Local 237 and the National Organization of Women teamed up for a press conference outside City Hall on National Equal Pay Day, April 9, to call for Mayor Bloomberg to negotiate a settlement of the union’s equal-pay lawsuit on behalf of 5,000 school safety agents.

President Gregory Floyd looks on as School Safety Agent Latasha Ellis addresses the press at City Hall..

The current and former SSAs, 70 percent of them women, have joined the gender-basedwage-discrimination suit, which seeks to remedy the fact that other peace-officer titles, which are 70 percent male, receive $7,000 more in annual pay. The class-action lawsuit was filed on March 5, 2010.

“New York City is viewed as a model for the nation. We’re the gold standard,” said President Gregory Floyd addressing the press. “Yet here today, one of the greatest examples of pay inequity stares us in the face.”

Floyd was joined at City Hall by Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York City Chapter of NOW, who said, “When we tackle pay inequity and women earn the same as what men earn, it is our families and our economy that will benefit.” Ossorio called on Mayor Bloomberg “to stop turning a blind eye to thesewomen school safety agents and this egregious example of gender pay discrimination.”

SSA Latasha Ellis, with 13 years of service, said, “Most people think we sit at a desk and just sign people in. What they don’t understand is that we patrol, we confiscate weapons and drugs, and we make arrests just like police officers.” Attorney James Linsey added that the city had deposed more than 100 SSAs for details about their jobs, but “so far they have had no substantive response.”

Press Conference at 237

A previous press conference calling for a settlement of the equal pay lawsuit was held March 13 at Local 237 headquarters. “We are celebrating International Women’s History Month, Mr. Mayor,” said Floyd. “Equal pay for equal work is one of the fundamental rights we celebrate. Let’s act now to end gender-based wage discrimination among city employees.”

James P. Hoffa

Floyd was joined by IBT President James P. Hoffa, who addressed the press, emphasizing that SSAs “have the same training. They go through the same risks. They have the same power of arrest as the other agents, but what’s the difference? They are basically female, Latino and African-American.”

Earlier, on March 11, SSAs packed Judge Sidney H. Stein’s courtroom for a status conference on the Equal Pay lawsuit. The next status conference is on May 22.