The union representing thousands of NYCHA workers has fired back at the agency’s plan to extend hours for maintenance crews at the city’s decrepit developments.
Teamsters Local 237, which represents 8,000 authority workers, filed a challenge with the Office of Collective Bargaining Wednesday, charging the flexible hours breach their contract.
Union president Greg Floyd warned the alarming crime rate at NYCHA, which houses 5% of the population but accounts for 16% of the city’s crime, will endanger his members.
TWO MORE NYCHA DEVELOPMENTS IN BROOKLYN SET TO GET FREE PUBLIC WI-FI
“We demonstrated that requiring almost half of the workforce to work in the dark, often alone, in these staggeringly unsafe conditions poses an immediate danger of irreparable harm,” the union alleged.
NYCHA staff worked 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for decades, which meant many basic repairs that occurred after hours had to wait to be fixed.
MORE THAN 200 CHILDREN IN NYCHA HOMES TEST POSITIVE FOR HIGH LEVELS OF LEAD
Two weeks ago, agency chairwoman Shola Olatoye announced a plan to extend those hours from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to better serve the 400,000 tenants in NYCHA’s 328 developments.
The union’s filings note that since NYCHA announced its plan, there have been four murders — three of which took place between the hours of 4:30 and 7 p.m. — at authority developments.
They also stated a NYCHA caretaker was assaulted within the last 10 days, though they didn’t spell out what time of day that occurred.
On Thursday a NYCHA spokesperson stated, “NYCHA employees already work outside the 8-4:30 shift within the contract. This includes maintenance workers in emergency services who regularly work from 4pm to midnight, and caretakers at former NYCHA community centers who worked until 10pm. The safety of our employees remains and is a critical component of our NexGen vision of safe, clean and connected communities.”
