Our Perspective
Housing Works
Employees’ Voices
Will Finally be Heard
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
BRONX TIMES R 54 EPORTER, MARCH 6-12, 2020 BTR
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Housing Works employees have spent over a
year trying to get their boss to accept that
they want to join the RWDSU. Workers at
the otherwise progressive Housing Works – founded
in 1990 by several members of ACT UP in order to provide housing,
healthcare, job training, legal assistance, and other supportive services for
people living with HIV/AIDS – assumed that their employer would respect
their rights and their wishes to join a union. But they were wrong.
After failing to secure a neutrality agreement that would promise zero
interference from management during an organizing drive, Housing
Works employees demanded recognition from their employer. Housing
Works refused to recognize the union, despite a majority of the workers
choosing to support the unionization efforts. Now, fed up with the delays
and obfuscation, Housing Works employees have filed for an NLRB
election so their wishes to join a union can finally be realized. After
numerous meetings with Housing Works and delays by management,
they had no other choice.
It didn’t have to be this difficult. By insisting on an NLRB election,
Housing Works has ensured the process will take more time and resources
and delay better treatment for its workers and better care for its clients.
The 650 Housing Works employees at housing units, thrift stores,
healthcare, and other locations throughout New York City have been clear
from the outset that they need union representation to address a number
of important issues and to provide their clients with the best possible
care. Workers at Housing Works have raised serious concerns to
management, describing unmanageable caseloads, lack of training,
discrimination and harassment and health and safety issues. Workers
have raised concerns about pay and benefits, including that their health
insurance doesn’t provide adequate coverage, such as for workers
transitioning genders.
These workplace concerns are central not just to employee welfare,
but to client care as well, with these issues leading to high turnover rates
for employees.
Workers believe that union representation is the best way for them to
address their concerns. Housing Works’ refusal to recognize the union –
or at least to sign a neutrality agreement – has hindered that process.
And now, Housing Works is escalating their campaign to deny their
workers’ rights by attempting to turn workers against the union with a classic
misinformation campaign, even after claiming countless times that they
would respect their workers’ wishes and remain “neutral.” Housing Works
leadership does not know what remaining neutral truly means. By continuing
their misguided fight to deny workers their rights, Housing Works continues
to operate in a manner contrary to their progressive values.
Housing Works employees strive every day to improve the lives of
people living with HIV/AIDS, and their work makes a real
difference. It’s not too much for them to expect that
their employer lives up to the same progressive
principles toward their own workers. It’s past time
that Housing Works ends its union-busting fight
against its own workers, and allows the process
to continue unimpeded.
www.rwdsu.org
Message from
Councilman Mark Gjonaj
I am excited to announce that plans
have been proposed to expand city
ferry service to Throggs Neck, with
this additional stop being added to the
Soundview ferry route. This has been
an expansion I have been fi ghting for
since 2018. In cooperation with Assembly
Member Michael Benedetto, calling
upon the city to increase the breadth of
ferry service throughout the city.
The NYC Economic Development
Corporation presented their plan to
expand ferry service citywide in January
of this year. Two completely new
routes will be added to the existing
seven, and some routes of the existing
will be given addition stops. Amongst
of which is, fortunately, Throggs Neck.
There are also plans to construct a new
central port and maintenance center
for the ferries, in order to accommodate
the increased fl eet size. This plan
of course will require further city and
state approvals prior to offi cial implementation.
The great people of our community
deserve to have as much access to all
forms of public transportation, as anybody
else. In conjunction with existing
subway and bus routes that service
our community, as well as other
planned developments like Metro-
North service to the East Bronx, the
ferry is an additional transportation
option that gives community members
more freedom to get to the places they
need to go.
Public hearings have been held,
in accordance with the NYS Environmental
Law, in order to assess environmental
implications outlined in
the Draft Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement issued from the
Offi ce of the Deputy Mayor for Housing
and Economic Development. The
purpose of these hearings is to allow
the community to address any and all
environmental concerns in as public a
setting as possible.
If you were unable to make any of
the scheduled public hearing days,
written comments on the planned expansion
can still be submitted until
Monday, March 16 at 5 p.m. to Denise
Pisani, the Deputy Director of the
Mayor’s Offi ce of Environmental Coordination,
at dpisani@cityhall.nyc.
gov.
COUNCILMAN MARK GJONAJ
/www.rwdsu.org
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/www.rwdsu.org
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