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Report cautions that ‘a once-in-a-generation opportunity’ is not being mined

BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com

Although the city has projected that there will be 400,000 green jobs by 2040 as part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, job growth in the green economy has been slowed by several challenges, according to a recent report.

The study by the Center for an Urban Future found that in 2023 there were 2,184 job advertisements seeking candidates in the core green jobs — which play a direct role in reducing emissions — meaning that the green economy has accounted for a very small amount of the city’s job growth compared to industries such as health care, tech and finance.

Much of the growth in green jobs has actually been in sectors outside of the core green economy, including architecture and engineering and colleges. Although 22,070 jobs were advertised in these fields in 2023, a nearly 13-percent increase

since 2019, the number of green jobs declined between 2022 and 2023.

Industry experts interviewed by the Center said that adoption of Local Law 97 — which requires buildings in New York City to reduce their emissions 40 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050 — has been slow, which has made it difficult to create the maximum number of green jobs.

“The green economy represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to generate hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs, including many for New Yorkers of color and individuals from low-income communities,” said Jonathan Bowles, the executive director of the Center for an Urban Future. “But we’re nowhere near reaching the sector’s full potential for job growth. Unless policymakers take decisive action to address key challenges — including workforce shortages and regulatory bottlenecks — we risk missing out on this enormous opportunity.”

Shortages slowing projects

Many buildings will have to update their heating and cooling systems in order to reduce emissions.

But the report found that since 2017, just 2,021 permits to install new

HVAC systems have been filed with the city Department of Buildings.  Taking on the costs of retrofitting buildings has become particularly burdensome for property owners amid the high vacancy rate of offices because of the increase in hybrid and remote work, as well as rising interest rates. The cost to retrofit a 150,000 square foot office building was estimated at nearly $2 million to more than $3.5 million. The electrification of large commercial and residential buildings

has been particularly slow. “The only way to comply [with Local Law 97’s targets] is to electrify about 20,000 buildings in the next 10-15 years,” an executive at the Real Estate Board of New York told the Center. “I think we probably electrify 10 buildings a year right now. Maybe 50.”

Existing staffing shortages among skilled trades workers may also limit the number of future green projects. The report found that there is a shortage of HVAC workers. While there were 25,121 HVAC installers and electricians in 2023, there were 28,348 available jobs in those occupations. The shortage of electricians and HVAC installers could limit the number of buildings retrofits and hamper solar installation projects.

Ben Rosenzweig, the general manager of CoolSys Energy Design, a building systems engineering consultancy, told the Center that the shortage of HVAC technicians was one of the “biggest factors and challenges in the building push [to electrify].”

Several green jobs also have a high proportion of workers who are

See GREEN, page 6

union leaders tell NYers not to join FDNY

“City treats our members like second-class citizens”: Barzilay

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

Don’t join the Bravest.

That’s the message to New Yorkers from the president of the union representing FDNY EMTs and paramedics, because, he says, the city treats his members like “second class citizens.”

On the fifth anniversary of the Covid pandemic’s initial sweep into the city, Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507 of District Council 37, is once again sounding the alarm about what he characterizes as the crisis facing his members.

“When the City of New York treats our members like second class citizens within the FDNY, they are basically saying — Do not work at FDNY EMS unless you expect a life of being attacked, stabbed, and forced to live in a homeless shelter,” Barzilay said in a statement last week. “The City cannot in good faith tell current FDNY EMS members to remain employed with the agency or even encourage recruits to join, given its complete disinvestment and turning its back on our front-line medical professionals.”

Members of FDNY EMS responded to a record 1,630,446 emergency calls in 2024, according to the union, more than 15 percent

above the number of calls the service handled at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Ambulance response times have increased each of the last three years as well and Barzilay expects the call volume to surpass 1.7 million in 2025 if January and February trends continue through the year.

“With continuously spiking levels of medical emergencies, fewer crews on the street, longer response times, absolutely horrific work conditions and wages below what app-based delivery workers get paid, New York City’s FDNY-led EMS system is itself on life support,” the union leader said.

Anthony Almojera, a lieutenant paramedic, said that New Yorkers don’t need Barzilay’s warning to know they should stay away from FDNY EMS.

“The word is out and people already aren’t coming,” Almojera, the vice president of the EMS officers union, said on Monday. “Why would you join FDNY EMS when you can go work in any other city job and make a better living? Why would you get mentally and physically beat up and not be able to provide for your family?”

Commissioner concerned

Even FDNY commissioner Robert Tucker has raised concerns about the ability to retain FDNY’s EMS workers. He told the Daily News earlier this year that “without immediate attention and proper investment [EMS] could soon collapse.”

Noting that many EMS workers join the FDNY to use it as a stepping stone to become firefighters, Tucker told the newspaper that the EMS and firefighting corps are like “the tale of two cities” in the FDNY and that the problems plaguing EMS are “the biggest public safety crisis that nobody’s talking about in New York City.”

An FDNY spokesperson said that EMS is a “critical part” of the FDNY’s mission to protect 8 million families in New York.

“All New Yorkers should know that joining FDNY EMS is not only a powerful opportunity to serve, but comes with incredible benefits, including health insurance, retirement benefits, exceptional promotional opportunities, and a tight-knit community,” the spokesperson said. “The EMS union raises points that Commissioner Tucker has raised himself, and the entire Adams administration is consistently working to improve conditions and benefits for the men and women who serve in EMS. But the solution is not our best and brightest turning away from our city — we welcome them with open arms and invite them to join the family that is the FDNY.”

Leadership of the two EMS unions have been bargaining with the city’s labor negotiators since last June for a new collective bargaining agreement. Their most recent agreement expired in 2022, but union leaders have said several

See EMS, page 2

BY NATE WOLF

On a recent Tuesday night, the hottest show at the Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Brooklyn wasn’t Bong Joon-ho’s new sci-fi flick “Mickey 17” or the family-friendly “Paddington in Peru.” It was arguably the two dozen Alamo workers on strike outside, their voices extending a couple blocks down the Fulton Street strip.

“Hey hey, ho ho, don’t go to the Alamo,” the group chanted, marching in a circle late into the evening. “Hey hey, ho ho, corporate greed has got to go.”  NYC Alamo United, represented by United Auto Workers Local 2179, went on strike Feb. 21 in response to layoffs at the dine-in theater chain. But the union’s individual campaign is also emblematic of a labor movement sweeping across New York cinemas.

Since 2020, workers at seven movie theaters — Film at Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, Cinema Village, Film Forum, Alamo locations in Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn and Nitehawk Cine-

ma’s Prospect Park branch — have unionized with either UAW Local 2179 or UAW Local 2110.

The locals are inspiring one another to fight for livable wages, more staff and increased safety standards. Workers believe this movement will continue gaining steam across New York’s set of young, left-leaning service employees, perhaps upending the industry in ways management is unaccustomed to.

Roughly 300 combined workers at the two Alamo theaters first voted to form unions in 2023, galvanized by understaffing and health and safety challenges, said Anthony Squitire, 26, a server at the Brooklyn location and a union bargaining committee member.

“It’s constantly understaffed,” Squitire noted, stepping away from Tuesday’s picket line. “Everyone’s constantly stretched thin.”  At Nitehawk, similar concerns over safety and staffing came to a head during the blockbuster “Bar-

FDNY

FDNY EMS workers at a three-alarm Brooklyn fire in February.

Lander releases ‘workers’ rights platform,’ hammers Cuomo

City comptroller’s mayoral run takes shape

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

Mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city comptroller, unveiled his “workers’ rights platform” March 13, pledging that as mayor he would push to raise the minimum wage, expand just-cause protections, guarantee more time off and strengthen workplace harassment laws.

Billing it as the first policy program of its kind in the 2025 race, Lander said his objective was to ensure that “our city has the nation’s strongest labor civil rights and immigrant worker protections that we can possibly have.”

“We will make this a place where the city is working just as hard for working New Yorkers as working people are working for this city,” he said during a press conference announcing the plan, which he held in front of the Garment Worker statue on Seventh Avenue in Midtown. The 11-page program includes a pledge to create a mayoral office of workers’ rights to better coordinate the expansion of worker protections. Lander created a similar office under the auspices of the comptroller office in 2022. The Workers’ Rights Team oversees enforcement of the city’s prevailing and living wage laws.

In the two years since its founding, the office has won back more than $9 million in wages for workers who were improperly paid, Lander said Tuesday. Claudia Henriquez, the office’s director, called the recouped wages “a testament to the work of the great team we’ve build under comptroller Brad Lander’s leadership.”

“Prevailing wages can make a huge impact in people’s lives,” she said, referencing one worker who

got a $60,000 award as part of a prevailing wage settlement. “That’s so much money in a worker’s pocket.”

Lander has also used his charter as steward of the city’s public pension funds to push companies — such as Chipotle — to better treat their employees. He has also sought to expand the comptroller’s office’s power through state legislation that would allow the workers’ rights unit to investigate employees that have retaliated against workers who voice concerns about their jobs.

The progressive Lander also pledged to work with the City Council to pass the Secure Jobs Act, legislation proposed by Tiffany Cabán in

2022 that would require businesses to provide a legitimate reason when dismissing employees and 14 days’ notice. If passed it would fundamentally reshape the employee-employer relationship across the city. The city’s fast-food workers received those protections in 2021 through Lander-sponsored legislation when he was a Council member.

Lander also wants to expand the city’s paid leave law to add five days of paid time off, raise the city’s minimum wage and expand the appbased delivery worker’s minimum wage to cover more workers across the city. “There’s a lot in [the plan] to make sure that we use all the

tools the city has to help support and lift up New York’s working people,” he said.

Attacks frontrunner Cuomo

In releasing the plan, the comptroller sought to set himself apart from the mayoral race’s frontrunner, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who Lander cast as disinclined to advocate on behalf of workers. He said that Cuomo had repeatedly “screwed” workers in New York by pushing for and signing into law Tier 6, which reduced retirement benefits for future employees. Lander also said the former governor

Continued from Page 1

times that negotiations with the city have barely budged.

Almojera said city and union negotiators last met a month ago and that talks are “dead in the water” because the city is not recognizing EMS workers as a uniformed force who should be earning pay commensurate with other uniformed city employees. In past contracts, EMS workers have received the lower, civilian rate of pay even though they are legally uniformed employees.

But in this round of bargaining, the unions are demanding pay parity with other first responders such as firefighters. Top pay for an EMT is under

$60,000 a year and paramedics top out at around $76,000, Local 2507 officials have said. City firefighters can now make more than $110,000.

The city is “refusing to negotiate in good faith,” Barzilay said.

“We agree with Commissioner Tucker that the system is on the brink of collapse and that EMS first responders are not treated fairly, while other city leaders are blind to the facts,” he said. “It’s past time for the City to join the FDNY Commissioner and the entire rank and file of EMS, from EMTs to Division Chiefs, in the fight to invest in our medical first responders and extend to them pay equity and fair treatment.”

fought efforts to raise the minimum wage. He also claimed Cuomo essentially allowed the MTA to hire a contractor that underpaid subway cleaners at the height of the pandemic.

“As New Yorkers remember his track record, they are not going to replace one corrupt chaos agent with another,” Lander said, referring to Mayor Eric Adams and Cuomo. “There are so many examples of places where Andrew Cuomo tried to look like he was helping workers while he was screwing them.”

But despite Lander’s protestations, Cuomo has gained the backing of unions, picking up several endorsements from the the New York City District Council of Carpenters and Teamsters Local 237. Most recently the former governor, who resigned in 2021 following a report detailing accusations of sexual harassment, was endorsed by Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

“Lander can pander and gaslight all he wants, but working New Yorkers know Governor Cuomo has the most successful pro-labor record in modern history, raising wages for millions, protecting their right to organize when the Supreme Court tried to break the back of the labor movement, increasing access to healthcare, enacting the nation’s strongest paid family leave program and expanding apprenticeships, vocational training, and workforce development programs,” a spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, said in an email.

Lander so far has been endorsed by only one union: Region 9A of the United Auto Workers. But he is seeking to secure the endorsement of others, including District Council 37, the city’s largest municipal union, participating in that union’s mayoral forum last month, which neither Cuomo nor Adams attended.

THEATERS: Unions at the box office

benheimer” week of July 2023. As management enjoyed a moviegoing renaissance, workers were overworked and underpaid, said Ben Sepinuck, a runner at the labyrinthine dine-in cinema in Park Slope.

“The theater is making so much money, but the employees aren’t really seeing that,” Sepinuck, 26, remembered. “Someone brought up the idea of bonuses in a staff meeting, and they literally laughed at us.”

He and his colleagues voted 51-41 to form Nitehawk Workers Union the following year, and they announced the election results through a feature in the left-wing magazine Jacobin. Neither Nitehawk nor Alamo Drafthouse officials responded to requests for comment.

A new organizing lineage

These twenty-somethings have turned to organized labor at a time when union approval rates are at their highest point since the 1960s. And while movie theaters may not be a factory or an Amazon warehouse, workers in the arts see themselves as part of a new union lineage.

“I think young, you know, working people feel like they’ve been screwed over,” said Brandon Mancilla, director of UAW’s Region 9A, which covers the New York locals. “We thought it was our duty, right, as a labor union to actually support workers

office revenues last year dropped by $2.6 billion, or nearly 24 percent, below pre-Covid levels in 2024, and modest projections for 2025 spurred the recent layoffs at Alamo, which is owned by Sony. Management at Alamo and Nitehawk both tried to thwart the union effort, workers say.  Squitire, however, doesn’t see precarious finances as the type of leverage that management may believe. “I think that the idea that you can get to pre-Covid profit levels is a fantasy,” he said. “A million people died. A lot of people are permanently disabled. A lot of people don’t go out anymore.”

The spread of unionization is in part about pushing back against the perceived excesses of an entertainment industry reliant on low-wage hourly work — or at least ensuring employees share the spoils.

There’s evidence these efforts are paying off. UAW 2110 secured contracts at Film at Lincoln Center, Film Forum and Anthology Film Archives. And Squitire said striking workers at Alamo enjoyed a surprisingly productive bargaining session earlier this month as they continue to put pressure on the company for a first collective bargaining agreement.

Success by Alamo staff in Brooklyn could provide yet more motivation for workers elsewhere. Employees at the Alamo location in Staten Island are already organizing, Mancilla said. And conditions at nonunion theaters around New York are poor, Sepunick said, adding that he’s heard murmurs of potential union activity.

But these politically charged, class-conscious workers are quick to move the conversation beyond just movie theaters. Cinemas in New York are merely a “microcosm of this new labor movement,” said Sepunick, who argued that young people have spearheaded a rise in class solidarity across industries, which he expects to continue.   Squitire agrees. “Everyone is realizing, like, ‘oh no, unions aren’t just about auto workers, and it’s not just about factories, and it’s not just some relic from the ‘30s,’” he said. “Like, my job is bad, and a union would help me have a better job.”

Duncan Freeman / The Chief

Mayoral candidate and City Comptroller Brad Lander announced his “workers’ rights platform” March 13 in front of the Garment Worker Statue on Seventh Avenue in Midtown.

Nitehawk Cinema workers in front of the Park Slope theater. Nitehawk Workers Union

FDNY

Recruits at the EMS academy last year. The leader of a union representing EMTs and paramedics warned New Yorkers not to join the FDNY.

City DEP police sounds alarm over downsizing at critical points on water system

BY RICHARD KHAVKINE richardk@thechiefleader.com

A reduction to one law enforcement officer from two at a critical juncture along the 2,000-squaremile network that provides water to the city and the elimination of cops altogether at another could pose increased risks to the system, according to rank and file State Department of Environmental Protection police, who patrol the system.

The officers were told Feb. 21 by their commanders that the armored police booth at the Croton Filtration Plant in the Bronx will be reduced from two cops on duty 24/7 to just one and that there would no longer be an officer at the Kensico Dam armored police booth in Valhalla.

But Bruce Mateer, the citywide secretary for the Environmental Police Benevolent Association and a 23-year DEP officer, said the decision to cut staff at both locations was foolhardy. He noted that the Croton Filtration Plant, built in 2015 entirely underneath the Mosholu Golf Course, has three floor levels.

“Reducing that post to just one police officer for all that square footage, not to mention the high level of importance for what the plant pro-

vides and that it also happens to be in a high crime area is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

He was equally critical of the decision to eliminate the post on top of the Kensico Dam without a threat assessment from federal, state and local agencies. He suggested what he called a compromise, whereby the top of the dam could reopen to traffic — vehicles were prohibited soon after 9/11 — but that police, including DEP cops, remain posted in case of danger.

A DEP spokesperson stated that

“Our drinking water supply and our infrastructure are safe,” and noted that there hasn’t been a downsizing and that two classes were set to graduate over the next year. The spokesperson attributed the staffing woes to the fact that, unlike most other police forces throughout the state, DEP officers have a civilian pension.

“DEP’s police force has a civilian-style pension, which requires officers to work until age 63 before retiring, instead of simply working 20 or 25 years regardless of age, like most or all other police forces throughout the state,” the spokesperson said. “We’re working very closely with our officers union to

support the effort to obtain state approval for a uniformed pension that would make a long-term career at DEP Police more attractive.”

Matt Kruger, the EPBA’s president, said the decision to reduce manpower at the facilities was made without consultation or discussions with the union.

But the union said management cited increased overtime for its decision to eliminate the postings. The EPBA and rank and file cops, though, say that choice was hasty and poorly thought-out. The union in a statement said that the “con-

sensus amongst the rank & file is that these changes not only create legitimate officer safety concerns but also jeopardize the security of the NYC water supply as well

“The problem facing the NYC DEP Police Department is not excessive overtime shifts, but our critically low numbers of officers due to high attrition and low recruitment,” Kruger said in a statement.

The department counts 155 officers, which is 10 fewer than last September, when union officials said there were already too few cops to patrol a water-supply system

spread out across a watershed that includes 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes, 92 miles of aqueduct and other infrastructure.

Kruger blamed poor pay and a lousy retirement system for the DEP’s inability to attract and retain officers. “The longer we go without a police retirement system and a competitive wage, the more we will continue to lose officers to other departments, it’s that simple,” he said. “The can has been kicked down the road for over 40 years now, perhaps now there’s growing evidence to show that the status quo of operations can no longer be seen as a sustainable path.”

The Croton Filtration Plant, built at a cost of $3.2 billion, is the country’s largest underground plant of its kind. At least two DEP police officers have been stationed at the plant since it opened 10 years ago.

The Kensico Dam, three miles north of White Plains and completed in 1917, holds back some 30 billion gallons of water when that eventually makes its way to city taps. Officials have long cited concerns

Critics warn cuts at agencies overseeing dams could put public safety at risk

BY MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press

Trump administration workforce cuts at federal agencies overseeing the country’s dams are threatening their ability to provide reliable electricity, supply farmers with water and protect communities from floods, employees and industry experts warn.

The Bureau of Reclamation provides water and hydropower to the public in 17 western states. Nearly 400 agency workers have been cut through the Trump reduction plan, an administration official said.

“Reductions-in-force” memos have also been sent to current workers, and more layoffs are expected. The cuts included workers at the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest hydropower generator in North America, according to two fired staffers interviewed by The Associated Press.

“Without these dam operators, engineers, hydrologists, geologists, researchers, emergency managers and other experts, there is a serious potential for heightened risk to public safety and economic or environmental damage,” Lori Spragens, executive director of the Kentucky-based Association of Dam Safety Officials, told the AP.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said federal workforce reductions will ensure disaster responses are not bogged down by bureaucracy and bloat.

“A more efficient workforce means more timely access to resources for all Americans,” she said by email.

But a bureau hydrologist said they need people on the job to ensure the dams are working properly.

“These are complex systems,” said the worker in the Midwest, who is still employed but spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of possible retaliation.

Workers keep dams safe by monitoring data, identifying weaknesses and doing site exams to check for cracks and seepage.

“As we scramble to get these screenings, as we lose institutional knowledge from people leaving or early retirement, we limit our ability to ensure public safety,” the worker added. “Having people available to respond to operational emergencies

is critical. Cuts in staff threaten our ability to do this effectively.”

A federal judge last Thursday ordered the administration to rehire fired probationary workers, but a Trump spokesperson said they would fight back, leaving unclear whether any would return.

The heads of 14 California water and power agencies sent a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Interior last month warning that eliminating workers with “specialized knowledge” in operating and maintaining aging infrastructure “could negatively impact our water delivery system and threaten public health and safety.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also operates dams nationwide. Matt Rabe, a spokesman, declined to say how many workers left through early buyouts, but said the agency hasn’t been told to reduce its workforce.

But Neil Maunu, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said it learned more than 150 Army Corps workers in Portland, Oregon, were told they would be terminated and they expect to lose about 600 more in the Pacific Northwest.

The firings include “district chiefs down to operators on vessels” and people critical to safe river navigation, he said.

Their last day is not known. The Corps was told to provide a plan to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management by last Friday, Maunu said. Several other federal agencies that help ensure dams run safely also have faced layoffs and closures. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is laying off 10 percent of its workforce and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Dam Safety Review Board was disbanded in January.

Dams need attention

The cuts come at a time when the nation’s dams need expert attention.

An AP review of Army Corps data last year showed at least 4,000 dams are in poor or unsatisfactory condition and could kill people or harm the environment if they failed. They require inspections, maintenance and emergency repairs to avoid ca-

tastrophes, the AP found.

Heavy rain damaged the spillway at California’s Oroville Dam in 2017, forcing nearly 190,000 residents to evacuate, and Michigan’s Edenville Dam breached in storms in 2020, the AP found. Stephanie Duclos, a Bureau of Reclamation probationary worker fired at the Grand Coulee Dam, said she was among a dozen workers initially terminated. The dam across the Columbia River in central Washington state generates electricity for millions of homes and supplies water to a 27-mile-long (43-kilome-

ter) reservoir that irrigates the Columbia Basin Project.

“This is a big infrastructure,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of people to run it.”

Some fired employees had worked there for decades but were in a probation status due to a position switch. Duclos was an assistant for program managers who organized training and was a liaison with human resources. The only person doing that job, she fears how others will cover the work.

“You’re going to get employee burnout” in the workers left behind,

she said. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who pushed a bipartisan effort to ensure the National Dam Safety Program was authorized through 2028, said, “the safety and efficacy of our dams is a national security priority.

“Americans deserve better, and I will work to make sure this administration is held accountable for their reckless actions,” Padilla said.

The AP’s Chris Megerian contributed to this story.

Courtesy EPBA

The armored police booth at the Croton Filtration Plant in the Bronx. The post will be reduced from two cops on duty 24/7 to just one.

COMMENTARY COMMENTARY COMMENTARY

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Rikers crime spree

To The ediTor:

A nurse’s face was slashed by a Rikers detainee earlier this month. Subsequently, DOC spokesperson Patrick Rocchio stated, “Our jails must be, above all else, safe and secure… Assaults on any staff will not be tolerated.”

But they are tolerated and the jails aren’t safe.

Rocchio’s statement is the usual worn-out response given by top DOC management pursuant to media inquiries.

According to the Mayor’s Management Report, from Fiscal Year 20 through FY 24 there were 47,968 detainee infractions for fighting/ assaults, 4,856 assaults on correction officers, 1,618 slashings and stabbings and nine escapes, totaling 54,451 likely crimes.

Yet, only 1,362 detainees were arrested, indicating that just 4 percent of assaults ostensibly committed and likely caught on video surveillance cameras resulted in arrests. Of those, even less were prosecuted. Actually, all detainee crime is largely tolerated.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of other crimes are committed daily by many of the roughly 6,000 Rikers detainees including, but not limited to, drug trafficking, weapon posses-

sion, introduction of contraband, theft, robbery, extortion, arson, harassment, obstructing governmental administration and property damage. These crimes are not included in the MMR report and the vast majority of them also result in no arrest.

I submit the total number of crimes committed in NYC jails during the aforementioned five-year period was not 54,451 but rather in the hundreds of thousands which reduces the percentage of arrests from 4 percent to less than 1 percent of crimes committed.

DOC must implement proactive crime-fighting strategies to stop this endless crime spree.

Because of the City Council’s laissez-faire approach to law enforcement and lack of support and respect for DOC’s uniformed force, correction officers are not safe.

And when correction officers are not safe in jail, nobody is safe.

Marc Bullaro

The writer is a retired NYC DOC assistant deputy warden.

Compliance To The ediTor:

During the past two months the Trump administration, aided in Congress by a submissive Repub-

Labor front back

BY RON ISAAC

The eternal truths are always topical, and, if you track current events, the haunting loss of childhood innocence is rich in renewable content.

Kids who viewed Sesame Street’s debut and befriended Big Bird and Cookie Monster are now queuing for pacemakers and running out the clock on their lives and hips. Except for Jagger and McCartney, most surviving rock stars of the era are caricatures of cruel dotage, relieved that their adult diapers are secure and grateful for strangers’ archaic expressions of deference.

The Sesame Street puppets outlived the puppets of the Vietnam perfidy, such as General William Westmoreland and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. After 55 seasons, it’s clear that nurturers of childhood innocence are as indefatigable as war profiteers. One says, “never say die,” the others say death goes with the territory.

Sesame Street taught kids and largely persuaded them of the ideals of harmony among human relationships through all challenges, despite disillusionments and stumbling blocks. That demanded artistic ingenuity. In trendy parlance, it was their “mission,” a dopey word filched from the military.

Sesame Workshop, formerly the Children’s Television Workshop, is the nonprofit producer of the iconic show. Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO has decided not to extend its distribution arrangement. They cite a “drastically changing media landscape.” That’s hygienic language for a fecal business model. In early March, around 200 staff members, concerned about job security, fair pay and reduction of benefits, announced their intention to form a union with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153. One hour later there was retaliation. Management chose to cut workers down to size by cutting workforce size. The corporate guillotine was readied for the heads of around 20 percent of the staffers. Even as the Workshop remains “poised to continue to deliver on its mission.” More template verbiage for serial abuse.

To be fair, though, it’s undeniable that cable networks like Nickelodeon and Disney have lost a higher

lican Party and ineffectual Democratic Party, has driven the country down a road to an authoritarian state. Fear and anticipatory obedience are two ways that this unthinkable goal can be achieved.

Among the many examples that point in this direction is a concerted attack on colleges and universities.

An op-ed on the front page of the Sunday New York Times’ opinion section was headlined “The Targeted Destruction of Free Thought.”

The Trump administration wants to bring these institutions, sites of possible resistance, to their knees. This is not only because of their DEI programs, but also because of pro-Palestinian protests against Israel.

The latter has resulted in a crackdown that undermines student and faculty rights to peacefully assemble and to exercise free speech. The justification is noble: to counter the increase of antisemitism on campuses. Yet at the same time, it ignores the increase in Islamophobia against those who protest. This includes doxxing, personal attacks on social media, future blacklisting and threats by the government to deport foreign students, even those with green cards such as Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student activist arrested and detained by federal authorities earlier this month.

It’s unfortunate that college administrators, trustees, wealthy donors and politicians from both parties label pro-Palestinian demonstrations as supporting Hamas and its genocidal attack on October 7, 2023. The Hamas-baiting recalls the red-baiting on campuses during the Cold War and McCarthyism. These unjust attacks support the Trump administration’s narrative and divert attention from Israel’s devastating military response, including

countless violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all with Washington’s complicity.

Howard Elterman

Deal out the race card

To The ediTor: It is naive and divisive to assume that every racist in this country voted Republican. It is similarly naive and divisive to assume that every Democratic voter was not racist (“Future tense,” Letters, The Chief, March 14). Black Lives Matter condemned Harris’ anointing, noting fair, open primaries were needed. Is this racism? Former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner (Black, pro-Black, left wing) said Black men she has spoken to have their reasons why they don’t support Harris. Turner respects the right of a citizen to choose the candidate she doesn’t support. Is this racism? Trump gained ground with Black men in 2024; I guess these Black men are racist.

Racism allegations, devoid of any specific proof, divide the very demographic that needs to be united in these troubled times. If whites don’t vote for a white Democrat are they racist? A “free to vote for anyone as long as you vote for my candidate” attitude is a real threat to democracy. Networking now with fellow like minded citizens locally and nationally and formulating a winning strategy is how Dems take back the White House in 2028. Your candidate lost. Stop whining, get a grip, get over it, move on. I suggest you look at the YouTube videos and network with fellow Dems. Even Harris and Walz have moved on.

Nat Weiner

Chameleon Trump

To The ediTor:

Some have said they believe that Trump’s contradictions and constant conflicts are his ultimate cover, that is, as a deliberate strategy. Trump said he wants to run for a third term and he doesn’t. He says he wants to have Canada as the 51st state, but maybe not. He wants Greenland and will use whatever means to get Greenland. He wants to make Gaza into an American tourist area, but maybe not.

Are Trump’s contradictions his ultimate cover, or are they signs of dementia in a man who has shown an increasing inability to multitask rationally, has challenges in planning and solving problems, has increasing problems with words in speaking or writing, has decreased or poor judgment, has changes in mood or personality, and has difficulty in having an intelligent conversation?

Maybe it’s time for the media and the public to consider that we may have a president who, because of diminished mental capacity, needs help in carrying on his “revenge presidency,” and Elon Musk is the supporter who props him up and provides his cover.

Michael J. Gorman

Dems’ immigration puzzle

To The ediTor:

Predicting the future, especially in the context of immigration, is like trying to catch a slippery eel.

This adage, attributed to Yogi Berra, still holds true in today’s world. But upon careful examination of the changing immigration landscape, a

LETTERS, page 5

percentage of its targeted audience to YouTube than Ukraine has ceded territory to Russia.

In a profound sense, Sesame Street has been a cultural treasure. Other such institutions, such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, have also shown by example that “culture” does not necessarily put them on a higher spiritual plane, removed from the coldhearted real world of business models. They are both laying off essential staff. By dealing these workers lemons, management made lemonade for themselves. In the case of Brooklyn College, only seven non-unionized workers got  axed. Management had targeted 47 others, but District Council 37 members and UAW Local 2110 were spared, but not out of the “goodness of management’s heart.”

They were offered a “separation package” if they retired voluntarily, consisting of a letter of reference and some money and insurance coverage extensions. The Brooklyn Museum emphasized that their dire financial straits haven’t changed, but the agreement will at least bide and buy some time from potential yet phantom funding sources. Of course there’s always a rationale. There always is. There’s a compendium of pretexts to choose

from. They blame their alleged financial malaise on the decline of international tourism. They see it as an opportunity to reorganize the “internal working structure.” Perhaps they averted creative solutions by choice.

This is the Guggenheim’s third cycle of layoffs in five years. The sacrificed victims have a union, which reportedly was not even given the courtesy of prior notification. In their appetite, management is not content to be ravenous, they must be insatiable. But the labor front’s back! Sometimes hackneyed phrases are the most on point: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Two years of tenacious organizing culminated this month with the unionization of three of the five Barnes & Nobles stores in the city: in Union Square, the Upper West Side and in Park Slope. Each store has its own contract and benefits vary slightly, but their pay is the same. Around 200 sales clerks, baristas, maintenance and other workers are now represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Outside NYC, staff at an additional four Barnes & Noble stores have achieved collective bargaining rights. B&N operates around 600 stores nationally.

Workers will still be underpaid, relative to their worth, though not according to what the market will bear, which is what generally prevails. The union successfully negotiated significant gains to protect worker safety and comfort. Improving the status and circumstances of workers also fuels the prospects of Barnes & Noble’s impressive comeback after years of precipitous decline.

Be glad the bookstore chain is finally turning the page. I’d like to see some new displays: like a section dedicated to some of the great authors who were prisoners in jail for every imaginable offense, including crimes of humanism, political courage, intractable piety defying royal authority, sexual nonconformity, benign vagrancy, satiric criticism, refusal to reveal confidential sources and theft of a typewriter.

Readers of The Chief who wish the culprits specifically identified should contact the editor.

While the incarcerated O. Henry was correcting his short story manuscripts, were the officers of correction dutifully eyeing the author’s cell?

Had he been serving his sentence in New York State a month ago, the answer would have been “no,” because members of the correction officers union went on an unauthorized “wildcat” strike at 25 facilities, even though their organization hadn’t sanctioned it. Since around 90 percent of them participated, dare not call them rogue.

During those weeks, seven inmates died, one may surmise needlessly, while under the supervision of National Guard troops that Kathy Hochul had deployed as legally vindicable scabs.

All lives matter, and the officers can’t be blamed for looking out for their own. They were pushed to the breaking point. Social justice activists might not agree, but specialists in sleep-deprivation would grasp. Mandated 24-hour overtime shifts imposed on officers inevitably put inmates’ and their own lives at risk because of compromised reflexes and judgment during sudden but inevitable flashpoint situations.

Striking officers denounced 2021’s “HALT” law for allegedly spurring a deterioration of prisoner discipline and escalating violence against systemically unsupported officers. It severely curtailed the length of time an inmate could be

held in solitary confinement, which undermined their authority and removed a useful tool of control and motivation.

Climate change in prison is as daunting as in meteorology. And there is no purely academic pathway to insight. The strike settlement  (actually more a deal than a settlement, the difference being worthwhile to parse) includes changing overtime and shift assignments to make them comport better with the natural limits of human endurance, and reinstatement as applicable, of strikers’ benefits without managerial vengeance, provided they returned to work by the deadline of March 10. Around 2,000 stayed out and were fired. The exponential pay confiscation provision of the tyrannous “Taylor Law,” which forbids strikes by public employees, was not invoked.

A vendor will also be contracted for the enhanced screening of inmates’ mail to interdict drugs without reviewing the contents of legal mail.

Strikes by aggrieved workers are commonly in the public interest, despite the temporary inconvenience they may cause. Occasionally, even the threat of a strike can achieve victory, as illustrated recently by the Federation of Nurses UFT. These 1,000 nurses are led by UFT Anne Goldman, who celebrated the new agreement’s provisions to improve staffing, recruitment, retention and economic equity.

Wage increases will be a compounded 15.8 percent over the next year, and base pay will exceed $125,000 by the end of the contract. Nurses working understaffed shifts will receive additional compensation, there will be a sizable retention bonus, premium-free health care will be maintained and employer-paid pension guaranteed.

“The nurses forced the hospital to start paying the competitive salaries they deserve, and they forced management to drop the excuses and acknowledge that it is their responsibility to correctly staff the hospital,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. There’s been some tainting historical misappropriated meanings of the term “labor front.” But in the context of furthering workers’ human rights in our nation today, it has grandly revived and is growing as a force of honor and unity.

The Labor Front’s back.

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Leslie Odom Jr. with Muppet characters at the Sesame Workshop benefit gala at Cipriani 42nd Street in Manhattan last May. See

COMMENTARY COMMENTARY COMMENTARY

Enough cuts and chaos: We need a real CUNY mayor

BY MARCELLA BENCIVENNI and ZAINAB SHAKOOR

Marcella Bencivenni is a professor of history at Hostos Community College, where she has been teaching since 2004. Zainab Shakoor is a philosophy and psychology major and a junior at City College of New York.

Reagan, Bush Picks

There’s been widespread coverage recently of Mayor Eric Adams’ betrayal of New York City’s values and people for his personal gain. But even before Adams sold out New York to avoid corruption charges, he sold out CUNY. Adams is a two-time CUNY graduate who has called himself the “CUNY Mayor.” Yet, he has failed to live up to that moniker, cutting tens of millions of dollars from the operating budget of CUNY’s community colleges and failing to fight for the university system at the state level. It’s time to elect a real CUNY Mayor. To us, a faculty member at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx and a student at City College of New York, the stakes of Adams’ betrayal could not be more concrete. We teach and learn in outdated facilities, in buildings with leaking roofs and broken escalators. Our programs and offices are understaffed, classes are often taught by underpaid part-time faculty, while student services have been drastically cut or eliminated. And instead of fighting to expand CUNY, for free tuition and new fulltime faculty lines, academic advisors and mental health counselors, we have been forced to play defense for years, seeking restorations when we should have seen funding increases. CUNY community col-

Hypocrisy On Supreme-Court Choice

years of been Justices Of the more have women is 4 over decision to African-Amerdare he all, we qualified comical if ignoJobs ignores the and What than an President serve for selectblue-ribbon apconfirm or politicontext is Roncommitted to woman immedifrom find obvious1991,

get by $95 million. The next mayor should increase funding, building a community college system that can work as an unparalleled engine of academic excellence, economic uplift and social mobility.

The struggle for full funding at CUNY happens on the state level, too, and the mayor should be active in that fight. A CUNY mayor would lead the campaign for a New Deal for CUNY, calling on state legislative allies to deliver a budget funding a free, excellent and expanding university system. Right now, across CUNY, current caseloads for academic advisors on some campuses can be up to 1,200 students to one advisor.

An ‘assault on First Amendment rights’

George Herbert Walker Bush had to replace the first African American, Thurgood Marshall. He looked all over the country and the “most-qualified” was Clarence Thomas, also an African-American? Of course not. Clarence Thomas is an African-American conservative and he got the gig.

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

Expect a Top Candidate

Faced with a threat from the Trump administration of losing $400 million in federal funds, Columbia University last week expelled the president of the Student Workers of Columbia union.

Letters to the Editor

leges have lost almost 400 faculty and staff lines because of the mayor’s cuts. Selling out our schools hurts not only CUNY students and workers, but the entire city: Nearly 80 percent of CUNY graduates stay in New York, bringing major social and economic benefits to the city. Attacks on CUNY are attacks on New York’s education, safety and health. They hurt us all.

It’s time for the city to put this shameful chapter behind us. It’s time to move on from an administration that cuts education and childcare while letting rents just keep going up. It’s time to move on from a mayor who sells out his constituents to right-wing authoritarians while spurning the needs of working-class New Yorkers. Half of CUNY students have annual family

incomes below $30,000. We need a mayor who stands up for them, not for billionaire oligarchs.

THE CHIEF-LEADER, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

A real CUNY mayor will be someone who works not only to sustain CUNY, but to expand its budget, reach, and impact. That means using budgetary authority to deliver for CUNY community colleges, which are funded by the city and the state. Adams has cut our bud-

The New Deal for CUNY would change that, giving thousands more students the attention and support they need to grow and thrive while also repairing our aging buildings, expanding course offerings and faculty support, and extending mental health counseling to far more of those who need it.  Finally, a real CUNY mayor would stand up for CUNY students and faculty, and for all New Yorkers, in the face of autocracy and tax breaks for billionaires. Eric Adams has declared publicly that he will not criticize President Trump. Meanwhile, Trump is targeting our communities for deportation, slashing research funding, censoring free speech and dismantling federal services on which New Yorkers rely. We cannot have a mayor beholden to this unchecked, untethered presidency. The fact that Eric Adams would advance the Trump agenda while touting his own CUNY bona fides only adds insult to injury. Let’s work to elect a real CUNY mayor to replace him!

Audacity to Criticize Molina

To the Editor: On Feb 19, the NY Daily News published an article entitled, “As NYC Correction Commissioner Molina cleans house, critics worry he’s coddling jail unions.”

Academic workers rally after Columbia union president is expelled

Whether it’s a newly elected Mayor, Governor or President, every new administration replaces personnel, notwithstanding their work performance. No reason is needed to remove someone in an appointed position within NYC government with the exception of the Commissioner of the Department of Investigation, even though there is more than enough justification to fire all the top managers in DOC.

Hundreds of union members and their backers and advocates responded by holding a public rally outside Columbia’s Studebaker Building on West 131st Street March 14 to denounce what they called “repression” by university officials.

Grant Miner, head of the roughly 3,000-member unit of undergraduate and graduate workers within Local 2710 of the United Auto Workers, was one of several students who Columbia said it would suspend, expel and even revoke the degrees from because of their occupation of a campus building at the height of pro-Palestinian demonstrations last April.

Let’s please stop the nonsense in this country. We have never had an African-American woman on the court. Biden will not be selecting a cashier from Stop-and-Shop or a pilates instructor from the local sports club. He will select a highly educated, highly credentialed woman who attended a top college, top law school, clerked for a Justice, served on the Federal appellate court and all the other “credentials” deemed necessary in this day and age for a Justice. The attacks on this decision should be seen for what they are. They are idiotic political theater from a cohort that sees even a tiny effort at progress as threatening the white male position in society.

nounced the punishments the same day the Trump administration sent a letter to the university’s trustees outlining steps that Columbia had to take, among them handing down punishments for the students’ occupation of Hamilton Hall, to get the funding reinstated. The administration earlier this month said it was cancelling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the University because of what it characterized as its failure to thwart antisemitism on the Morningside Heights campus.

Top managers likely get their jobs through political connections and serve entirely at the pleasure of the Mayor. Moreover, the personnel that Louis Molina removed were in charge of critical units which they failed to lead effectively.

It was also the day before university management was set to sit down with Miner and the rest of the union’s leadership to begin bargaining for a new contract. After announcing Miner’s expulsion, Columbia cancelled the bargaining session with SWC just two hours before it was supposed to begin, a union representative said.

‘Will not stop fighting’

THE CHIEF-LEADER welcomes letters from its readers for publication. Correspondents must include their names, addresses and phone numbers. Letters should be submitted with the understanding that all correspondence is subject to the editorial judgment of this newspaper. To submit a letter to the editor online, visit thechiefleader.com and click on Letters to the Editor.

hundreds of allies and members of other academic unions on March 14 outside of a Columbia academic building on 131st Street to protest the expulsion. SWC members and workers from other academic unions at Columbia, CUNY and NYU gave speeches in support of Miner and criticized Columbia’s leadership.

criminals and probably require arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment?

14 message to members that “these are dark times for our union.” Columbia University’s actions are “part of a mass crackdown on free speech against student workers who have protested their employer’s complicity in genocide,” his letter continued.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Continued from Page 4

striking difference emerges. The Democratic Party stands in stark contrast to the Republican Party’s approach to addressing the border situation.

If the homeless who are removed from the subways refuse to cooperate with programs designed to help them turn their lives around, what are the penalties? Will they be arrested or placed in secure mental facilities where they will be less likely to do harm to others?

Speakers also connected the expulsion of Miner to the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Local 2710 member who helped lead protests at Columbia and who has been detained by federal immigration authorities since March 8. Federal authorities’ detainment of Khalil, a permanent resident and green card holder married to an American citizen, has sparked protests across the country and condemnations from free-speech groups.

“Today, the Columbia University Judicial Board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring,” university officials said in a statement. “Columbia is committed to enforcing the University’s Rules and Policies and improving our disciplinary processes.”

DOC was on the brink of an implosion as a result of the feckless leadership of Vincent Schiraldi and his coterie. Now Schiraldi, who was the worst DOC commissioner in its 127-year history, is questioning Molina’s personnel decisions.

Vincent Scala is a former Bronx Assistant District Attorney. He is currently a criminal-defense attorney in New York City and its suburbs.

The Ivy League institution an-

Miner, a Jewish Ph.D. student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature who was photographed at a pro-Palestine demonstration by The New York Times last spring, said in a statement provided by the union that his punishment was an “egregious attempt to break the Union and squash the movement against Genocide in Palestine.”

How is it that Schiraldi, a so-called juvenile-justice reformer and expert, failed so miserably in managing DOC?

“We will not be intimidated on either front and will not stop fighting to get the contract we deserve,” he said.

Dozens of SWC members joined

How is it that Oren Varnai, the head of DOC’s Intelligence Bureau and a “former covert officer in the CIA,” could not stop the scourge of gang violence from dominating and ravag-

The actions against Miner and Khalil have had a chilling effect on SWC members, who wholesale declined to speak to journalists covering the rally. Concerned about management retaliation now that their union president was expelled, union members didn’t provide their full names or positions when speaking to the supporters either.

Those homeless people who are mentally or emotionally incapable of living safely with others have to be “imprisoned,” either in prisons (if convicted of crimes) or in secure mental institutions. Those who refuse to cooperate with reasonable and necessary treatment from qualified and competent authorities have to be treated the same way—prison or secure mental facilities.

“In any context, cancelling a collective bargaining session is disrespectful and suggests bad faith bargaining on the part of the university,” one SWC member who spoke at the rally said. “But what’s happening now is actually far more egregious.”

“Both the International UAW and UAW Region 9A have made our position clear: we stand with our members against the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education, immigrant and international workers, and our freedom of speech,” he said. “The assault on First Amendment rights being jointly committed by the federal government and Columbia University are an attack on all workers who dare to protest, speak out, or exercise our freedom of association under the Constitution.”  Rally participants were joined later in the afternoon by another cohort of Columbia students who had been protesting on the university’s main campus. SWC and other academic union members also participated in a march midday March 15 to protest cuts instituted by the Trump administration. They held a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square later in the afternoon.

It’s puzzling that many Democratic lawmakers opposed the Laken Riley Act or expressed hesitation in repatriating undocumented immigrants. Considering immigration’s crucial role in the recent election, their reasoning is puzzling.

Reputable media outlets like The New York Times, CBS News and ABC News have conducted surveys that reveal a significant public sentiment in favor of repatriating undocumented immigrants.

This sentiment, comprising around 55 to 64 percent of the population, highlights the disparity between public opinion and the actions of Democratic governors and mayors.

President Trump’s stance on immigration is well-documented and poses a significant challenge for Democrats.

Only those homeless who cooperate with those who provide necessary treatment, and can live peacefully with others, should be placed in housing in the neighborhoods in all five boroughs of the city.

At that later action, Miner, who had just returned from abroad, said that his expulsion was part of a “campaign of fear.”

“I’m here to tell you that labor, that students, that everybody here is going to fight back,” he said.

Brandon Mancilla, the director of UAW Region 9A, wrote in a March

uously

mismanagement by top bosses. Commissioner Molina is addressing all those issues. Neither Schiraldi, nor any of his senior managers, have the credibility or standing to

The proposed New York Health Act would provide on care-for-All would provide nationwide. Yet in recent issues, it has been claimed that the reason some unions oppose this is because the medical plans they already have provide benefits that this proposal would not Now as a retired transit worker, I have always had good health coverage since I tem in 1979. But one friend port Workers Union Local 100 rep had serious health issues before he recently passed away. He had a stroke while he was still working, and had to fight numerous large bills for medical care that was supposed to be covered. I remember him saying, “I have great coverage as long as I don’t get sick.” Under the New York Health Act, patients would not have to worry about fighting bills. They would not

To avoid repeating the fate of the Whigs, who lost the election due to their radical ideologies, Democrats must reevaluate their position on immigration. Therefore, the question remains: do the Democrats have the wisdom to change their stance? The future holds the answer.

Robert Sica

BARRY LISAK

VINCENT SCALA

Marcus Beasley/CUNY

Graduates at the 2022 CUNY School of Professional Studies commencement.

Duncan Freeman / The Chief

Members of academic unions and their backers rallied outside of a Columbia University building on West 131st Street March 14 to protest the university’s expulsion and firing of Grant Miner, president of the Student Workers of Columbia union.

DC 37 remote work pilot gets 1-year extension

BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com

About 20,000 city workers represented by District Council 37 will continue to be able to work remotely part time for another year, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.

A landmark pilot program, which for the first time allowed qualified city employees represented by DC 37 to work from home up to two days a week, was negotiated as part of the union’s contract and launched in June 2023.

The pilot was set to expire on May 31 of this year, but the program included a provision that would allow a one-year extension. It will now run through May 2026.

“Our members have continued carrying out their service to the public with efficiency while benefiting from the flexibility of hybrid and compressed work,” Henry Garrido, DC 37’s executive director, said in a statement. “It’s clear that alternative work schedules help with issues of retention and recruitment and allow the City of New York to be a workplace of choice. We thank the Adams administration for agreeing to this extension and appreciate the flexi-

ble work committee for their time and ongoing input.”

Besides launching the telework pilot, the union’s flexible-work committee last year instituted a compressed workweek pilot program, which allows employees who are not eligible for telework to work a four-day workweek.

The flexible work options were established in order to address the large number of vacancies in the city workforce. There were 14,921 unfilled positions as of Feb. 28, and several agencies — among them the Department of Buildings, the Department of Finance and the Department of Transportation — have vacancy rates that exceed 10 percent, according to the City Comptroller’s office.

“As we continue to settle into our post-pandemic reality, we must ensure that we continue to make city employment an attractive and accessible option for the working-class New Yorkers who serve and run this city every day,” Adams said. “I have always said that any flexible work programs the city offers must acknowledge the reality that there are some roles that cannot be performed remotely.

The extension of this successful pilot allows the continuation of flex-

ibility for our workforce and the protection of the core services that New Yorkers rely on every day.”

Several other unions representing city workers, including Communication Workers of America Local 1180, which represents about 8,200 supervisors, have negotiated similar telework pilot programs.

In the months leading up to the contract agreement, DC 37 representatives repeatedly advocated for telework options for their members. Although the Adams administration initially doubled down on the city’s mandate that municipal employees must be working from the office on a full-time basis, the city changed course and said it would consider negotiating a remote work option.

“We heard DC 37 workers loud and clear over the course of our latest round of contract negotiations and agreed to establish a flexible work committee as part of the agreement,” Labor Relations Commissioner Renee Campion said. “This pilot program we are extending today is a testament to our continued collaboration with DC 37, and we want to thank Henry Garrido and his team for their partnership.”

The Adams administration and District Council 37 have agreed to extend a pilot program that has allowed about 20,000 members to work from home two days a week.

Above, Mayor Eric Adams and DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido following the announcement of their contract agreement in February 2023.

Sound the alarm: FDNY, mayor declare 2025 ‘Fire Prevention Year’

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com

Marking 100 years since the inception of National Fire Prevention Week, Mayor Eric Adams and FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker last week declared 2025 as Fire Prevention Year.

President Calvin Coolidge formally created National Fire Prevention Week in 1925 in the hope of educating Americans about how to prevent fires. It’s since become the longest running public health observance in the country. Its origins date back to the Great Chicago Fire of Oct. 9, 1871, which killed more than 250 people and destroyed more than 17,400 structures in the Windy City.

To mark Fire Prevention Year, the FDNY will provide educational resources to what the department has identified as the 100 most fireprone blocks in the city. The effort will include door-to-door outreach and community events to convince residents and landlords to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the development of fire escape plans and educating people on safety precautions during a fire.

events in schools, on the streets, in communities. We provide targeted fire prevention and life safety educational resources where needed,” Tucker said at the announcement, at FDNY Engine 230 on Park Avenue in Brooklyn. “This year, we’re trying something different. We’re adding to the special sauce. Across the city, there are more than 600 tax blocks that we know pose a risk of fire. There’s a block in every single community board in the city.”

Partly because of education efforts already in place, the number of fire deaths decreased by 25 percent in 2024 compared with 2023, according to the department. For instance, there were six deaths caused by exploding lithium-ion batteries last year, compared with 18 in 2023.

“We do fire safety education every single day across the city. We host thousands of public education

“There are so many different entities and operations and coordination of years and years of training that allows firefighters to save lives, to prevent damage, and ensure they respond not only to the flames, but the smoke that is associated with serious fires. And in order to do that, we need the partnership of the public. And that’s what this is about right now,” Adams said. “What FDNY is doing to make sure that we educate the public, not when the building is burning, but prior to that.”

GREEN: Far from 400K projected jobs

Continued from Page 1

over 55 years old and would likely retire in the coming years. More than 40 percent of construction and building inspectors are 55 or older, while 23 percent of electrical engineers and 22 percent of electricians are at least 55.

Most green jobs won’t be new

There has been a 64-percent increase in composting jobs over the past three years, but those positions were threatened by Mayor Eric Adams’ budget cuts in November 2023. Although the cuts were reversed, the Center called for funding for composting programs to be baselined. The report noted that the sustainable waste management sector could be greatly expanded, given that just 17 percent of the city’s waste is recycled.

And although there are dozens of companies training the next generation of workers in the green economy, the number of participants is relatively small, at 7,900 New Yorkers. The Center called on the Adams administration to create an initiative to help scale up these training programs that would offset the cost of tuition for participants, who would repay the costs after finding employment.

Among its recommendations, the Center urged the administration to create grants for training programs that would address the shortage of HVAC technicians and electricians. It also called on the City University of New York to retrofit its 300 aging buildings, involving its students in the process. Notably, a report by the Economic Development Corporation cited by the Center projected that the majority of the green jobs created will be by expanding green skills to existing jobs, while 75,000 will be entirely new jobs. The Center noted that more funding is necessary to help upskill incumbent workers into the green economy, such as training building superintendents on boiler system emissions readers and solar battery repair.

“This is at the core of our future. Many of the jobs that we represented 25 years ago that are clerical and administrative in nature are now going to shift to energy efficiency titles. And we need to prepare for that shift that is happening right now,” said Henry Garrido, the executive director of District Council 37, which received a $500,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to expand its green jobs training program.

Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Mayor Eric Adams and FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker, left, announced 2025 as Fire Prevention Year at FDNY Engine 230 on Park Avenue in Brooklyn.

As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back

BY MATTHEW PERRONE Associated Press

The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have. With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole.

That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants.

It’s the most visible sign of AI’s inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients’ vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care — jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals.

Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses’ expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive.

“Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses,” said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. “The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers.”

Mahon’s group, the largest nursing union in the U.S., has helped organize more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have say in how AI can be used — and protection from discipline if nurses decide to disregard automated advice. The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses “as good as any doctor” could help deliver care in rural areas. On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who’s been nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, said he believes AI can “liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork.”

Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that they have been carefully tested. The

TAX STRATEGIES

company did not grant requests for an interview.

Risks vs. rewards

Hospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analyzed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses’ care — sometimes before they’ve evaluated the patient themselves.

Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospital’s computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospital’s protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids.

But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid.

Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol.

Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV flu-

Income-tax savings you may be missing

BY BARRY LISAK

ARE YOU PAYING more tax than you need to? When it comes to filing taxes, getting the best returns is not about skill — it’s about what you know. Here are some tax strategies you may have overlooked.

• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Millions of lower-income people miss out on this every year. According to the IRS, 20 percent of taxpayers who are eligible for the EITC fail to claim it. The EITC is a credit, not a deduction, ranging from $600 to $7,430. The credit is designed to supplement wages for low-to-moderate income workers. Many wage earners previously classified as middle-class, who have lost jobs, took a pay cut or worked fewer hours may now be eligible for this credit based on lower income.

• Be flexible. Company-sponsored health-care flexible-spending accounts and transportation-reimbursement accounts give you a tax break on money you’re already spending on medical bills and commuting expenses. Yet few people take advantage of them, only 20 percent of eligible employees use flexible-spending accounts. You and your spouse can each stash up to $3,050 in the health-care account and $300 a month each for parking and mass transit.

• State sales taxes. You must choose between deducting state and local income taxes, or state and local sales taxes. Many retired taxpayers may be able to take advantage of the sales-tax option. If you purchase a vehicle, boat or airplane, you get to add the state sales tax you paid to the amount shown in IRS tables for your state. The same goes for home-building ma-

terials you purchased. These items are easy to overlook.

• Refinancing points. With interest rates so low over the past few years, lots of homes have been refinanced. When you refinance a mortgage you have to deduct the points over the life of the loan (i.e., 30 years). On a second refinance or sale you get to deduct all the remaining points not yet deducted in that year.

• State tax you paid last year. Did you owe tax when you filed your 2022 state tax return? Remember to include that amount with your state-tax deduction on your 2023 return, along with state income taxes withheld from your paychecks or paid via estimated-tax payments.

• Bad debt. Ever loan someone money and not get repaid? You could qualify for the non-business bad-debt tax deduction for individuals. You can claim a loss up to $3,000 per year. Also, you can carry forward any amounts you did not claim in the current year.

• Excess Social Security. If you worked for more than one employer, and each took Social Security taxes out of your paycheck based on what they paid you. You may claim a refund of the excess on your return if your yearly wages exceeded $160,200. These are just some of the tax-saving opportunities that taxpayers often overlook. Spending a little time planning for these early in the tax year can reap large tax savings when you file.

Barry Lisak is an IRS enrolled agent specializing in personal and small business taxes for 30 years. Any questions can be directed to him at 516-829-7283, or mrbarrytax@aol. com.

ids.

“You need to keep your thinking cap on— that’s why you’re being paid as a nurse,” Hart said.  Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneously flagging basic bodily functions — such as a patient having a bowel movement — as an emergency.

“You’re trying to focus on your work but then you’re getting all these distracting alerts that may or may not mean something,” said Melissa Beebe, a cancer nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. “It’s hard to even tell when it’s accurate and when it’s not because there are so many false alarms.”

Even the most sophisticated technology will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Mi-

chelle Collins, dean of Loyola University’s College of Nursing. But people aren’t perfect either.

“It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely,” Collins said. “We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesn’t replace the human element.”

Filling in the gaps

More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the U.S. population ages and nurses retire, the U.S. government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032.

Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients.

At the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issues — like sleep apnea — that must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia.

The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their children’s bedtime.

“So what we need to do is find a way to call several hundred people in a 120-minute window – but I really don’t want to pay my staff overtime to do so,” said Dr. Joseph Sanford, who oversees the center’s health IT.

Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarize their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations and reduced burnout.

Each call begins with the program identifying itself as an AI assistant.

“We always want to be fully transparent with our patients that sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes they’re not,” Sanford said.

While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology.

Israeli startup Xoltar specializes in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain.

Nursing experts who study AI say such programs may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But that’s not most people in the health system.

“It’s the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the U.S. and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider,” said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing.

Kevin Wolf/AP Images for National Nurses United

Members of the National Nurses United rallied outside of the U.S. Capitol for federal safe-staffing legislation in March 2023.

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services established a 327-name list for Claim Specialist on January 8, 2025. The list is based on Exam 4032, which was recently held. Readers should note that eligible lists change over their four-year life as candidates are added, removed, reinstated, or rescored. The list shown below is accurate as of the date of establishment but list standings can change as a result of appeals.

Some scores are prefixed by the letters v, d, p, s and r. The letter “v” designates a credit given to an honorably discharged veteran who has served during time of war. The letter “d” designates a credit given to an honorably discharged veteran who was disabled in combat. The letter “p” designates a “legacy credit” for a candidate whose parent died while engaged in the discharge of duties as a NYC Police Officer or Firefighter. The letter “s” designates a “legacy credit” for being the sibling of a Police Officer or Firefighter who was killed in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Finally, the letter “r” designates a resident of New York City.

DCAS HIRING LIST

UPCOMING EXAMS LEADING TO JOBS

Below is a roundup of New York City and State exams leading to public-service positions. Most of the jobs listed are located in the New York Metropolitan area and upstate.

There are residency requirements for many New York City jobs and for state law-enforcement positions.

Prospective applicants are advised to write or call the appropriate office to make sure they meet the qualifications needed to apply for an exam. For jobs for which no written tests are given, candidates will be rated on education and experience, or by oral tests or performance exams.

DCAS Computer-based Testing and Application Centers (CTACs) have re-opened to the public. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, walk-ins are no longer accepted and appointments must be scheduled online through OASys for eligible list or examination related inquiries.

All examination and eligible list related notifications will be sent by email only, you will no longer receive notifications via the US mail.

All new hires must be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, unless they have been granted a reasonable accommodation for religion or disability. If you are offered city employment, this requirement must be met by your date of hire, unless a reasonable accommodation for exemption is received and approved by the hiring agency.

For further information about where to apply to civil service exams and jobs, visit the thechief.org/exams.

The Federal Government has decentralized its personnel operations and holds few exams on a national or regional basis. Most Federal vacancies are filled by individual agencies based on education-and-experience evaluations. For information, contact the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or individual agencies, or see www.usajobs.gov.

➤

➤

Mechanic) $35.90 per hour 5332 Facility Maintainer $29.56 per hour 5618 Bus Maintainer - Group B (Auto Mechanic)

NASSAU COUNTY EXAMS

➤ CLOSE APRIL 2

60022430 Veterans’ Counselor I/ Veterans’ Counselor $42,351$87,853

60731010 Data Analyst $70,278-$148,999

62758010 Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Coordinator $49,306-$102,986

65147010 Assistant Director of Planning and Research, Social Services $75,803-$156,583

66020010 Statistician I/Statistician

$45,623-$95,113; NHCC: $91,225$128,481 66082010 Statistician Trainee $42,351$87,853 68524010 Statistical and Research Services Supervisor $63,873$132,688; NHCC: $138,198-$186,183 69405010 Research Aide $36,864-$75,699 86352010 Quality Assurance Coordinator $112,298-$144,480 86652010 Dietetic Technician $36,864-$75,699; NHCC: $44,965$62,117 88259010 Public Health Nutritionist I $49,306-$102,986; NHCC: $59,748$84,507 88871010 Dietitian III $68,620-$84,507

5002 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Acute Care) $59,507-$108,383

5003 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Adult Health) $59,507-$108,383

5004 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Community Health) $59,507$108,383

5005 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Family Health) $59,507-$108,383

5006 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Gerontology) $59,507-$108,383

5007 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Neonatology) $59,507-$108,383

5008 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Obstetrics/Gynecology) $59,507$108,383

5009 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Oncology) $59,507-$108,383

SUFFOLK COUNTY EXAMS

GRAPHIC ARTIST–137 eligibles between Nos. 1 and 139 on List 4123 for 1 job at Teachers’ Retirement System. LEAD ABATEMENT WORKER–49 eligibles (Nos. 1-49) on List 4063 for 1 job at HA. MAINTENANCE

–59 eligibles (Nos. 1-59) on List 3090 for 3 jobs in DOC.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT–109 eligibles between Nos. 156 and 606 on List 8040 for 1 job in Department of Community and Youth Development.

PROMOTION

ADMINISTRATIVE INVESTIGATOR–1 eligible (No. 2) on List 3505 for 1 job in Department of Buildings.

ASSOCIATE TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT

AGENT–150 eligibles between Nos. 142 and 484 on List 573 for 3 jobs in NYPD.

ASSISTANT RESIDENT BUILDINGS SUPERINTENDENT–5 eligibles (Nos. 20, 81, 108, 139 and 166) on List 3527 for any of 9 jobs at HA.

CAPTAIN (POLICE)–306 eligibles between Nos. 48 and 496.5 on List 2558 for 25 jobs in NYPD.

SENIOR POLICE ADMINISTRATIVE AIDE–228 eligibles between Nos. 117 and 371 on List 2533 for 7 jobs in NYPD.

prentices, will begin April 7, also at the union’s training center in Long Island City, and will cover the New York City, Long Island, and Westchester regions. That recruitment will last through April 18,. The structural steel and bridge painter recruitment will occur over the 10-day period or until 750 applications are distributed, whichever comes first. The paperhanger recruitment will also occur over a 10day period or until 500 applications are distributed, whichever comes first. Applications will be distributed in-person on a first-come, firstserved basis, at the District Council 9 Finishing Trades Institute of New York training facility, 45-15 36th Street, Long Island City.

REQUIREMENTS

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, hold a high school diploma or equivalent and pass a drug test. They also must be able to hear and understand instructions in English, and be physically able to perform the work of their intended trade.

Apprentice hopefuls must sign an affidavit stating that they are physically able to perform the work, which may include the ability to lift and carry material and equipment up to 70 pounds, and to work from ladders, scaffolds, lifts and suspended scaffolds. For specific requirements by trade, view postings online from the NYS Department of Labor for the Structural Steel & Bridge Painter recruitment (https://dol. ny.gov/news/finishing-trades-institute-new-york-0) and for the Paperhanger recruitment (https://dol. ny.gov/news/finishing-trades-institute-new-york-1).

“District Council 9 remains committed to providing top-tier apprenticeship opportunities that open the door to stable, rewarding careers in the building trades,” DC 9’s business manager/secretary treasurer, Joseph Azzopardi, said. “Our apprenticeship programs equip New Yorkers with the skills and training needed to succeed in this industry. We’re proud to launch this year with two recruitments for Structural Steel & Bridge Painters and

Paperhangers and look forward to welcoming the next generation of skilled union workers into DC 9.”

The District Council 9 Finishing Trades Institute of New York offers apprentices on-the-job and in-classroom training to ensure every apprentice is prepared to tackle the complex building market. DC 9 apprenticeships offer New Yorkers a pathway to a stable career with family-sustaining wages and benefits. Structural steel and bridge painter apprenticeship recruitment information: March 24 – April 4, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Wednesdays until 5:30 p.m.). Paperhanger apprenticeship recruitment information: April 7-April 18, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Finishing Trades Institute of New York, 45-15 36th Street, Long Island City.

More information is available at https://www.districtcouncil9.net/ news/.

LABOR AROUND THE WORLD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD

Some universities are freezing hiring and laying off staff as Trump cuts federal funding

BY CLAIRE RUSH Associated Press

Universities across the U.S. have announced hiring freezes, citing new financial uncertainty as the Trump administration threatens a range of cuts to federal contracts and research grants. Some have announced layoffs.

Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it is eliminating more than 2,200 workers because of a loss of funding from USAID. Some employees are in Baltimore but most work in 44 other countries in support of the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and an affiliated nonprofit organization.

In February, the Trump administration announced deep cuts to National Institutes of Health grants for research institutions, a shift that could reduce the money going to some universities by over $100 million. Some schools already have shelved projects because of the cuts, which have been delayed temporarily by a court challenge.

Recently, President Donald Trump has shown appetite for targeting colleges’ funding more directly. His administration has vowed to take federal money from colleges that defy his agenda on issues including diversity, equity and inclusion programs, transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports, and student protests that he deems “illegal.”

On March 7, the administration on Friday pulled $400 million from Columbia University over what it described as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus. The Education Department followed up with a letter Monday warning 60 colleges they could lose federal money if they fail to make campuses safe for Jewish students. Higher education has been a

steady job generator since the pandemic, with private colleges and universities adding 35,000 jobs nationwide last year. Hiring freezes and cuts at universities could contribute to slower job growth in the months ahead, advocates for workers say.

Private and public colleges have been announcing freezes

Over the last two weeks, more than a dozen institutions have announced limits on hiring for faculty and staff positions and other measures to tighten purse strings.

Hiring freezes have been announced at schools including Harvard; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Notre Dame; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of Pittsburgh; Emory University; the University of Vermont; North Carolina State University; the University of Washington; and the University of California, San Diego.

In a statement, Harvard leaders said the decision was “meant to preserve our financial flexibility until we better understand how changes in federal policy will take shape and can assess the scale of their impact.”

The University of Washington’s provost, Tricia Serio, said in a blog post she recognized how the uncertainty of the moment could “prompt stress, worry and anxiety.”

“By using this time to proactively save our resources and thoughtfully plan, we will be better prepared to manage any future funding cuts to protect our mission for the public good,” she wrote.

Several universities said they also are looking for other ways to reduce expenses, including Emory, where President Gregory Fenves said it is necessary to “take prudent measures to prepare for what may be a significant disruption to our financ-

es.”

Universities see risks for federal funding on several fronts Colleges had been bracing for head winds under the new administration, including the possibility of a big hike in the tax on university endowments. But the new administration has taken several steps that have heightened uncertainty.

In addition to the reductions ordered to NIH grants, money for research and projects has been held up by delays in approval processes and cuts to programs linked to DEI. After a dustup between Trump

and Maine’s governor over transgender athletes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended funding for research at the University of Maine. The funding was restored this week, officials said.

The $400 million hit to Columbia in particular shook institutions of higher education.

The withdrawal of federal money is not the way to fight hate, said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council of Education. The cancellation, he said, will “eviscerate academic and research activities” at Columbia.

“But we also are deeply concerned that unless the administration reverses course, it will move on to wrongly target research at other institutions, wreaking further chaos, confusion, and negative consequences,” Mitchell said.

On Thursday, U.S. officials said a federal task force to combat antisemitism had notified leaders in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston that it wants to meet and discuss incidents where colleges in their cities may have failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination.

Pentagon is cutting up to 60,000 civilian jobs. About a third of those took voluntary resignations

BY LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press

Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, but fewer than 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation plan are leaving in the coming months, a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday.

To reach the goal of a 5 percent to 8 percent cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the Pentagon aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave.

A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs left empty by the hiring freeze. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide personnel details, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure the cuts don’t hurt military readiness.

The cuts are part of the broader effort by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency Service to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies.

Acknowledging that “some” military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands.

The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave.

The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-bycase basis to ensure cuts don’t affect critical national security jobs.

Officials would not say how many Defense Department civilians requested the voluntary resignation plan — also known as the “Fork in

the Road” offer — but said more requested it than the number who eventually were approved.

The defense official said the “vast majority” were allowed but that in some cases, people were denied for national security reasons or to make sure that too many people in one office didn’t all leave.

He added that Hegseth also has given the secretaries of the military branches and Defense Department personnel leaders the authority to grant exemptions to the hiring freeze.

An average of 70,000 civilians are hired each year, which amounts to about 6,000 a month, he said. Because the services have a good deal of latitude in determining which jobs should not be subject to the freeze, it’s not clear what portion of those 70,000 would actually be eliminated. Plans to cut probationary work-

ers, which the Pentagon said targeted about 5,400 of the roughly 54,000 in the department, are already on hold due to court challenges. Federal judges ordered the administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers that had been let go, finding legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out.

The official added that Hegseth is confident the staffing cuts can be done without negatively affecting military readiness. The Pentagon chief last month in Germany noted that he was planning to welcome DOGE to the Pentagon, adding that “there are waste, redundancies and headcounts in headquarters that need to be addressed.”

Across the government, about 75,000 federal workers are being let go through “deferred resignation program” buyouts. And at

least 24,000 probationary employees were initially let go in the nowpaused mass firings across multiple agencies since Trump took office, according to lawsuits challenging the firings. The government has not confirmed that number.

The personnel reductions come as top Democrats on the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees have filed a lengthy Freedom of Information Act request questioning whether the Trump administration’s DOGE Service is operating “outside the bounds of federal law,” The Associated Press has learned.

In addition, President Donald Trump has ordered a large-scale reduction in force to cut jobs and reduce the overall size of the government. Defense officials could not provide any details on what that would do at the Pentagon or what proposed cuts are being discussed.

USPS agrees to work with DOGE on reform, planning to cut 10,000 workers

ASSOCIATED PRESS VIA REUTERS

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the U.S. Postal Service budget and he’ll do that working with Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter sent to members of Congress March 13.

DOGE will assist USPS with addressing “big problems” at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has sometimes struggled in recent years to stay afloat. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration in an effort to help the Postal Service identify and achieve “further efficiencies.”

USPS listed such issues as mismanagement of the agency’s retirement assets and Workers’ Compensation Program, as well as an array of regulatory requirements that the letter described as “restricting nor-

mal business practice.”

“This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” DeJoy wrote.

Critics of the agreement fear negative effects of the cuts will be felt across America. Democratic U.S.

Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, who was sent the letter, said turning over the Postal Service to DOGE would result in it being undermined and privatized.

“This capitulation will have cata-

strophic consequences for all Americans — especially those in rural and hard to reach areas — who rely on the Postal Service every day to deliver mail, medications, ballots, and more,” he said in a statement.

USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers tasked with making deliveries from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands.

The service plans to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program, according to the letter. The

“Common sense solutions are what the Postal Service needs, not privatization.”

—National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian L. Renfroe

USPS announced the plan during the final days of the Biden administration in January but at the time didn’t include the number of workers expected to leave. Neither the USPS nor the Trump administration immediately responded to emails from The Associated Press requesting comment.

The agency previously announced plans to cut its operating costs by more than $3.5 billion annually. And this isn’t the first time thousands of employees have been cut. In 2021, the agency cut 30,000 workers.

As the service that has operated as an independent entity since 1970 has struggled to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail, it has fought calls from President Donald Trump and others that it be privatized. Last month, Trump said he may put USPS under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover.

The National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement in response to the March 13 letter that they welcome anyone’s help with addressing some of the agency’s biggest problems but stood firmly against any move to privatize the Postal Service.

“Common sense solutions are what the Postal Service needs, not privatization efforts that will threaten 640,000 postal employees’ jobs, 7.9 million jobs tied to our work, and the universal service every American relies on daily,” he said. DeJoy, a Republican donor who owned a logistics business, was appointed to lead USPS during Trump’s first term in 2020. He has faced repeated challenges during his tenure, including the COVID-19 pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts.

AP Photo/Jason DeCrow

Members of Columbia University’s student workers union and their supporters protest the detention of Palestinian activist

Mahmoud Khalil and recent actions taken by the Trump administration against the university, Friday, March 14, 2025, in New York.