunately, she is still being required to do this work. So, with Ms. Nelson, she is filing another grievance. “They keep telling me to do the work, so I intend to keep filing grievances until I get the salary that goes with the job.”

Clerical Division Director Ronnie Harris applauded this attitude. “It’s good to see members and the union pursuing grievances until they’re successful,” he said. “That’s why we have a contract and why we train our members, shop stewards and staff.”

“I knew we were going to win,” said India Nelson. “Dorothy Weathers went all the way!” But the hard-working Ms. Nelson is determined to keep the pressure on, since out-of-title work is so widespread.

“Management has a job to do, and they will get it done by any means necessary. They keep piling on more and more work. If the employees don’t agree to do the work, then they start a vendetta against you,” she said.

President Rodriguez pointed out that, “People can’t live on management’s promises. It took a stand-up woman and the union to get the money.” For India Nelson, being a vigilant steward is its own reward. “This is very important work,” she said. “If it wasn’t for the union, the members would just be stepped on.”