Trades generalists with state start
Since 1897
Feds: Adams pressured FDNY to certify consulate building as safe
‘I know,’ he said when reminded it was ‘his turn’ to support Turkey, indictment details
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN
dfreeman@thechiefleader.com
FDNY officials’ September 2021 approval of a Turkish diplomatic building’s fire alarm and fire suppression systems took center stage in the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams unsealed by federal prosecutors Sept. 26. In return for campaign contributions, discounted luxury travel and other gifts, Adams pressured FDNY leaders to expedite the opening of Turkish House, a 36-story skyscraper across from the United Nations, despite numerous deficiencies in the building’s fire alarm systems, federal officials charged.
FDNY officials eventually gave the building the green light but the delay, and a backlog of inspections at the time, may have contributed to the mayor’s push months later to shift fire-alarm and fire-suppression inspections responsibilities from the FDNY to the Department of Buildings.
‘Not safe to occupy’
According to the indictment, Turkish officials sought to have the building, which houses the Turkish Mission to the UN and the Turkish Consulate, open for a Sept. 20, 2021, visit of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
but, in early September, the DOB had yet to issue the certificate that would allow the building to open because the FDNY’s inspectors had not certified the building as safe.
After a Turkish official contacted Adams that month and told him it was “his turn” to support Turkey, Adams asked then-FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro to get the department to approve the building’s fire safety systems. Nigro allegedly told the mayor he would do so. A day later, though, an FDNY employee tasked with reviewing the building’s issues wrote to the department’s chief of fire prevention that the consulate had “major issues,” including over 60 defects.
“This building is not safe to occupy,” the inspector wrote to Chief Joseph Jardin on Sept. 9, 2021. Jardin had previously refused to certify the building when he was lobbied by other city officials, according to the indictment. Jardin continued to resist signing off on approval after receiving his subordinate’s email.
That changed on Sept. 10, when Jardin was told by Thomas Richardson, then the FDNY’s chief of department, that both men would lose their jobs if the consulate approval was not moved forward. After that meeting, Jardin signed a “letter of no objection” that gave DOB the green light to issue a temporary certificate of occupancy.
A Bureau of Fire Prevention source told The Chief last
See MAYOR, page 6
After ‘hottest
Hundreds rallied Monday ahead of yet more court hearings
BY RICHARD KHAVKINE richardk@thechiefleader.com
Roberta Gonzalez made $5,200 a year when she came to work for the city in 1973, as a clerk with what was then the Department of Health, Hospitals, and Sanitation.
As the city’s fiscal picture grew ever more dire, and municipal posts started to dry up, she and her colleagues had clearly defined job descriptions. And they understood their roles, even if their salaries didn’t match the demands placed on them. “We are generally a dedicated and caring group,” Gonzalez, since retired, said late Monday morning in City Hall Park. “After all, we make the city run.”
What she and her coworkers did have, as part of what Gonzalez called “a reciprocal relationship with the boss” — aka, New York City officials — were assurances that they would receive a proper pension and good, lifelong health benefits when they retired.
But more than a decade into Gonzalez’s retirement, those guarantees remain under threat. As they have been for several years, as first the de Blasio administration and, since 2022, then the Adams administration have endeavored to shift
roughly 250,000 retired municipal workers into a cost-saving, for-profit Medicare Advantage plan from their government-administered Medicare and supplemental insurance.
Although the retirees and their advocates, most prominently the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, have won successive victories in court challenging the city’s efforts, the Adams administration has filed appeal after appeal in a bid to push through shift, which city officials have said would save the city some $600 million a year.
On Monday, about 250 retirees gathered in City Hall Park to demand that the administration drop its effort and instead endorse retirees’ continued access to their current plan. Following the late morning rally at City Hall, the retirees and their advocates walked a mile northwest to Spring Street Park, across the street from Aetna’s city headquarters. The managed-care giant was awarded the city’s Medicare Advantage program in late March 2023
But pronounced opposition from retirees has stalled the agreement’s implementation, with courts repeatedly siding with the retired city workers’ contention that switching them to a private plan would break assurances made decades ago. The retirees, health care professionals and others argue that the private-plan’s provisions are inferior,
7 months after ratifying the agreements
BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com
College assistants, custodians and other non-pedagogical employees at the City University of New York are growing increasingly frustrated as they await agreed-to raises and retroactive payments more than seven months after ratifying a new contract.
Although Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state had reached a tentative agreement for a new contract with District Council 37, Teamsters Local 237 and SEIU Local 300 on Jan. 10, the 10,000 union members have not received any of the raises promised as part of the pact.
Dishunta Meredith, who represents about 6,000 CUNY college assistants, sign language interpreters and disability accommodation specialists as the president of DC 37’s Local 2054, said that CUNY hasn’t given any sort of time frame for paying out raises. She called
at best, to current coverage. They note that unlike regular Medicare, for-profit Medicare Advantage plans typically require pre-approvals, some of which, they contend, follow determinations generated by artificial intelligence.
They and their advocates maintain that private health-care insurers, rather than medical practitioners, essentially dictate care, since plan administrators often have the final say on which procedures will be covered. Private providers’ profit motives by definition outweigh consumers’ health concerns, the retirees say.
They are now making several specific demands of the mayor, principally that he essentially ensures the retirees continued access to their traditional Medicare and supplemental plan, including by dropping the appeals to court cases regarding Medicare and a copay issue, the president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, Marianne Pizzitola, said. Adams should also publicly state his support for a City Council resolution that would guarantee the retirees’ current benefits as well as for state legislation, introduced in January, that would prohibit public-sector employers from “diminishing health insurance benefits provided to the retirees and their dependents.” The state bill would
the delay “ridiculous.”
“My people are the backbone of the university. There’s no reason why [CUNY] can’t carry this out in a timely manner,” she said during a phone interview. “They haven’t had raises since 2020.”
Meredith said that she’s filed grievances over the matter, and that when she has spoken with CUNY administrators, they’ve said that the raises were “very difficult to calculate.”
“If you’re doing a contract in good faith, why sign off on a contract that you’re not ready to pay out?” she asked. “When are we going to get the raises? Next week? Next month? Next year?”
Some members of the union have posted on social media asking about their raises. Although several workers have asked the union to provide a timeline for the raises and retroactive payments, Meredith said that all hinges on the university system. “We can’t go into CUNY’s computer systems and give members
Richard Khavkine/The Chief
Dr. Donald Moore, who runs a full-time general medicine practice in Brooklyn and is a board
Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor Eric Adams met with Hilmi Türkmen, the mayor of Uskudar, Turkey, at City Hall in May 2022.
H+H doctors warn cuts to appointment times will burden patients and staff
BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com
Doctors in the city’s public hospital system are pushing back against a recently implemented plan to halve appointment times for new primary care patients.
In August, NYC Health + Hospitals announced that it would reduce patient visits for first-time patients in adult primary care and pediatrics from 40 minutes to 20 minutes. Since wait times for primary care appointments have increased, the hospital-systems goal is for more patients to be seen. Appointment times for returning patients will remain the same, at 20 minutes.
The plan took effect last week. The physicians gathered outside of Queens Hospital in Jamaica Sept. 24 to warn that the changes will harm patient care and burden doctors.
“A new patient appointment is about building trust with a patient, so it cannot be rushed. This not only compromises the accuracy of our diagnosis, but also compromises patient experience,” said Frances Quee, president of the Doctors Council. “Can you imagine being diagnosed with HIV for the first time and you’re coming in and the doctor is rushing because they have a lot of patients waiting for them? How would you feel?”
NYC H+H disproportionately serves patients who are immigrants, undocumented or uninsured.
“The majority of our patients have had little-to-no medical care in the past, and come to us looking for the care of multiple complex medical issues,” said Dr. Sameer Misra, an internist at Queens Hospital who has worked at the public hospital for nearly 34 years and seen thousands of patients in that time. “We frequently have to get the help of interpreter services to talk to them to get their medical, social and general history. All of this takes time.”
The doctors noted that H+H was already plagued with physician retention and understaffing woes.
“This will most definitely increase physician burnout, drag physicians away, and further contribute to the patient care gap that is already in place,” said Dr. Jasmine Sandhu, who specializes in internal medicine at the hospital.
More repeat visits?
Unique primary care patients at the public hospital system increased 15,399 in Fiscal Year 2024 to a total of 442,736, according to the mayor’s management report. For adult primary care, the av-
erage number of days for the third next available appointment, the industry standard for measuring patient access to care, rose from 12 days during FY 2023 to 20 days over the same period in FY 2024. The average number of days pediatric patients must wait for an appointment also increased from 13 days to 23 days during the same time frame.
But Sandhu questioned H+H’s rationale that shrinking visit times for new patients would free up appointment times for more patients.
“In order to [provide quality care], we’re going to have to ask these pa-
EMS discrimination suit certified as a class action
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com
A federal judge has certified litigation brought by two dozen members of FDNY EMS and their unions as a class action discrimination suit covering all EMS workers, from EMTs to division commanders, employed by the department in the last five years. Judge Analisa Torres had already denied the city’s request to throw out the suit and last week once again sided with the EMS workers.
The suit, filed in December 2022, alleges that the city has engaged in discriminatory pay practices against members of FDNY EMS on the basis of race and sex. Prior to filing their suit, FDNY EMS workers had filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2019. The federal EEOC found in 2021 that former and current EMS workers had been discriminated against and told the workers the following year that they had a legal basis to sue.
Workers filed the suit with support from District Council 37 Local 2507, which represents EMTs and paramedics, and Local 3621, the EMS officers union. Vincent Variale, Local 3621’s president, said the suit’s certification as a class action was “monu-
mental and historic.”
“It’s another step towards EMS receiving justice for all these years,” he added.
Variale said that the two unions’ negotiations with the city for a new collective bargaining agreement has made little progress as the locals continue to demand raises that would put them on a course to parity with other first responders.
Officials with the city’s Office of Labor Relations, Variale said, have proposed giving EMS workers raises adhering to the civilian pattern despite the fact that they’re uniformed employees.
In her March decision declining to throw out the case, Torres argued that failing to provide EMS workers with the higher, uniformed wage pattern “raises the specter of discrimination.” In the decision handed down last week, Torres wrote that EMS workers’ arguments “offer significant proof that the City has ’operated under a general policy of discrimination.’”
The evidence includes “statistical analyses showing that the EMS First Responders are more diverse by race and sex/gender than Fire First Responders and are paid significantly less; and expert analyses showing that EMS and Fire First Responders perform similar jobs and that no job-relevant rationale explains the difference in compen-
sation.” Torres also certified two subclasses, one for EMS workers who identify as women, and another for those who are non-white. Last year, Torres oversaw a $29.2 million settlement between the city and the FDNY’s fire protection inspectors after the inspectors filed a class action lawsuit of their own.
“We are grateful to the Court for giving us the opportunity to correct the long overdue problem of pay inequity in the FDNY,” Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507, said in a statement. “Despite being underpaid and undervalued, our brave EMTs and paramedics protect the lives of New Yorkers every day. We look forward to the day when our members are extended the same treatment and recognition they deserve as uniform first responders.”
The FDNY deferred a comment request to the city’s Law Department
“The City values all of its first responders and the critical services they perform,” a Law Department spokesperson said in a statement. “Class certification is a way to streamline the case and in no way speaks to the merits of these claims. The City is confident that it will ultimately prevail in this litigation.”
times “could lead to increased hospitalization and emergency room visits for a condition that could have been managed through proper care in clinics.”
“Our commitment to care should not be compromised by quick administrative fixes,” she said during the press conference. “The recent decision by Health + Hospitals to halve patient appointment times without consulting frontline doctors [is] jeopardizing patient care.”
The hospital system has noted that it will add support staff, such as physician assistants, to help doctors.
“When fully implemented, new patients will have integrated care team visits with roughly 20 minutes spent directly with their provider plus the additional time needed to see their coordinated care team members – social workers, a community health worker, clinical pharmacist, and nurses,” an H+H spokesperson said in a statement.
The union and physicians called on NYC H+H to hire more doctors rather than cutting patient visit times. “There are better ways to deal with this important issue, like improving recruitment at our facilities. This is also a central theme of our ongoing contract negotiations with H+H,” Misra said.
tients to come back more frequently, so that begs the question: if we’re shortening down these visits to 20 minutes while we’re having to call the same patients back multiple times, that doesn’t sound like it’s going to open up patient visit times for new patients,” she explained. “If anything, it’s going to increase the burden on our already struggling patient population. You’re going to have to take more time off from work to see us.”
Dr. Merjona Saliaj, an internal medicine specialist at the hospital, added that reducing appointment
The Doctors Council has been in negotiations for months with H+H for a new contract for the hospital system’s 2,800 physicians. The doctors are seeking an agreement that will significantly improve their pay in order to help address retention issues.
Elected officials, including Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson, City Council Member Sandra Ung and State Senator John Liu, came out to support the doctors in speaking out against the cuts to appointment times.
“The way to have more consultations, the way to take care of patients better, is not by cutting the consultation in half, but by getting more doctors,” Liu said.
MEDICARE: Retirees rally
Continued from Page 1
also preserve the public entities’ contributions toward the benefits.
Pizzitola, a retired city emergency medical technician, also wants the mayor to back congressional legislation that would expand traditional Medicare to cover vision, hearing and dental benefits, add a cap on out-of-pocket expenses for beneficiaries, and also work to recoup government overpayments to insurance companies that have been upcoding and overcharging for treatment.
“Anything less is a broken promise to retirees,” she told the gathering at City Hall Park. “Our fight to get what we were promised continues.”
City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the retirees’ demands.
‘Unequitable care’
The rally was among several Monday in cities and states across the nation where public-sector workers and retirees are also facing the prospect of losing their Medicare. Gatherings also took place in Hartford, Conn., and Philadelphia, and in Illinois, Maine and Wisconsin.
Dr. Donald Moore, who runs a full-time general medicine practice in Brooklyn and is a board member of the New York Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, said switching the retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan would mean a loss of options for patients across a wide range of services, some potentially consequential. He urged the retirees to fight to not give up their current coverage.
“If you do, you’re going to lose access. You’re going to lose choice. You’re going to get unequitable care,” said Moore, who is also an
attending physician at New York Methodist Hospital and teaches at Weill Cornell Medical College.
“Rich people,” he said, have Medicare, while those with fewer means or even none must contend with Medicare Advantage. “We fragment our insurance so we can give different care to different people. We should all get the same care,” Moore said. “What we need to fight for is an expanded Medicare, traditional Medicare for all.”
Gonzalez, who retired from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2011, worked through the HIV and AIDS epidemic, raising funds and setting up testing and prevention programs, and instituting needle-exchange programs. Her city career would also span 9/11, the anthrax scares and budget battles. Through fiscal crises, transit strikes and blizzards, she and her colleagues came to work doing the jobs they were hired to do, she said.
“We often made personal sacrifices to work in the jobs that make the city work,” Gonzalez said.
She’s since battled lung and thyroid cancer, both tied to her work in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. And now, she said, “I and 250,000, a quarter of a million or more of my colleagues, are being forced by the city to make new health care decisions that can mean life or death for each of us.”
The city’s effort, she said, “is unconscionable.”
“When current workers see how easy it is for the city to go back on its commitments, to bait and switch with unkept promises, how will those workers feel about making any necessary sacrifices for the city? Who will they trust?” Gonzalez continued. “Who will be compelled to act to protect the city, its people, when the city shows that it does not uphold its end of the bargain?”
Courtesy Doctors Council
Members of the Doctors Council rallied last week at NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens in Jamaica to criticize a recent change that shortened appointment times for new primary care patients from 40 to 20 minutes. The doctors
Richard Khavkine/The Chief
Dozens of municipal retirees and their advocates walked northwest on Broadway from City Hall Park to Spring Street Park following a noontime rally Monday calling for city officials to cancel their effort to switch about 250,000 of the retirees to a privately run Medicare Advantage plan.
After ‘hottest ever’ summer, comptroller’s report urges protections for city workers
Ramos bill would institute some protections
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN dfreeman@thechiefleader.com
Fresh from Trash School at the DSNY Training Academy at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, where they learned how to maneuver a 33-foot garbage truck, work a frontend loader, tip a trash can into the hopper and best avoid the unavoidable spray from refuse, 140 new sanitation workers officially joined up with the Strongest following a graduation ceremony at 1 Police Plaza Monday.
DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch congratulated the graduates and commended them for choosing a career of public service.
Paying tribute to sanitation worker Richard Errico, who was killed on the job Sept. 21, Tisch noted that the new workers were taking on “a critical job,” but nonetheless a dangerous one.
The department, though, “is firing on all cylinders, doing more for the 8.3 million New Yorkers than ever before,” she said.
“We are in the midst of a trash revolution, a move to restore dignity and order to every street, every neighborhood, and every borough
in this city,” Tisch said.
Alluding to the changes taking place at the department, Mayor Eric Adams said the ongoing containerization of trash represented “a historical battle” the city is poised to win.
The city’s 6,900 sanitation workers, Adams said, constitute one of the city’s most critical workforces.
“This is the city where everyone comes to learn how to run other cities,” he said. “This is a city where working men and women will be able to raise healthy children and families because you have created the quality of life in this city that is important…. I thank you for what you do.”
Not least, Adams added, the DSNY’s workers have helped decrease the population of the city’s most unwanted, “one of my greatest enemies, rats.”
The occasion also served as a graduation for 21 new sanitation police officers and promotion ceremony for eight new superintendents and two sanitation police lieutenants.
Another class of the sanitation workers is now in training.
US DOT directs transit agencies to reduce assault risks on workers
BY RICHARD KHAVKINE richardk@thechiefleader.com
Citing a “significant and continuing national-level safety risk,” federal transportation officials have directed transit agencies to assess how well their workers are protected against assaults.
More than 700 agencies, the MTA among them, have been given three months to determine the likelihood of assaults on transit vehicles and facilities and, if the threat is high, identify ways to reduce the risk. Transit agencies serving urban areas of more than 200,000 people must involve labor when doing those assessments.
The Federal Transit Administration said it was issuing the directive, its first, in response to a significant increase in assaults on transit workers.
“FTA has identified a national-level hazard that transit workers must interact with the public and, at times, must clarify or enforce agency policies, which can present a risk of transit workers being assaulted on transit vehicles and in revenue facilities,” the directive, issued last week, noted. “FTA has determined that the national-level hazard and potential consequences discussed above constitute an unsafe condition or practice presenting a risk of death or personal injury for transit workers.”
Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen commended the FTA for issuing the directive.
“Transit workers have been subject to a plague of violence and abuse for far too long,” Samuelsen said. “This Final Directive is a historic step forward in terms of making it safer for the blue-collar men and women who move America. Transit workers have the right to go to work, do their jobs, and return to their families unscathed. It’s going to require vigilance and strong oversight by the FTA and focus by unions like the TWU to ensure success, but this absolutely is progress.”
MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick said agency officials were reviewing the directive and preparing a response.
TWU Local 100, which represents the MTA’s subway operators and conductors and bus drivers, did not respond to a request for comment on the directive.
Major incidents spike
According to figures compiled by the Urban Institute, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, major assaults on transit workers nationwide have tripled since 2008. The FTA defines a “major assault” as an incident resulting in fatality or an injury requiring medical transport.
The number of major assaults on buses and trains jumped from 168 in 2008 to 470 in 2019, according to the Urban Institute. They dipped to 297 in 2020 as the nation’s transportation systems slowed because of the pandemic and then rose again, to 348 in 2021 before spiking to 492 in 2022.
According to a November 2023 Urban Institute report, agencies with already high numbers of assaults saw their frequency intensify. Among those was the MTA, where the frequency of incidents more than doubled from one occurrence every three days in 2008 to one occurrence every 1.4 days in 2002.
The majority of major assaults involve bus drivers. The MTA last year began testing fully enclosed driver compartments on NYC Transit buses to guard against assaults and harassment. Since 2017, all local route buses have been equipped with barriers that partially enclose the drivers, but the new prototype stretches the barrier to the roof of the bus and also includes more glass on the driver’s compartment door and a fixed glass partition in front of the door.
“No American should go to work and worry they will not return home safely,” FTA Deputy Administrator Veronica Vanterpool said in a statement accompanying the directive.
“That is particularly true for the transit workers who were valuable frontline workers in our nation’s time of need. Transit workers experienced a significant increase in assaults over the years, which is unacceptable. This is just one step as FTA seeks to improve transit worker safety. We will continue to take action to ensure that our nation’s transit workers are safe and secure while running our nation’s trains, buses, and transit facilities.”
State and local legislators must pass regulations aimed at protecting New Yorkers laboring outdoors from threats — including extreme heat — posed by climate change, a report released by city Comptroller Brad Lander last week recommends. According to Lander’s analysis, a third of the city’s workforce — 1.4 million people — labors outdoors for prolonged periods of time.
Those workers are paid less, on average, than their indoor counterparts, the report found, and are more likely to be Hispanic, male and non-citizens. They’re also increasingly at risk of health issues related to weather events including extreme heat, cold and wildfire smoke, like what blanketed the city in June 2023.
“This summer was the hottest ever on earth, breaking last year’s record, and sadly next year will probably be hotter still — our outdoor workers are on the front lines of these increasingly dangerous conditions,” Lander said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. “With rising temperatures and worsening air quality, it’s essential for New York City to have stronger regulations in place to protect workers from the deadly risks of extreme heat.”
Construction, transportation, installation and repair, protective service occupations and health care-support occupations are the five industries that employ the most outdoor workers, the report found. There are also nearly 100,000 New Yorkers who work as street vendors, day laborers or app-based delivery workers and consequently spend most of their time outside.
To help protect outdoor workers, Lander recommends that the state legislature pass and Governor Kathy Hochul sign legislation known as the Temperature Extreme Mitigation Program, or TEMP Act, proposed by State Senator Jessica Ramos, chair of that
chamber’s Labor Committee. The bill would require employers to provide their workers with drinkable water, 10-minute breaks in a cool room every two hours and protective equipment if the temperature climbs above 80 degrees.
“As a legislator, I have a responsibility to make sure our laws keep pace with our reality,” Ramos said in a statement. “Essential workers are at the frontline of the climate crisis, and with an unchecked Supreme Court chipping away at federal agencies’ ability to protect workers, states need to step up. I am dead set on passing TEMP, and I thank the Comptroller for providing me with the data to take back to Albany to help make my case.”
The report notes, however, that TEMP would only cover workers in certain sectors, and it recommends that if the bill gets signed into law, legislators should seek to expand the protections to cover workers in all industries. Lander also wants more robust city or state legislation to protect workers from poor air quality. He also recommends other initiatives, such as expanding public bathroom access, creating an outreach program to educate work-
ers on how to stay safe in extreme weather, reforming the street vending code and setting up an emergency preparedness plan where the city could distribute masks during periods of low air quality. Workers were forced to scramble for masks and other protective equipment when smog from wildfire smoke descended on the city in June 2023. UPS drivers passed out masks to their coworkers that they had bought in bulk in Westchester and despite those measures, several drivers nonetheless experienced health issues on their routes due to the poor air quality.
Vinnie Perrone, the president of Teamsters Local 804, which represents thousands of UPS drivers and warehouse workers, while thankful for the comptroller’s effort, said that more legislation protecting workers from extreme weather needs to be on the books. “Our members face serious threats to their health and safety from extreme temperatures,” he said in a statement. “Thank you to Comptroller Lander for investigating this worker-safety emergency. Without state action, employers will do nothing to protect their workers.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s deputy secretary, Polly Trottenberg, said the directive would help keep transit agencies “accountable” as they seek to reduce violence on transit workers.
“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a tragic and unacceptable rise in verbal and physical assaults on the men and women who are critical in providing a transportation lifeline for millions of people,” Trottenberg said in the statement.
The TWU noted that the directive strengthens provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which among other stipulations requires transit agencies to collect and report data on assaults. It also requires that the agencies work with unions to put together safety plans.
Among the strategies for complying with the directive would be the installation of protective barriers, personal safety training, de-escalation training and patrol plans, the union said.
Matt Leichenger
A UPS truck on the June 2023 day when smoke from wildfires in Canada blanketed the city.
Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Newly minted ‘Strongest’ take it to the streets
COMMENTARY COMMENTARY COMMENTARY
BEN AUGUST Publisher RICHARD KHAVKINE Editor
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Words to abdicate by
To The ediTor:
In the mood of the “1776” movie song about John Adams forcing Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, a few lyrics for Mayor Eric Adams: Mayor. Adams, damn you, Mayor Adams,
You’re a devious one, that cannot be denied
You surround yourself with loyal fools
Who always take your side
And now the feds have uncovered your hidden underside.
Did you conspire with foreign leaders
To get gifts and foreign trips?
While lying to the public
To hide your sinking ship
Promoting your career and wealth was a clever trick.
Was it worth it, was it, Mayor Adams?
You will soon find out and face your fate
Didn’t you career in law enforcement
Help to keep you straight?
And facing temptation make you hesitate?
Michael J. Gorman
Starving wages
To The ediTor:
After reading “Restaurant inspections declined in FY24” (The Chief, Sept. 20), it’s not hard to figure out where the problem lies. There’s a shortage of inspectors. There’s an increase in the workload for the remaining inspectors. The starting salary is only $50,000 a year, so it’s hard to retain those who are hired. Go figure.
Then there’s the requirement of a four-year college degree. Why?
To do this job, do you really need to take college courses? What do they teach? This is a rat. This is a roach.
I guess it’s too simple for the government to hire people who can do the job and pay them a decent wage?
Warren
Richard
Preserve health protections
To The ediTor:
I’ve had kidney troubles ever since I was born. It’s been exhausting managing my health care
needs. It became even harder when I began dialysis, the only treatment for kidney failure besides a transplant. Taking care of my health while fulfilling my responsibilities as a mother and a business owner was overwhelming. If you or a loved one have had intensive medical needs, you know how incredibly hard daily life becomes.
Eventually, I was able to receive a kidney transplant — only because I have private insurance in addition to Medicare. It’s unconscionable that dialysis patients without private insurance coverage are often put at the bottom of the list for a transplant.
That’s why a recent Supreme Court decision allowing private insurers to weaken coverage for new dialysis patients poses a serious threat. Now, it’s possible for private insurers to effectively push patients onto Medicare before they’re ready by limiting benefits or reimbursements. That could leave them without sufficient coverage, hurting their chances of receiving a transplant.
Lawmakers should support the Restore Protections for Dialysis Pa-
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD by Denberg
tients Act, which would allow dialysis patients to maintain 30 months of full private coverage before transitioning to Medicare.
Merida Bourjolly
The choice is yours
To The ediTor:
This is not 1840s Baltimore or 1930s Nazi Germany. People have the fight to vote for the candidate of their choice, to be undecided, write-in a candidate or not vote at all. Whatever decision one makes about voting is not anyone else’s business. Being undecided does not make one mentally defective (“For the undecided,” letters, The Chief, Sept. 27).
I need more information on Kamala Harris than she was a district attorney, state’s attorney or U.S. senator. Conviction rate? Important investigations? Voting record in the Senate?
The organization Black Lives Matter, which couldn’t have more motivation to see a Harris presidency, issued a statement objecting to her “anointing” without a fair primary election. Frequent contributor Howard Elterman put it beautifully a while back: “the
American political system is bankrupt,” and while an oversimplification I essentially agree. Stop telling me what to do.
Speaking of Howard Elterman, kudos for his outstanding “Harris Vacillates” (Letters, The Chief, Sept. 27) and for having the courage to say Israel is not the sainted martyred do-gooder of the Middle East everyone makes her out to be.
And to Joseph Cannisi: a recession is the natural cycle of our economy (“Fake news,” letters, The Chief, Sept. 27). A recession doesn’t just happen. It takes a year to two years for conditions leading to recession to come to fruition.
The recession early in Reagan’s presidency began in 1980, under a Democrat. The recession early in Bush 43’s term began in 2000, under a Democrat. There were also recessions in 1937 and 1949, under a Democrat.
Nat Weiner
Capitol alibi
To The ediTor:
For at least the second time, Nat Weiner suggests that the blame for the January 6 insurrection falls upon those who violated the Capi-
tol. In July, Mr. Weiner wrote “Why is the blame for January 6 being placed squarely on Donald Trump’s shoulders?... Why is Trump being blamed for the stupidity of his followers?” (“A defense,” letters, The Chief, July 12).
Last week, Mr. Weiner wrote “The decision to storm the capitol was made by those who stormed the Capitol. Not Donald Trump” (“No confidence,” letters, The Chief).
Using that logic, it was wrong for California to prosecute and convict Charles Manson for murder in 1969. After all, Manson wasn’t present during the Tate murders and he didn’t physically participate in the LaBianca murders. The prosecution even conceded that Manson didn’t directly order the murders. Yet, I doubt anyone, including Mr. Weiner, believes there was a miscarriage of justice in the Manson case. Trump’s culpability for January 6 is equally clear. The question raised in Mr. Weiner’s latest — “What is sad about” tens of millions of Americans voting for Trump? — is more than answered once one accepts this.
Joseph Cannisi
City, state officials sitting on sidelines as feds investigate Adams
BY BERNARD WHALEN
Corruption amongst city officials in New York City is nothing new, but never have the probes into malfeasance by appointed city officials been so widespread as today.
Even before the five boroughs merged in 1898 to become the Greater City of New York, a name not often used today, there was the Lexow Committee, which uncovered widespread police corruption. The committee was named after Clarence Lexow, a Republican New York State senator who called for a bi-partisan investigation into the NYPD at the behest of a prominent reformer, the Rev. Charles Parker.
The probe uncovered how police officials, acting on orders from Democrats affiliated with Tammany Hall, collected bribes and/or extorted money not only from gamblers and prostitutes, but also their police colleagues who, in order to advance in rank, were forced to pay tribute to their Tammany Hall patrons. This scandal led to the election of William Strong as mayor in 1895 and the subsequent appointment of Theodore Roosevelt as president of the four-person Police Board. Roosevelt established civil service rules for the NYPD that governed appointments and promotions, in an effort to eliminate payoffs.
For the Democrats, the unsavory disclosures proved only a temporary setback. By the time the boroughs merged, they were back in power until another investigation into police corruption initiated by Alderman Henry H. Curran in 1912. The “Curran Committee” also found a vast network of corruption in the police department. One of the accused, Lieutenant Charles Becker, paid for his actions with his life when he became the first and only
NYPD officer sentenced to die in the electric chair.
Another reform mayor, Republican John Purroy Mitchel, was elected to clean house, but after just one term in office Tammany Hall convinced the public that it had enough of the “do-gooder,” and took charge of the city again for the next sixteen years. Things got even more crooked during Prohibition and for a second time the New York State legislature opened an inquiry into the NYPD and the city’s judicial system. The
chief prosecutor was Judge Samuel Seabury, for whom the hearings are most remembered. Mayor Jimmy Walker, a dapper dresser who let his patronage appointees run roughshod, dodged most of the bullets fired at him early on during the investigation. But he couldn’t explain the $26,000 in bonds paid to him by the taxi industry, which the city regulated, without incriminating himself.
Rather than face charges, he resigned and fled to Europe. Shortly thereafter, Governor Franklin Roo-
sevelt removed the New York County sheriff, Thomas Farley, whose job was apparently more lucrative than the mayor’s. He had $360,000 in his bank account that he couldn’t account for. A year and a half later, reformer Fiorello LaGuardia became mayor. It took three terms for another Democrat to get elected and it resulted in the same outcome. Mayor William O’Dwyer and his police commissioner resigned from office after yet another gambling scandal involving the NYPD came to light.
Since then, there have been two other high-profile investigations into the NYPD. The Knapp Commission and the Mollen Commission, but in those instances, Mayors John Lindsay and David Dinkins ordered them and in both occasions their police commissioners left office never to return. With all of the headlines in recent weeks involving Mayor Eric Adams’ political appointees, it begs the question of why no city or state official formed a committee or appointed a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of what’s going on? Several officials have resigned, but left many questions unanswered. In the past, the allegations that have been reported by the press would have been enough to fire up at least one ambitious politician to take the lead and make a name for him or herself going after the mayor and his administration. But there’s been nothing. Nothing from the City Council, nothing from the governor, from the district attorney’s office, from the State Attorney General or from the Department of Investigation and very little from the mayor himself, although that is probably a decision based on advice from his lawyers now that he has been indicted. Adams will continue to proclaim his innocence, just as Jimmy Walker and William O’Dwyer did while behind the scenes deals were worked out. In order to do so, some members of his administration will have to become sacrificial lambs. Meanwhile, the public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who is next in line to become mayor should Adams resign, can start measuring the windows at City Hall for new curtains. Bernard Whalen is a former NYPD lieutenant and co-author of “The NYPD’s First Fifty Years” and “Case Files of the NYPD.”
THE CHIEF welcomes letters from its readers for publication. Correspondents must include their names, addresses
phone numbers. Letters should be no longer than 300 words and are subject to editing for clarity and length. Preference will be given to correspondence that references New York City and State topics. To submit a letter online,
Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor Eric Adams at the Queens Evening of Faith Aliento de Vida Pentecostal Church in Corona Monday.
COMMENTARY COMMENTARY COMMENTARY
Big strides down a short pier?
BY RON ISAAC
The strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association looms like Armageddon’s mushroom cloud. Let’s clear the air.
Harold J. Daggett Jr., the union’s president, is in the pole position to make the global economy his plaything. But he isn’t playing. He means business. Every day his East Coast and Gulf Coast members withdraw their labor, the U.S. economy will take a $5 billion hit. It won’t be pretty. The damage will be exponential. It will take an estimated four to six days to clear up one strike day’s backlog.
But he is not holding the country ransom. The other side is. The union’s constitution does not require authorization for him to call a strike. The national ILA hasn’t gone on strike since the year Elvis and Groucho Marx died.
President Biden has a classic Hobson’s Choice. He can easily halt a strike by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, but not without incurring the wrath of unions nationwide and losing credibility as the self-hyped most pro-union president in history.
Hypocrisy On
“Voters aren’t going to like living in a country kneecapped by a dockworker strike,” notes Axios. Longshoremen have good and when taunted, unforgiving memories and the presidential election is likely to be a squeaker. It would be foolhardy to call the union’s bluff, because they don’t bluff. Would they be cutting off their noses to spite their faces, if they abandon the Democrats. People do it all the time. Lamentable chapters of history prove it.
THE CHIEF-LEADER, FRIDAY,
FEBRUARY 25,
2022
Longshoremen carried signs and chanted Tuesday outside the Bayport Container Terminal in Seabrook, Texas, as members of the International Longshoremen’s Association walked out on strike after their contract expired at midnight.
years of been Justices the more have women is 4 over decision to African-Amerhe we qualified comical if ignoJobs the and What an President for selectblue-ribbon apconfirm or politicontext is Ronto woman immedifrom find obvious1991,
The United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board requesting “immediate injunctive relief.” They did so a few days before the expiration of the current contract, which they knew all along would be the strike date in the absence of a settlement.
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.
Expect a Top Candidate
It’s the workers who deserve relief. Although the USMX earns and exports billions of dollars from American ports, they are inveterate stiffs when it comes to justly compensating the rank and file. Based on a 40-hour workweek, the East Coast and Gulf Coast workers are paid around $34,000 annually less, and $16 an hour less, than West Coast port workers. Even an abbreviated strike would be a heart attack to the supply chain. Auto, pharmaceutical and construction industries would be first affected, and truck drivers and warehouse and factory workers
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.
Letters to the Editor
would be immediately impacted.
The limbs of commerce will be paralyzed.
focus from the task at hand: negotiating a contract.
Audacity to Criticize Molina
To the Editor:
BY BARRY LISAK
THE IRS AND the New York Department of Taxation and Finance remind taxpayers to be vigilant against scammers and identity thieves.
Be wary of phone and phishing scams. Remember, the IRS and New York Tax Department will contact you by mail first and never threaten you over the phone or demand payment be made through Moneygram, Western Union, or other wire transfers; or using Tunes, Greendot or other cash and gift cards.
Taxpayers may receive emails with authentic-looking government logos that offer assistance in settling fake tax issues. The New York Tax Department and IRS will never request personal or financial information by email.
Our railway system is insufficient to take up the slack and the West Coast could not make up the difference. Nearly half of the incoming and outgoing U.S. cargo is processed in three dozen ports. Even if we’re not already living in a “banana republic,” we may soon have no bananas left and shortly thereafter, no republic either.
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.”
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.
Harold Daggett Jr. was born in West Greenwich Village and grew up in Woodside, Queens. He is neither the first nor will he be the last over several generations in his family to prominently serve within the ILA. He fights hard, especially against job-killing automations, which is literal dehumanization of the workforce, and strengthened ties to workers councils around the world.
Union-phobic, conspiratorial racketeers in the “right-to-work” camp have smeared the ILA with charges of “dirty tactics,” unwholesome relationships and unsavory control of jobs. Such avowals are a familiar default tactic of worker-busting gangs. Anything to shift
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 is essential for workers to support each other, even when their job descriptions or circumstances are different and seem hard to relate to.
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.
Vincent Scala is a former Bronx Assistant District Attorney. He is currently a criminal-defense attorney in New York City and its suburbs.
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.
How is it that Schiraldi, a so-called juvenile-justice reformer and expert, failed so miserably in managing DOC?
How is it that Oren Varnai, the head of DOC’s
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.
Politico notes that Daggett’s compensation package is much more than that of his counterparts at the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers, for example. He’s still in the poorhouse compared to most corporate CEOs, including those who have run their companies aground. At present rates of pay, it would take almost a half-century for Daggett to catch up with what Boeing’s CEO pulls down annually. The recently expired ILA contract was in effect for six years. As all sentient Americans know, inflation has catapulted the cost of living over the rainbow of untenability. Creditors demand to be paid regardless of workers’ no-fault inability to do so.
brand of elegance. It is perilous to try to bully them or treat them as an underclass. Eric Hoffer, the famous and oft-quoted 20th century social critic and political philosopher, was a longshoreman once by trade and forever at heart.
It is essential for our prosperity and the peace of the nation for workers to support each other, even when their job descriptions or circumstances are different and seem hard to relate to. When one union’s strike causes inconvenience and pain to other workers, this is harder, but no less imperative. There is persistent, perhaps eternal enmity against organized labor, blue-collar, white-collar or no-collar.
Even when we don’t feel it at the moment, it’s happening like cellular changes on our bodies. Our enemies’ designs are underfoot.
additional deduction because she is 70 years old. Her standard deduction for 2021 is $14,250 ($12,550, the standard deduction for 2021, plus $1,700, the 2021 additional standard deduction for the singles who are over 65 or blind).
In 2021, Nicole and her spouse are joint filers. Both qualify for an additional standard deduction because they are both over 65. Their Form 1040 standard deduction is $27,800 ($25,100, the 2021 standard deduction for joint filers, plus 2 x $1,350, the 2021 additional standard deduction for married persons who are over 65 or blind). The above examples reflect the benefit of the new standard deduction. Millions of taxpayers won’t be itemizing this year to reduce their Federal income-tax bill.
According to the Associated Press, Maersk, just one major container shipping company, “made more than $50 billion in profits over the past four years.” There’s loot aplenty.
criminals and probably require arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment?
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?
More than 170 industry groups are pleading with the Biden administration to intervene, but so far, it has not. According to NPR, the union “may be seeking a $5 an hour increase in each year of a six-year agreement, raising the top hourly wage from $39 to $69 by the end of the contract.” The last agreement offered only a $1 an hour increase in four of the six years.
Longshoremen are colorfully depicted in literature, film and folklore, sometimes with embellishments and with the taking of questionable liberties. These guys are rough-hewn but have their own
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.
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 MICHAEL J. GORMAN
management by top bosses. Commissioner Molina is addressing all those issues.
The proposed New York Health Act would provide on a statewide level what Medicare-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 started working for the system in 1979. But one friend who was an excellent Transport 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.”
Have you heard of Schedule F?
Near the end of his administration, President Trump issued an executive order, since rescinded, to reform federal employment regulations, one effect of which would reclassify some federal career civil service positions to “excepted,” which would weaken workers’ due process protections and make them more vulnerable to termination.
According to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), which tracks bills in Congress, H.R.3115/S.1496, called the Public Service Reform Act, sponsored by Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) and Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), “would make all federal employment at-will and enable workers to be removed for good cause, bad cause, or no cause at all. The legislation would also abolish the Merit System Protections Board and limit removal appeals to claims of whistleblower retaliation and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints before the US Court of Appeals.”
Use strong passwords. Don’t use your name, birth date or common words. Use a different password for each of your accounts.
Use secure wireless networks. Always encrypt your wireless network with a strong password. Never access your personal accounts on a public WiFi network. Review bank accounts and statements. Check your credit card and banking statements regularly to spot any suspicious activity.
Review credit reports annually. Review each of your credit reports annually to spot any new lines of credit that you didn’t apply for or authorize. Think before you post. The more information and photos you share with social media, including current and past addresses, or names of relatives, can provide scammers possible answers to your security questions or otherwise help them access your accounts.
counseling, testing, medical evaluation, and case presentation call: DIAGNOSTIC and
The ILA is doing us all a favor by giving us an opportunity to stand by them and stand up for them.
Secure tax documents. Store hard copies of your federal and NYS tax returns in a safe place. Digital copies should also be saved. Shred documents that contain personal information before throwing them away. Review and respond to all IRS and NYS Department communications. You should review and respond to all notices sent. Any unexpected correspondence can be a potential sign that your identity has been stolen. It’s important that you contact the IRS or the NYS Tax Department immediately to confirm any liabilities. Following these guidelines may help to ensure a smooth sailing during and after tax season.
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.
Neither Schiraldi, nor any of his senior managers, have the credibility or standing to
Under the New York Health Act, patients would not have to worry about fighting bills. They would not
FIVE and by deducunder Act mar(MFJ), separately household spouse 2021 the dollar and and 65 and blind instandard individuals statuses. 2018 2025,
BARRY LISAK
Skeptical of Union ‘Health’
VINCENT SCALA
Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via AP
MAYOR: Feds:
week that he recalled the building’s fire alarm system being a “total mess.” He said that the list of violations FDNY inspectors found was multiple pages long and that the approval “was a rush job.”
Another FDNY source said that the fire suppression systems in the consulate building had been checked throughout its construction and that the main issues were in its fire alarm system. Fire protection inspectors “don’t approve anything in a building until it’s solid, until it’s ready to be occupied by civilians,” the source said.
Jardin signed the letter of no objection on the condition that DOB would inspect the building’s fire suppression systems, and that private engineers ensured the fire alarm system worked properly. Inspecting and testing those systems are the responsibility of the FDNY’s fire-alarm and fire-protection inspectors but, in this case, Jardin shifted some of the responsibility to DOB to expedite approval.
DOB inspectors are not trained to test fire-suppression or fire-alarm systems, explained Matthew Gugliotta, president and business manager of the Allied Building Inspectors, a local of the International Union of Operating Engineers that represents building inspectors in DOB.
“We don’t usually test fire-suppression systems,” he said. “We don’t do fire alarms. We’re not trained for that.”
He added that politically connected New Yorkers getting their permit applications or inspections expedited by DOB “happens as a part of the everyday business of the city.”
DOB eventually issued the temporary certificate of occupancy, and the Turkish consulate opened as planned.
Since Adams was indicted, elected officials have raised concerns about the safety of the Turkish consulate, among them State Senator Liz Krueger, whose district includes the tower. “The FDNY and Department of Buildings should do an immediate inspection of the Turkish consular building.... It is 36 stories tall, and people’s lives may be at risk,” Krueger wrote on social media.
An FDNY spokesperson, Amanda Farinacci, said in an email that “regular inspections have been taking place” in the building and that it’s up to code. She did not respond to questions concerning the allegations about Nigro and Jardin laid out in the indictment.
Disorder in the BFP
In the months after the consulate opened, Adams looked for ways to make the building permit approval process more efficient.
According to an age discrimination lawsuit that Jardin and several other chiefs filed in 2023, FDNY officials began having discussions with City Hall about shifting the responsibility for plan approvals to DOB and allowing landlords to self-certify their fire alarm systems in early 2022. Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, who took the reins of the department in February of that year, supported the switch, according to the suit.
Jardin was reassigned out of the BFP in July 2022 after opposing the change. His suit alleges the reassignment was retaliatory in nature but his lawyers declined to comment this week on the details contained in the Adams indictment. In December 2022, Adams outlined the proposed shift to DOB in his “Get Stuff Built” report. The report urged the city in the long term to consider formally transferring inspections of fire alarms and fire suppression systems to DOB.
Unions representing inspectors and firefighters criticized the plan even before it was published and by early 2023 it was discarded. Jardin, who opposed the plan, was demoted in late January along with two other chiefs.
John Saccavino, Jardin’s replacement, was reported to federal investigators by other FDNY officials for a suspected pay-for-play corruption scheme just weeks after he was appointed by Kavanagh. He and his former deputy were arrested last month for allegedly expediting FDNY inspections in return for bribes.
Like Adams, they were indicted on wire fraud and bribery charges.
Alshami, longtime CUNY employee, challenges Local 237 head in
Floyd seeking fourth full term
BY CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com
Mohamed Alshami, a campus peace officer at CUNY, is challenging the longtime president of Teamsters Local 237, Gregory Floyd, in the union’s upcoming election.
Local 237 represents about 24,000 city workers, including school safety agents, police officers at NYC Health + Hospitals and the Department of Homeless Services, and maintenance workers at the Housing Authority. Alshami, who has worked at CUNY for nearly 13 years, said he decided to run because he senses that Local 237’s current leadership has “lost touch with the membership.”
“I want to change things from top to bottom,” he told The Chief during a recent phone interview.
Although Floyd’s slate is largely running unopposed, Nadeem Mohammad, a fellow campus officer at CUNY, is also running against incumbent Ruben Torres for vice-president.
Alshami criticized Floyd for supporting the city’s plan to switch retired city workers to a Medicare Advantage plan from their traditional Medicare. The plan is backed by the Municipal Labor Committee, of which Floyd is the secretary.
Floyd, who has headed the union since stepping up after then-president Carl Haynes retired prior to the end of his term in 2007 and was elected to his first full term in 2009, is seeking a fourth five-year term. He pushed back against Alsha-
mi’s criticisms. “I’m running on my record,” Floyd said. “I’m getting up everyday to do the honest job that’s in front of me.”
He said Alshami has not attended the union’s meetings. “He doesn’t know anything about anything. I’m dealing with a guy who hasn’t been to a union meeting,” Floyd said. The union leader also questioned how Alshami would control the board without running as a full slate.
Alshami alleged that the current officers neglect to file grievances on behalf of members.
“I want to take every member’s complaints and find out what the business agents, the grievance reps, or whoever, what they did and didn’t do,” he explained. “I
want to create a paper trail for every person and see if they should remain with Local 237.”
A spokesperson for Local 237 pushed back against the allegation, noting that over the past year, the union filed more than 100 grievances on behalf of CUNY members alone.
Alshami criticized the local for refusing to support a lawsuit filed in January, which argued that CUNY peace officers, who are mostly people of color, earned tens of thousands of dollars less than SUNY police officers, who are predominantly white, despite having similar job duties. Alshami is among five campus peace officers who have sued. “When my attorneys reached out to [Floyd] to co-
CUNY: DC 37 members angry over delayed raises
their money,” that responsibility is CUNY’s, she noted.
‘Every contract is a disaster’ DC 37’s pact, which runs from June 1, 2021, and expires on Jan. 9, 2027, covers about 9,000 CUNY employees, and includes two 2.5-percent retroactive raises for 2021 and 2022 and a 3-percent retroactive increase for June 1, 2023. Eight DC 37 locals represent CUNY employees, including Locals 375, 1597 and 2627. Local 237’s contract runs from Sept. 19, 2021, through July 15, 2027, while SEIU Local 300’s deal
spans from March 1, 2021, to June 19, 2026.
The contract also included a $3,000 ratification bonus, which full-time employees at the senior colleges are set to receive on Oct. 3, while full-time workers at the community colleges will get the bonuses on Oct. 11, according to a letter from Local 384 that was posted on social media. Part-time employees at senior and community colleges will receive the bonuses on Oct. 31 and Nov. 8, respectively.
Meredith said the union had to push and push to get CUNY to pay out the ratification bonuses. She called on the state, which funds the senior colleges, and the city,
which runs the community colleges, to take over the calculations.
“They’re just totally ignoring the situation. I have been writing letters, calling and emailing the mayor’s office, the governor’s office — they do nothing,” she said. All workers covered under the contract must make at least $18 an hour, retroactive to July 1, 2023. However, according to Meredith, many Local 2054 members are currently earning $15.61 an hour — despite a raise in the minimum wage to $16 an hour for New York City workers that went into effect in January.
“You’re not only not paying out the contract, you’re violating the state law,” Meredith said.
operate with our potential lawsuit, he ignored it,” he said.
Floyd noted that “I don’t support frivolous lawsuits,” explaining that SUNY police officers and CUNY campus officers were an “apples to oranges” comparison. He added that in 2014, he filed a “wellthought out” gender pay parity lawsuit on behalf of school safety agents, and backed a suit in which school safety agents were awarded $27 million for overtime wages.
Alshami is also interested in conducting a salary analysis for various titles within the union.
For example, school safety agents start off making just under $37,000 a year, moving up to $53,264 after five years on the job.
“When I look at titles like school safety agent, NYCHA custodians, H+H police, when I check their salaries, compared to the private-sector, I feel like they deserve more,” he said.
A spokesperson for Local 237 pointed out that contract negotiations are governed by pattern-bargaining, and that titles such as elevator mechanics, mason workers and plasterers fall under prevailing wage laws.
The union also noted that Local 237 officers have been fighting for wages, as 99 percent of contracts have been settled and ratified. The mail ballot election is being conducted by Global Election Services. Local 237 members have already begun voting; the ballots are expected to be counted on Oct. 18.
“I just want people to exercise their rights by voting,” Alshami said. “People have said they’d rather vote for anybody but Floyd. Thank you, but I’m not just anybody, I’m somebody who will do something.”
Rory Satchell, a 28-year custodian and a shop steward for DC 37’s Local 1597, pointed out that the state gave CUNY $1.1 billion in capital funding in FY 2024, and $1.29 billion for FY 2025. He also noted that some CUNY executives have recently received double-digit raises, including board of trustees secretary Gayle Horwitz, whose 16-percent raise was approved by the board in June.
“We still haven’t gotten it in eight months, come on. It’s obvious they don’t give a crap about the workforce,” he said. “They’re going to lose a lot of staff. We’re so understaffed right now, and then you pull this?”
This isn’t the first time CUNY employees represented by DC 37 have had to wait months and months to get their contractual raises: after their previous pact was settled in November 2018, members did not receive their raises and retro until August 2019.
“It’s been three contracts I’ve had to deal with this. The first time, they overpaid people and it was a disaster. When you’re hourly and you’re forced to pay back money you don’t have, it can be devastating,” Meredith said. “Every time there’s a contract there’s a disaster.”
Satchell, the shop steward, called for language in any future agreements to establish specific dates CUNY must begin paying members’ raises.
“There needs to be a stipulation in future contracts that they have a timely payout, instead of leaving it up to CUNY to decide when they feel like paying us,” he said.
He also lamented how long it took for members to get a contract in the first place, especially given that many of the workers made low salaries.
“I make $36,000 a year after 28 years on the job,” he said.
Courtesy Mohamed Alshami
Mohamed Alshami is seeking to oust Greg Floyd, the president of Teamsters
Local 237, in the union’s election. Floyd, who has headed Local 237 since 2007, is seeking his fifth term.
The City University of New York
A staffer at the Borough of Manhattan Community College sanitizes the campus. Custodial workers, college assistants and thousands of other employees at CUNY represented by District Council 37 have not yet received contractual raises or retroactive payments despite the fact that their contract was settled in January and ratified in February.
DCAS HIRING LIST
The Department of Citywide Administrative Services established a 1,013-name list for Call Center Representative on July 17, 2024. The list is based on Exam 4023, 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.
JOB HIGHLIGHT
The state’s Office of Mental Health is recruiting for trades generalist positions within the Bureau of Environmental Design and Improvement located in the New York City
The annual salary range for the position is $48,956 to $59,757 for 40hour weeks with workdays lasting from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The positions are eligible for the downstate adjustments of $3,400.
The benefits package includes paid vacation leave, personal leave, holidays and sick leave; medical, prescription, dental and vision care benefits; membership in the New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System; and vari-
Trades generalists start at $49,000; posts in city, Rockland, Nassau, elsewhere
ous savings plan programs.
The state is also hiring trades generalist positions, including some with specific trade experience, for posts in Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and other counties statewide.
THE JOB
These positions are part of the Downstate Special Projects team, which is responsible for completing capital funded projects at various facilities within the New York City and Long Island area.
Trades generalists perform a variety of skilled and semi-skilled maintenance, repair, installation, and construction tasks in one or more of the mechanical (HVAC), carpentry, painting, electrical, plumbing and masonry trades.
They also provide field supervi-
sion to staff whose duties include facility maintenance and construction; follow written and verbal instructions, project plans and schedules; possess working knowledge of methods, materials, tools, and equipment used in trades to which assigned.
Trades generalists work independently as needed, performing moderate to heavy manual labor. They may climb ladders and work at heights on scaffolds and platforms and in confined spaces. They demonstrate the ability to adhere to OSHA safety standards. They also team travel within the assigned region to multiple OMH facilities. They may be expected to qualify to use a negative pressure (N95) respirator.
REQUIREMENTS
This is a labor class position.
Trades generalists must have four years of full-time experience in a trade under a skilled journey level worker which would provide training equivalent to that given in an apprenticeship program. Apprenticeship training in a trade or training gained by the completion of technical courses in a trade at a school, institute, or branch of the Armed Services may be substituted on a year-for-year basis.
Possession of a valid New York State driver’s license is preferred, but not required. For complete information on the posts, go to https://statejobs. ny.gov/public/vacancyTable.cfm and search for “trade generalist.”
The mission of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) is to promote the mental
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.
➤
CR Librarian I, Bilingual (Spanish
CR(D) Medical Technologist I $31,963-$74,978
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
5010 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Palliative Care) $59,507-$108,383
5011 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Pediatrics)
$59,507-$108,383
5012 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Perinatology) $59,507-$108,383
5013 CR Nurse Practitioner I
SUPERVISOR OF ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS AND MAINTENANCE–96 eligibles (Nos. 1-96) on List 4105 to replace 9 provisionals in Department of Transportation.
SUPERVISOR OF MECHANICAL INSTALLATIONS AND MAINTENANCE–3 eligibles (Nos. 75, 88 and 117) on List 172 to replace 3 provisionals in the DOE.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE (DATA)–53 eligibles between Nos. 13 and 288 on List 135 to replace 1 provisional at Administration for Children’s Services.
URBAN PARK RANGER–2 eligibles (Nos. 351 and 443.5) on List 9055 to replace any of 115 provisionals in Department of Parks and Recreation.
PROMOTION
MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR (REVENUE)–9 eligibles between Nos. 63 and 74 on List 7708 for any of 75 jobs at NYC Transit.
SUPERVISING POLICE COMMUNICATIONS TECHNICIAN–35 eligibles between Nos. 22 and 97 on List 9513 for 10 jobs in Police Department.
SUPERVISOR III (SOCIAL SERVICES)–9 eligibles between Nos. 30 and 56 on List 9532 to replace 1 provisional in HRA/ DSS.
SUPERVISOR OF MECHANICS–19 eligibles between Nos. 1 and 18 on List 2546 to replace 3 provisionals in Department of Homeless Services.
SUPERVISOR OF MECHANICS (MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT)–5 eligibles (Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7) on List 2545 to replace 1 provisional in DPR.
SUPERVISOR PLUMBER–25 eligibles between Nos. 8 and 39 on List 2523 to replace 2 provisionals at HA.
WIPER (UNIFORMED)–18 eligibles between Nos. 2 and 40 on List 3593 to replace 3 provisionals in Fire Department.
(Psychiatry) $59,507-$108,383
5014 CR Nurse Practitioner I (Women’s Health) $59,507-$108,383
3138 CR(D) Occupational Therapist Assistant $31,963-$74,207
7288 CR(D) Occupational Therapist/ Occupational Therapist I $37,093$128,172 3139 CR(D) Pharmacist I $56,636$117,533 3140 CR(D) Physical Therapist Assistant $31,963-$74,207
SUFFOLK COUNTY EXAMS
➤ CLOSE OCTOBER 9
Deputy Sheriff I $49,595
CLOSES OCTOBER 16 5733 Principal Detective Investigator $170,329
Director of Psychiatric Institute 87-002010 Health Care Administrator (Radiology Services) 87-604010 Director of Program Development II (Health Administration) $104,860-$136,740
87-619010 Director, Accreditation and Regulatory Compliance 87-841010 Administrative Director (Transplant Services) 89-043010 Assistant to the Town Administrator ➤ OPEN CONTINUOUSLY 06-100 Emergency Medical Technician (Basic) 02-108 Sanitarian Trainee $53,760$67,010 02-600 Water/Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator/Trainee $45,46055,390 02-601 Water/Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator/Trainee 91-136 Paramedic (Local) 01-155 Cardiothoracic Surgical Physician Assistant 02-032 Clinical Pharmacy Specialist 02-900 Health Services Coordinator $75,406-$125,410 86-102 Hospital Pharmacist 93-133 Occupational Therapist (School Districts) 86-113 Occupational Therapist (WCMC) 94-138 Occupational Therapy Assistant 93-134 Physical Therapist (School Districts) 86-115 Physical Therapist (WCMC) 03-100 Physical Therapy Assistant (School Districts) 94-137 Physical Therapy Assistant 87-116 Physician’s Assistant 86-117 Public Health Nurse $72,635$125,175 09-002 Radiology Information Systems Analyst 90-118 Staff Occupational Therapist 90-120 Staff Physical Therapist 87-124 Supervising Hospital Pharmacist 99-101 Supervising Public Health Nurse $81,595-$135,715 97-363 Supervisor of Medical Social Work 99-102 Surgical Physician Assistant - Specialty Services $96,540$140,776 11-531 Coordinator of Computer Services
health of all New Yorkers, with a focus on providing hope and supporting recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances. Applicants with lived mental health experience are encouraged to apply. OMH is deeply committed to supporting underserved individuals, organizations and communities. To this end, OMH is focused on implementing activities and initiatives to reduce disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes for underserved populations. A critical component of these efforts is ensuring OMH is a diverse and inclusive workplace where the unique attributes and skills of all employees are valued and utilized to support the mission of the Agency. OMH is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer.
LABOR AROUND THE WORLD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD LABOR AROUND THE WORLD
Shortages
and higher retail prices on the horizon if port strike continues for a few weeks
BY MAE ANDERSON and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO Associated Press
A lengthy shutdown of U.S. ports from Maine to Texas by the union representing about 45,000 dockworkers could raise prices on goods around the country and potentially cause shortages and price increases at big and small retailers alike as the holiday shopping season — along with a tight presidential election — approaches.
The International Longshoremen’s Association is demanding significantly higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks that are used in the loading or unloading of freight at 36 U.S. ports. Those ports handle roughly half of the nations’ cargo from ships.
While any port can handle any type of goods, some ports are specialized to handle goods for a particular industry. The ports affected by the shutdown include Baltimore and Brunswick, Georgia, the top two busiest auto ports; Philadelphia, which gives priority to fruits and vegetables; and New Orleans, which handles coffee, mainly from South America and Southeast Asia, various chemicals from Mexico and North Europe, and wood products such as plywood from Asia and South America.
Other major ports affected include Boston; New York/New Jersey; Norfolk, Virginia; Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Tampa, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Houston.
The strike could last weeks — or months. If the strike is resolved within a few weeks, consumers probably wouldn’t notice any major shortages of retail goods. But a strike that persists for more than a month would likely cause a shortage of some consumer products, although most holiday retail goods have already arrived from overseas. Shoppers could see higher prices on a vast array of goods, from fruit and vegetables to cars.
Contingency plans
Since the major supply chain disruption in 2021 caused by pandemic bottlenecks, retailers have adapted to supply chain disrupters being “the new norm,” said Rick Haase, owner of a minichain of Patina gift shops in and around the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
“The best approach for Patina has been to secure orders early and have the goods in our warehouse and back rooms to ensure we are in stock on key goods,” Haase said. Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, a Boca Raton, Florida-based maker of such toys as Care Bears and Lincoln Logs, has been monitoring the port situation for months and planned for it by shifting all of its container shipments to the West Coast ports, primarily Los Angeles and Long Beach, away from ports in New York and Newark, New Jersey. But he said the shift added anywhere from 10% to 20% extra costs that his company will have to absorb. He noted that Basic Fun’s prices for the next 10 months are locked in with retailers, but he could see raising prices during the second half of 2025 if the strike is prolonged.
Daniel Vasquez, who owns Dynamic Auto Movers in Miami, which specializes in importing and exporting vehicles, increased inventory, specifically for vehicles that take longer to ship, in anticipation of a strike. He has also stopped relying on one port or shipping partner and has expanded his relationship with smaller ports and shipping companies that can bypass congested areas.
Dockworkers may have the negotiating advantage
Record company profits, greater workloads
BY TOM KRISHER, WYATTE GRANTHAMPHILIPS and TASSANEE VEJPONGSA Associated Press
The 45,000 dockworkers who went on strike Tuesday for the first time in decades at 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas may wield the upper hand in their standoff with port operators over wages and the use of automation.
Organized labor enjoys rising public support and has had a string of recent victories in other industries, in addition to the backing of the pro-union administration of President Joe Biden. The dockworkers’ negotiating stand is likely further strengthened by the nation’s supply chain of goods being under pressure in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which has coincided with the peak shipping season for holiday goods.
The union is also pointing to shipping companies’ record profits, which have come in part because of shortages resulting from the pandemic, and to a more generous contract that West Coast dockworkers achieved last year. The longshoremen’s workloads also have increased, and the effects of inflation have eroded their pay in recent years.
In addition, commerce into and out of the United States has been growing, playing to the union’s advantage. Further enhancing its leverage is a still-tight job market, with workers in some industries demanding, and in some cases receiving, a larger share of companies’ outsize profits.
“I think this work group has a lot of bargaining power,” said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. “They’re essential workers that can’t be replaced, and also the ports are doing well.”
The dockworkers’ strike, their first since 1977, could snarl supply chains and cause shortages and higher prices if it stretches on for more than a few weeks. Beginning after midnight, the workers walked picket lines Tuesday and carried signs calling for more money and a ban on automation that could cost workers their jobs.
Experts say consumers won’t likely notice shortages for at least a few weeks, if the strike lasts that long, though some perishable items such as bananas could disappear from grocery stores — although at this time of year, most other fruits and vegetables are domestically grown and not processed at ports, according to Alan Siger, president of the Produce Distributors Association.
In anticipation of a strike, most major retailers also stocked up on goods, moving ahead shipments of holiday gift items.
Effect on election
The strike, coming weeks before a tight presidential election, could also become a factor in the race if shortages begin to affect many voters. Pressure could eventually grow for the Biden administration to intervene to try to force a temporary suspension of the strike.
Little progress was reported in the talks until just hours before the strike began at 12:01 a.m. The U.S. Maritime Alliance, the group negotiating for the ports, said both sides did budge from their initial positions. The alliance offered 50 percent raises over the six-year life of the contract. Comments from the union’s leadership had briefly suggested a move to 61.5 percent, but the union has since signaled that it’s sticking with its initial demand for a 77-percent pay increase over six years.
“We have demonstrated a commitment to doing our part to end the completely avoidable ILA strike,” the alliance said Tuesday. The ports’ pay offer is more than every other recent union settlement, the
group said.
“We look forward to hearing from the Union about how we can return to the table and actually bargain, which is the only way to reach a resolution,” the statement said.
And in New Orleans, Henry Glover Jr., a fourth-generation dockworker who is president of the union local, said he can recall the days when longshoremen unloaded 150-pound sacks of sugar by hand.
He acknowledges that machinery has made the job easier, but he worries that the ports need fewer people to handle the equipment.
“Automation could be good, but they’re using it to kill jobs,” Glover said. “We don’t want them to implement anything that would take our jobs out.” William Brucher, an assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, noted that “this is a very opportune time” for striking workers.
The contract agreement reached last year with West Coast dockworkers, who are represented by a different union, shows that “higher wages are definitely possible” for the longshoremen and has enhanced their bargaining power, Brucher said.
Under the Taft-Hartley Act, Biden could seek a court order for an 80-
day cooling-off period that would end the strike at least temporarily, but he has told reporters that he wouldn’t take that step. The administration could risk losing union support if it exercised such power, which experts say could be particularly detrimental for Democrats ahead of next month’s election.
“As our nation climbs out of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” Biden said in a statement, “dockworkers will play an essential role in getting communities the resources they need. Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits.”
Ben Nolan, a transportation analyst with Stifel, said the administration isn’t likely to intervene until consumers start to see empty shelves or can’t find critical goods like medicines.
“Medications and other things come in on containers,” Nolan said. “I think if the administration wanted to have a reason to get involved, it’s stuff like that.”
The AP’s Ben Finley, Jack Brook, Anne D’Innocenzio and Mae Anderson, Dee-Ann Durbin, Josh Boak, and Annie Mulligan contributed to this report.
Military recruiting rebounds after several tough years, but challenges remain
BY LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press
After several very difficult years and a swath of new programs and enticements, the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force will all meet their recruiting goals by the end of this month and the Navy will come very close, the military services say.
The results represent a slight uptick in young people joining the military, reversing a dismal trend as the services struggled to overcome severe restrictions on in-person recruiting mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the low unemployment rate and stiff competition from private companies able to pay more and provide similar or better benefits.
But Army leaders looking to the future worry that an expected drop in the youth population may signal more difficult times ahead. And other military officials say that while they are seeing improvements, they will still face tough challenges and must keep transforming their recruiting going forward.
Military leaders note that only about 23 percent of young adults are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record. And of those qualified to serve, many are wary of taking on a job that puts their life or health at risk.
The Army has made the biggest comeback, after falling far short
of recruiting goals for the past two years. Two years ago, the Army brought in 45,000 recruits, far less than the 60,000 it needed, and last year it again fell 15,000 short of what leaders publicly set as a “stretch goal” of 65,000 recruits. This year, with a lower goal of 55,000, the service will meet its target, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Wednesday, and she plans to now set a higher goal for 2025. “We not only met our goal, we ex-
ceeded it,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Our goal was 55,000 new contracts and 5,000 young people in our delayed entry program. We exceeded that goal of 55,000 by a few hundred, and we put 11,000 young people into the delayed entry program, which is going to give our recruiters a really strong jumping-off point to start towards our recruiting target for next year.”
Still, she noted, “the headwinds that we’ve been facing are not going
to stop blowing.” Wormuth said that an expected drop of about 10 percent in the number of college-age young people in 2026 is a significant concern. The dip comes 18 years after the financial recession in 2008, which triggered a decrease in the number of children born.
It’s a big issue, she said, because the Army and the other services recruit from that population. And other challenges will also continue.
“I think we’re going to probably continue to see pretty low unemployment. We’re still going to see 60% go to college. It’s a more competitive labor market,” Wormuth said. “So we’re going to have to kind of keep fighting hard for our new recruits.”
A key to the recruiting success, she said, has been the Army’s future soldier prep course that gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards. This year more than 13,000 recruits — or 24 percent of the 55,000 — came in through the program, which was started as a test two years ago.
The Navy is the only service that won’t hit its goal this year. While the service was able to sign up 40,600 recruits as hoped, the crush of last-minute enlistments means it won’t be able to get them all through boot camp by next month. As a result, the Navy will fall about 5,000 short of its target to get all of the
into the 10-week
train-
Great Lakes, Illinois, by the end of the fiscal year.
Photo by Jennifer Lake/Sipa USA via AP Images
Terminal
Seabrook, Texas, on Tuesday strike for fair wages and job security.