President Floyd addressing the City Council. Seated with him is Secretary-Treasurer Ruben Torres.

Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd gave testimony in front of the City Council’s Housing Committee to reveal that NYCHA’s new plan, called FlexOps, which shifts working hours of our members, is nothing more than a “PR” trick that does not increase the number of workers nor improve services for residents. Plus, Floyd vigorously voiced safety concerns for our members, adding that FlexOps violates our contract, and is blatant union-busting.

President Floyd told the City Council: “You, as elected officials are now being asked to support something called FlexOps at NYCHA. You have been told the lie that with no increase in its numbers, a largely minority women labor force of caretakers, with changed working hours, will somehow repair failed NYCHA management practices. You have also been told the additional lie that Local 237 Teamsters and its members agreed to those changes. Those who told you such things are liars. They are trying to pit you, public officials, against union members …NYCHA is union busting. FlexOps violates our contract. It is a public relations stunt that will actually provide fewer workers, not more. It will injure and endanger the largely minority women labor force by reducing existing day care options while forcing those women to work hours when more violence occurs at poorly managed and violence-prone NYCHA sites. It is just dumb, anti-union, anticommon sense.”

Local 237 sought and obtained an injunction to halt the implementation of FlexOps based on security concerns. This is the first time that a municipal union was granted an injunction based on safety. Ultimately, an agreement was reached with NYCHA for a pilot program that does not force current members to work alternate shifts and requires security issues raised by Local 237 to be fixed before and during implementation of the program. Among the security measures are: Requiring functioning indoor and outdoor lighting on all stairwells, roofs, walkways, parking lots and ramps to the basement; all broken windows and other access points must be repaired; all access doors must have functioning locks; all existing security cameras must be operational: and repairs to all of the above security-related equipment must be fixed within four days of Local 237 reporting the problem to NYCHA. FlexOps will begin July 5 at 11 NYCHA developments.