Democratic Mid-Island City Council candidate Mendy Mirocznik receives an endorsement Monday from City Employees Union Local 237 President Greg Floyd at PS 54, Willowbrook. Mirocznik supports the union's lawsuit seeking equal pay for school safety agents, 70 percent of whom are women, and who make 20 percent less than other peace officers in the city.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- They stand at tireless alert at public school entrances, knowing they would be the first line of defense if the unthinkable were to happen: A breach of security such as what took place in Newtown, Conn.
They regularly break up fights among students, and in schools like DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, according to court papers, they have confiscated so many weapons there is a locker full of the dangerous stash in the Dean's Office.
School safety officers also go through the lengthy hiring process and submit to the training protocols of the New York Police Department to secure their jobs.
But 70 percent of the force of 5,000 school safety agents -- including the 256 on Staten Island -- are women.
And with a top salary of $35,000 a year, they make 20 percent less than their counterparts, so-called special officers who protect hospitals, homeless shelters and other buildings in the city.
Such are the charges of a sweeping gender discrimination lawsuit against the city launched by Teamsters Local Union 237 that could go to trial in the fall.
For his vocal support of what he called "equal pay for equal work," Democratic Mid-Island City Council Candidate Mendy Mirocznik Monday earned the endorsement of Teamsters 237, which represents school safety agents.
"He acknowledges the leading role that school safety officers play in helping to ensure students and faculty feel protected and there is a secure environment in which they can learn and play." said Local 237 President Greg Floyd, during a press conference at PS 54, Willowbrook. "This is one of our biggest issues; and Mendy contacted us and told us he would help us fight for it, whether we endorsed him or not."
The union represents 26,000 members citywide, among them 1,000 members on Staten Island.
Other members represented by the union are employed as so-called peace officers in more male-centric forces, including those protecting the New York Housing Authority buildings, the city's homeless shelters and institutions run by the Health and Hospital Corporation, such as Sea View Rehabilitation Center and Home.
They make, on average, $7,000 more a year than school safety officers, who start at $31,000 and, no matter how much seniority they attain, never make more than a base salary of $35,000 a year.
"Fairness is very near and dear to me. Men and women should be paid the same rate," said Mirocznik, of Willowbrook, a member of Community Board 2, court attorney to Acting Supreme Court Justice Orlando (Lindy) Marrazzo and president of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Staten Island. "You want to pay enough to make sure we can attract the best and the brightest, especially after what happened in Newtown."
The $35-million class-action lawsuit seeks an adjustment in wages going forward as well as retroactive pay for the city's 5,000 school safety agents, virtually all of whom have signed on.
The plaintiffs' attorney, James Linsey, said expert witnesses last week filed paperwork supporting the safety agents' complaints that their job duties are commensurate with the special officers represented by Local 237, and who make more. Many of the women, he noted, regularly put in 10-plus-hour days to make enough overtime, just to be able to pay the bills.
"How can anyone in this day and age say protecting schools and children is any less important than protecting patients in a hospital?" said the Manhattan-based Linsey, who also came out to Willowbrook to support Mirocznik. "The union had asked the city to equalize pay for these titles, and they said no, and 'sue us,' and so we did."
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