Stock workers and supervisors of stock workers employed by the automotive divisions of New York City’s fire, sanitation and police departments completed a training program to upgrade their skills and salaries. The training was among the mandated advancements in a Supreme Court settlement that Local 237 fought long and hard to achieve.


Stock workers and supervisors train at computers to update their skills for work in automotive stock rooms.

Local 237 President Carl Haynes and Secretary-Treasurer Gregory Floyd encouraged the legal action with a commitment to use whatever means necessary for as long as necessary to achieve victory for the stock workers.

“I am pleased that the city ultimately saw the value of hiring trained stock workers and supervisors to do what they are supposed to do,” says Haynes, adding, “We captured savings for the city and transferred the benefits to our members.”

The settlement, reached last year, was the result of a five-year battle waged against the city by Local 237, which filed a Supreme Court discrimination lawsuit on Dec. 8, 2000, seeking reforms of long-term injustices.

The results of the settlement on behalf of defendants Rafael Lopez, a supervisor of stock workers III; Herman Edwards, a stock worker II, Glenn Drew, a stock worker II, and all other similar stock workers, were to expand the work week to 40 hours from 35 with the additional hour of work each day paid as overtime, and to provide training for stock workers to acquire skills to best perform their jobs in automotive stock rooms. Local 237 paid for all the costs associated with the training program, and members were trained on their own time.

Randy Klein, Local 237’s Citywide assistant director, who came from the Sanitation Department’s Automotive Stores Division to become a business agent at the union in 1999, recalls bringing the discrimination case through the grievance procedure and eventually to the Supreme Court with the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein.

“The city had been paying stock workers half the salaries earned by mechanics, based on the understanding that mechanics have more expertise,” explains Klein. “But stock workers were often asked to supervise and train mechanics.” Generally the mechanics working for the city were white males and the stock workers were black, notes Klein, adding that the city later began hiring mechanics, at higher wages, to do stock workers’ jobs, claiming that mechanics had the necessary skills.

The training mandated by the settlement addresses the skills and salary issues. Having successfully completed the Automotive Stores Titles Skills Enhancing Training, which includes parts identification and computer skills, and having a valid New York State driver’s license, stock workers are qualified to receive an additional $2,045 per year for as long as they are employed in that title.

Annual pay for many of the 30 stock workers involved in the settlement increases by about $7,000 to $10,000, including the overtime and the pay increase following the training. Also as a result of the training program, the city was able to save money by hiring stock workers with the necessary skills at appropriate wages. Since the settlement, the three agencies have hired more than 20 new stock workers to currently employ 50 in the title.

“While we didn’t get everything we wanted,” says Klein, “It is the first time the stores division has moved forward in 25 years. Hopefully it’s only the beginning.”