Our Perspective
Housing Works
Employees Demand
Their Rights
By Stuart Appelbaum, President
Retail, Wholesale and Department
Store Union, UFCW
Twitter: @sappelbaum
When workers at Housing Works first
approached our union, I was surprised to
hear about the issues they face every day.
Housing Works was 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. Their 800 employees work at housing units, thrift stores,
healthcare, and other locations throughout New York City.
We presumed that a non-profit like Housing Works with a progressive
vision would respect the right of their workers to join a union. We
approached Housing Works management about a neutrality agreement to
expedite the process for workers to make changes in their workplace, as
we have done at many other places before.
A signed neutrality agreement ensures that workers can choose to
support a union free of any intimidation or retaliation by the employer.
Additionally, neutrality agreements can prescribe the process of how
workers join a union. This is something that all major Democratic
presidential candidates support. Other components of a neutrality
agreement can include accessibility to workers and management
remaining truly neutral.
In our discussions with Housing Works, we’ve learned that their
progressive messaging does not apply to their own workforce. Housing
Works management is behaving just as anti-union as much of corporate
America. In fact, H&M, ZARA and countless others have signed neutrality
agreements. Housing Works’ refusal to sign a neutrality agreement and
their hiring of a “union avoidance” attorney demonstrates their true intent.
This is especially surprising at an organization that so many New
Yorkers, myself included, so firmly believe in. What is clear is that
Housing Works has strayed very far away from its progressive values in
dealing with its workforce, and it’s deeply troubling.
On October 29, over 100 employees at Housing Works’ New York
City locations walked off the job to speak out about the working
conditions that they face throughout their organization. Workers also
delivered to their employer Unfair Labor Practice charges (ULPs) that
they filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The fact that they had
to walk off their jobs to have their voices heard was a stunning
development considering that their employer has long been a
progressive leader for social justice.
For months, workers at Housing Works have raised serious concerns
to management about their workplace environment. With conditions only
worsening, workers believe that union representation is the best way for
them to address their concerns. Housing Works’ refusal to sign a
neutrality agreement is hindering that process.
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 workers.
Housing Works needs to sign a neutrality
agreement.
www.rwdsu.org
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 24 OVEMBER 8-14, 2019 BTR
(Above, left) Blackgal Sea Food in Classo, which is being impacted by a sewage project.
(Photo right) The large hole in the ground at the sewage project at Whiteplains Road.
Schneps Media/ Jason Cohen
Prolonged sewage
project is killing a
Clason Pt. restaraunt
BY JASON COHEN
The foul nasty smell of sewage is
driving customers away from a restaurant
in Clason Point.
In 2017, the NYC Department of Environmental
Protection and NYC Department
of Design and Construction
began a $95 million project to clean up
Pugsley Creek in the eastern Bronx.
Smack in the middle of this work
is Blackgal Sea Food at 1930 Patterson
Avenue.
Owner of the eatery, Ricky Chambers,
said the past two years have not
been easy. In addition to the foul smell,
his street was blocked off for about fi ve
months, so his delivery drivers could
not get to the store and it was diffi cult
for customers to access as well.
Furthermore, last month raw sewage
overfl owed from the store’s bathroom
toilet causing him to spend $600
to clean up the mess. He had to throw
out all the prepared food and close the
store.
He said the sewage disruptions are
impacting his business. “I can’t operate
a food (establishment) here like
this.”
The construction area is fenced off
around the corner from the restaurant,
warding off a huge gaping hole in
the street.
The stench forced Ras Gourmet
Deli, at 268 White Plains Road, to close
and has created problems for Mi Casita
next to it, he said.
Some customers have remained
loyal. Sherard King, a south Bronx
resident, who travels across town to
the seafood joint because of its sumptuous
dishes, has commented that the
smell in the area is terrible.
“It’s nasty. It smells just like sewage,”
King said.
Chambers said he has contacted the
DEP, but has not heard back.
Meanwhile, Community Board 9 is
well aware of this issue. William Rivera,
district manager for CB 9 said
the board is working with the DEP and
DDC to resolve the smell.
Rivera explained the board meets
with Yolanda Vasquez, the site’s construction
representative every month
and he has visited the site himself.
“(To make a) long story short they
have tried to cover the construction
site with tarps and have an air system
in place which has not helped,” Rivera
said.
The odor is coming from the sewage
that is passing through an exposed
chamber, which unexpectedly needed
repairs, according to DDC
To address odor concerns from the
local community, two odor control
systems were installed to continuously
spray a solution to reduce the
smell, which is refi lled once or twice
a week.
To alleviate combined sewer overfl
ows into the East River and upgrade
the local infrastructure, DDC is working
near Pugsley Creek to add 4,175 feet
of new sewers, replace 20 catch basins,
replace 9,500 feet of water mains and
install 1,800 feet of new water mains.
The job entails installing nearly
mile-long parallel sewer lines along
White Plains Road from Lacombe to
Cornell Avenue.
The project is needed to direct
wastewater to the Hunts Point Wastewater
Treatment Plant and reduce
combined sewer overfl ows into Pugsley
Creek by 98 percent.
The project will also include the
replacement of nearly two miles of
roughly 100-year-old cast iron water
mains with new, stronger ductile iron
mains.
The project is anticipated to be completed
in mid to late winter 2020
/www.rwdsu.org
/www.rwdsu.org