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                  Get to know your Business Agent today!  Find out how the union makes a difference on the job. |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, January 26, 2006 Contact: Moronke Oshin 212-924-2000 ext. 8593 LOCAL 237 MAINTENANCE WORKERS WIN IMPROPER PRACTICE CHARGE AGAINST PARKS DEPT. New York City — Three Teamsters Local 237 maintenance workers were vindicated Jan. 23, 2006 after the Board of Collective Bargaining granted the union's improper practice petition, finding that The Department of Parks and Recreation committed improper practices by transferring Ralph Biscotti and Angelo Gerbasio for testifying and prevailing in an arbitration, and threatening to transfer Mitch Rippe for refusing requests from supervisors to perform out-of-title work. In its decision, The Board ordered the Parks Dept. to "cease and desist from retaliating against Ralph Biscotti, Angelo Gerbasio and Mitch Rippe;" to "cease and desist threatening adverse employment actions against Mitch Rippe;" to "recind the transfers of Ralph Biscotti and Angelo Gerbasio and return them to Forest Park Shops in Queens;" and ordered to make assignments to the men "without consideration of their union activity and in the same manner that it makes assignments to other similarly-situated employees who have refused to drive." The Board also ordered the Dept. to post a notice regarding the decision and order "for no less than thirty days at all locations used by Parks for written communications with bargaining unit employees." Attorney Barry J. Peek of the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein, P.C., who represented Local 237, had argued that Biscotti and Gerbasio were transferred to a Far Rockaway location and assigned menial work -- to "walk on the boardwalk and bang down the nails which had popped up" -- simply because they had previously won a grievance against the Parks Dept. on May 18, 2004 in which an arbitrator ruled that the agency should "cease and desist requiring Grievants to drive parks' vehicles" because "driving is a duty substantially different from those duties stated in their job specification." "I applaud the decision and the fact that OCB is demanding that they post notice of the award on bulletin boards throughout the workplace so that members cannot be intimidated by their supervisors to perform work that has been ruled as out of title," said Local 237 President Carl Haynes. "These members obviously read their contract and took action to fight back knowing they had the full support of their union behind them," he added. Teamsters Local 237 represents more than 23,000 public employees in New York City agencies, the New York City Housing Authority and on Long Island. The union is the largest local in the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. |
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