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April 4, 2025

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Federal policies may threaten city’s efforts to close gender and racial pay gaps City Council, advocates mark Equal Pay Day BY CRYSTAL LEWIS

clewis@thechiefleader.com

Policies ordered by the Trump administration are threatening to undo progress in closing the gender and racial wage gap, advocates said at an Equal Pay Day rally last week. Union leaders, members of the City Council, and advocates from Legal Momentum gathered at City Hall to mark Equal Pay Day, which represents how far into the current year women had to work to have earned what men earned the previous year. This year, Equal Pay Day was March 25. Women in New York earned 87 cents for every dollar compared with men, the advocates noted. But the pay gap was substantially worse for women of color across the state: on average, Black women earned 66 cents for every dollar earned by white men, while Latina women earned 60 cents compared with their white male counterparts. Nationally, Latina women were paid 51 cents for every dollar earned by white men on average; Black women earned 54 cents for every dollar. The City Council has passed several pieces of legislation in recent years aimed at closing gender and racial pay disparities, including pay transparency and salary history laws. But recent federal executive orders eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs could cause

workplaces to move backwards, the advocates warned. “Today we need to be prepared to fight even harder, because disparities are only going to get worse as attacks on women, people of color and the LGBTQ community become even more widespread and severe,” said Seher Khawaja, the deputy legal director at Legal Momentum. She noted that the policies could impact private-sector companies’ hiring and compensation decisions. “As we navigate under this cloud of misinformation, coercion and lawlessness, we must make clear that the administration’s executive orders do not change employers’ obligations under federal laws like Title VII and the Equal Pay Act, and they certainly do not change employers’ obligations under our much stronger state and local laws,” she said. The Council is weighing a series of bills that would strengthen the pay transparency laws, including by requiring employers to advertise benefits, nonwage compensation — such as stock options — and transfer and promotion opportunities in job listings. Another bill would require businesses that have more than 100 employees to report employees’ salaries, job title, gender, race, ethnicity and birth year, to the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, in order to achieve better data on the wage gap and increase transparency. “As a Council, we will continue to find creative and meaningful ways to address pay disparities on a city level, especially at a time when our

Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit

City Council members, including Speaker Adrienne Adams (at left of lectern), and union leaders Rebecca Damon of SAGAFTRA (at lectern) and CWA Local 1180’s Gloria Middleton (at right of lectern) marked Equal Pay Day at City Hall last week. The advocates highlighted legislation passed by the Council aimed at combating gender and wage disparities, which they said was important given efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle programs aimed at increasing diversity. rights and opportunities as women are under attack by the federal government under he whose name will not be repeated,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said. “New York must step up and lead, we are the

leaders of the nation. When women thousands” of dollars over their have equal access to opportunities, lifetimes. “Black women lose over $1.1 milall of us succeed.” Majority Leader Amanda Farías lion and Latinas lose $1.3 million in stated that the wage disparities have cost women “hundreds of See EQUAL, page 6

Ex-FDNY chief sentenced to 20 months in prison for bribery scheme Accepted payments for expediting inspections

FDNY

Brian Cordasco, flanked by then-FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh and thenChief of Department John Hodgens, at his February 2023 promotion to FDNY deputy assistant chief. Cordasco was sentenced on Monday to 20 months in prison and two years of supervised release for accepting bribes for expediting building inspections.

INSIDE Columbia unions unite against Trump, university

UAW locals urge reinstatement of terminated staff, p. 2

Unions urge more funding at state Labor Dept.

Labor groups fear federal cuts could hurt workers, p. 6 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, p. 4 EXAMS FOR JOBS, p. 11 LABOR AROUND THE WORLD, p. 12

128th Year — Vol. CXXIX, No. 6 Print and web subscriptions 212-962-2690 | thechief.org

monetize their offices and require New Yorkers to ‘pay-to-play,’ taking money in exchange for expediting government processes, do so at the risk of prison time,” city DepartBY CRYSTAL LEWIS ment of Investigation Commissionclewis@thechiefleader.com er Jocelyn Strauber said in a stateA former chief in the Fire De- ment. “By providing preferential partment’s Bureau of Fire Preven- treatment to clients of a former tion was sentenced to 20 months in FDNY colleague, expediting their prison and two years of supervised plan reviews and inspections in rerelease for accepting more than turn for over $50,000 in bribes, the $50,000 in bribes in exchange for ex- defendant prioritized his personal pediting building inspections, pros- financial interests over delivering ethical leadership and equitable ecutors announced. Brian Cordasco, 50, of Staten Island, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman in the ‘Brian Cordasco abused his Southern District of New York. The position of power by expediting ex-chief, who joined the FDNY in 2002, was fined $100,000 and ordered fire inspection services for those to forfeit $57,000 — the estimated who paid him bribes.’ amount in bribes he received. Cordasco pleaded guilty to con- —Matthew Podolsky, ACTING spiracy to solicit and receive a bribe U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN in October. DISTRICT OF NEW YORK “Today’s sentence makes clear that City government officials who

service to all New Yorkers.” The Bureau of Fire Prevention oversees the installation of fire safety systems in commercial and residential buildings. Often, a building requires bureau approvals before it can be occupied or opened, and the bureau typically processes applications for inspections on a first-come, first-served basis. Prosecutors said that from 2021 through 2023, Cordasco and Anthony Saccavino, 59, another former chief in the Bureau of Fire Prevention, schemed with Henry Santiago Jr., a retired FDNY firefighter, to solicit bribes from developers and property owners in exchange for bumping up certain FDNY plan reviews and inspections to the front of the line. At the time, there was a large backlog of inspections due to the pandemic. In total, Cordasco, Saccavino and Santiago received an estimated $190,000 in bribe payments for expeSee CORDASCO, page 3

Outsourcing of SI Ferry work broke law, labor board finds BY DUNCAN FREEMAN

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

The city’s Department of Transportation broke city labor law when it outsourced Staten Island Ferry service to a private contractor on New Year’s Eve 2022, the Board of Collective Bargaining ruled last month. DOT, concerned about excess passengers drawn by celebrations across Manhattan, used the employees and equipment of NY Waterways – a private company – to transport New Yorkers between Manhattan and Staten Island the evening of Dec. 31. By outsourcing the work the city was “unilaterally transferring” the “exclusive bargaining unit work” entitled to members of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, the BCB ruled in a split decision. At the time, the roughly 120 members of MEBA had been working on an expired labor contract for 13 years and were embroiled in contract mediation and a dispute over prevailing wages with the city. Managers at DOT had been unable to reach some employees and,

instead of reaching out to union leadership, sought the aid of NY Waterways to increase operations, DOT officials testified to the BCB. It was the first time ever that DOT had used a private service to operate the Staten Island Ferry in a non-emergency context and without the approval of MEBA leadership, Roland Rexha, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said Monday. “DOT wanted to show that they can replace us,” the union leader said of DOT’s decision to outsource work. “They put passengers at risk that night, and they did it to try to break the spirits of the crew on the vessels. There was no reason for them to do it. It was just done out of pure spite to try to break the will of a union that was fighting for their contract.” Rexha pointed out that the outsourcing occurred during a nadir in the relationship between labor and management as well as an especially contentious period See FERRY, page 2


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