For Immediate Release  

April 9, 2013

5,000 School Safety Agents filed suit against NYC for equal pay; decry irony of Equal Pay Day

(NEW YORK) —Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd and Sonia Ossorio, President of the New York City Chapter of NOW, took to the steps of City Hall today on the occasion of National Equal Pay Day, to pressure Mayor Mike Bloomberg to intervene in the ongoing school safety agent federal class action lawsuit against the city demanding pay parity.

More than 5,000 current and former school safety agents—70 percent of whom are women—have joined the gender-based wage discrimination suit, which is the largest pay discrimination suit in the United States, and seeks to remedy the fact that other peace-officer titles, which are 70 percent male, receive $7,000 more in annual pay. Teamsters Local 237 represents the school safety agents and has repeatedly tried to address this 20 percent pay inequity through contract negotiations with the city’s Office of Labor Relations, but it has refused to engage. The retroactive settlement the parties seek is about $35 million.

"Mayor Bloomberg needs to engage on this issue now. We don’t understand why the city has chosen to drag this suit out against the brave women who are putting themselves on the line each and every day to ensure the safety and well-being of our public school children,” Floyd said. “Mr. Mayor, equal pay for equal work is one of our fundamental rights.  Let's act now to end gender-based wage discrimination among city employees.”

“Pay discrimination is a fact of life for far too many women in New York,” said Sonia Ossorio, President of NOW NYC. “When we tackle pay inequity and women earn the same as what men earn, it is our families and our economy that will benefit. Equal pay for equal work needs to be the highest priority. Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop turning a blind eye to these women school safely agents and this egregious example of gender pay discrimination.”

Local 237

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook. Teamsters Local 237 represents over 24,000 employees, including about 5,000 school safety agents in all public schools in the City of New York. www.local237.org

National Organization for Women

The National Organization for Women is the nation’s largest organization working to advance women’s rights and improve women’s lives. The New York City Chapter of NOW, founded in 1966, is the largest chapter in the country with 5,000 members locally and 35,000 statewide. NOW-NYC works to promote women’s reproductive rights, secure women’s economic empowerment, and end violence and discrimination against women.

 

Press Contacts:

Local 237:  Jay Strell, Sunshine Sachs, strell@sunshinesachs.com 212.691.2800

NOW NYC Chapter:  Brielle Nalence, brielle@nownyc.org 908.208.7837