February 21–27, 2020 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 3
THE BROOKLYN QUEENS
CONNECTOR (BQX) is a
City investment to provide
better points of connection
for communities with limited
transit options.
These public workshops will
provide an opportunity to learn
about and discuss the BQX
planning work that’s been done
to-date, as well as the process
moving forward.
For more information, and to register, visit:
BrooklynQueensConnector.nyc/events
For questions, or to request translation services at this event,
please email: info@brooklynqueensconnector.nyc
People who get primary care have better
health outcomes. That’s why we developed
whole-you care, a head-to-toe approach
that puts your Primary Care Provider at the
center of a dedicated Care Team. We’ll help
you see the big picture of your health and
stay on top of it.
Seeking their solidarity
Housing Works employees fi le for unionization election
Housing Works employees filed for a unionization election with the National
Labor Relations Board on Feb. 14
Appeal for Fort Greene Park order
It’s called primary care for a
reason: your health.
CARING FOR THE WHOLE YOU.
Become a patient today:
acpny.com/welcome
1-877-696-5538
Attend the FINAL Brooklyn
workshop:
March 3
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Bushwick Inlet Park
85 Kent Ave.
6:30 – 8:30 pm
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Employees at a Downtownbased
non-profit are asking
Uncle Sam to oversee their
unionization efforts, after the
company’s chief executive refused
to recognize a companywide
vote to organize under
the Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union.
“Workers stood before their
employer yesterday, with a majority
of workers supporting
the union; but their so-called
progressive employer leaned
back and said no to recognizing
their union,” said RWDSU
president Stuart Appelbaum.
“Charles King is gaslighting
his workers when he says he
is ‘neutral’, and the workers
won’t stand for it”
About six employees of
the organization and reps for
the union dropped off signed
union authorization cards by
402 of the roughly 650 employees
to be represented by
RWDSU at the federal National
Labor Relations Board,
asking the agency to hold a
companywide election for
union representation.
King dismissed a plea by a
group of his employees to voluntarily
recognize the union
drive in a tense confrontation
at the organization’s Lawrence
Street headquarters Thursday,
the Daily News reported.
Employees of the company
— which hosts a num-
ber of thrift shops around the
city and offers homeless services
to New Yorkers suffering
from HIV and AIDS —
have grown frustrated with too
large case loads, low pay and
a paid time off policy that demands
they use up their hours
on federal holidays, according
to one worker.
“If the office is closed on
Christmas, you have to use
eight hours of your PTO for
federal holidays, and I’m Jewish,
I don’t care about Christmas,”
said Moriah Engelberg.
“I’ll ask to work in the field
that day and they’ll say, ‘No
you’re required to take those
days off because the offices
are closed.'”
Last October, more than
100 employees walked out
and rallied at Borough Hall
demanding better working
conditions.
Engelberg said she joined
Housing Works because she
supports its activism, but accused
King of neglecting his
principles when it comes to
his own employees.
“It’s a slap in the face to ask
us to come to advocacy meetings
and events that are required
as part of the job and for
him to be like ‘do civil disobedience’
and then for him to be
so hard-headed with the worker’s
advocacy,” she said.
Organizers previously tried
to get King to pledge neutrality
in union negotiations, supported
by a letter signed by a
slate of local electeds.
They questioned King’s
claims of neutrality after the
company hired Chicago-based
labor law firm Seyfarth Shaw
LLP, which advertises itself as
keeping workplaces “unionfree,”
according to its website,
and has a decades-long history
of anti-labor cases.
King reiterated that the
company would remain neutral
and would accept a union
if the majority of employees
vote for it.
“Throughout this union’s
long effort to organize Housing
Works’ employees, we
have remained neutral in regards
to the organizing campaign,
we have protected the
rights of our employees, and
we have committed to bargain
in good faith if a majority of
our employees in an appropriate
unit vote for a union,”
he said in a statement.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
The city’s Law Department
plans to appeal a state judge’s
ruling ordering the Parks Department
to prove that their
controversial plans to revamp
parts of Fort Greene Park don’t
require a state environmental
review, according to officials.
City legal eagles filed a
notice of appeal on Feb. 13
against state Supreme Court
Judge Julio Rodriguez III’s
January order for the agency
to produce evidence that their
$10.5 million park overhaul
— which includes felling 83
trees — wouldn’t have a significant
impact on the neighborhood’s
namesake lawn, siding
with local environmental
advocates.
According to their lawyer,
Richard Lippes, the city opted
to engage in further legal battles
as a ploy to avoid taking
a closer look at the park project
itself.
Now that the city has indicated
their intent to contest the
ruling, they have six months to
file their appeal, which would
bring Rodriguez’s order before
a group of judges at the state’s
Appellate Court to review the
decision, delaying any movement
on the park even further,
according to Lippes.
A group of residents under
the moniker Friends of Fort
Greene Park sued the Parks
Department in April, arguing
they were trying to bypass the
State Environmental Quality
Review Act for their plans by
classifying the project as routine
maintenance and accessibility
upgrades.
The scheme called for the
elimination of 83 trees, 52 to
make way for a grand paved
plaza at the Myrtle Avenue
and St. Edwards Street corner
of the park, and another 31
to accommodate a redesign of
the area near Myrtle Avenue
and Washington Park.
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