New York, NY

FDNY Upgrading Quality of Its Protective Gear; Designed for Use in Chemical Disasters As Well As Fires By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      FDNY Firefighters, officers and union officials have spent the last several weekends voluntarily field-testing a new type of bunker gear that could radically upgrade the level of protection afforded first-responders at structural fires and hazardous material incidents. More ... Claim Promotions Skewed: Women Sue Over Alleged EMS Bias By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      Five senior female Emergency Medical Service officers who were passed over for promotions filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Fire Department Sept. 26. More ... Defiant Toward In-House Critics: Toussaint Comes Out Swinging By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      Transport Workers' Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, still battling for a contract 10 months after leading a three-day strike that sent him to jail and cost the union millions of dollars in penalties and fines, firmly believes he can satisfy his members' needs on that score if they give him More ... 'No Child' Law Could Overrule Union Contracts By HOWARD MEGDAL      The American Federation of Teachers has asked U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to revise guidelines to the No Child Left Behind Act stipulating that the law's provisions could override union contracts. More ... Offers Higher Salary: Upstate City Makes Case to NYPD Cops By REUVEN BLAU      The Rochester Police Department has a message for New York's Finest: we want you. More ... To Mirror Population: Panel Will Diversify State Work Force By REUVEN BLAU      Governor Pataki has signed legislation creating a 15-member task force charged with increasing minority representation among state employees as many current workers retire within the next few years. More ... CORRECTION      A story in the Sept. 22 edition of this newspaper omitted a response from the City University of New York to charges by the Professional Staff Congress that it had violated the union's contract by making deals with individual Professors to teach and develop online courses. The article improperly sai More ... INVESTIGATORS MEET      The Society of Professional Investigators will hold its next general meeting Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. at Forlini's Restaurant, 93 Baxter St., in lower Manhattan. For further information, call (516) 781-5100. More ... City Seeks To Add Marshals to Contingent By REUVEN BLAU      The Bloomberg administration is looking to hire City Marshals to enforce Civil Court orders, the Department of Investigation has announced. More ... First-Responder Mapping System Nixed by Pataki By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      Governor Pataki has vetoed legislation that would have created a task force to oversee city and state efforts to create a first-responder mapping system, contending it was duplicative. More ... Comptroller: Set It Aside: COs' Back Pay Is In Nassau Coffers By REUVEN BLAU      Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman said Sept. 25 that the district has set aside and reserved funds to pay its Correction Officers and other employees money the county withheld as part of a lag payroll plan to help reduce costs and prevent layoffs during the county's 1999 fiscal crisis. More ... Judge Upholds FDNY: Private Ambulances Can Stay Under 9/11 By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      A Manhattan Supreme Court Justice ruled Sept. 26 that the Fire Department can continue its practice of using volunteer ambulances within the city's emergency 911 system. More ... Will Repay $82G: Rebuke Hevesi Over Staffer Driving Wife By RICHARD STEIER      State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi last week agreed to reimburse the state more than $82,000 that was paid to a staff member to chauffeur his wife during the past several years. More ... Upheld by High Court: Unions Keep Rights At Homeland Dept. By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced that it will not appeal a U.S. Supreme Court ruling blocking the implementation of new personnel regulations that would have drastically altered long-standing worker rights. More ... Triggered Doctoroff Flap: Finance Aide Moves To Standards Board By REUVEN BLAU      Assistant Finance Commissioner Dara Ottley-Brown - who cited a Deputy Mayor's intervention as the reason the city switched its hotel tax assessment methodology - was named as a Commissioner of the city Board of Standards and Appeals Sept. 27. More ... CEA: Won't 'Stretch' Pay: City, Capts. Narrow Contract Differences By REUVEN BLAU      Contract talks between the Captains' Endowment Association and city negotiators appear to be slowly progressing, city and union officials said last week. More ... Revenue Agent, Officer Posts Open With IRS      The Internal Revenue Service is accepting applications for hundreds of Revenue Agent and Revenue Officer jobs in the city and upstate. More ... Court Clerks Back Pirro In AG Race By REUVEN BLAU      The Court Clerks' Association Sept. 26 endorsed Republican Jeanine F. Pirro for Attorney General, citing her "working relationship" with court employees and prosecutorial experience as the former Westchester County District Attorney. More ... DC 37 Endorses Cuomo for AG By HOWARD MEGDAL      District Council 37 Sept. 27 endorsed Andrew Cuomo for State Attorney General. More ... Explains Strike Decisions: To Activists, Toussaint a Hero By GINGER ADAMS OTIS      If the crowd that attended the City University of New York's Sept. 28 seminar and panel discussion on the effects of December's three-day transit strike were voting members of Transport Workers' Union Local 100, President Roger Toussaint would be assured an easy re-election. More ... Short on Staff to Aid Disabled: CSEA: Group Homes Neglected By REUVEN BLAU      The state's largest public-employee union released a report Sept. 26 charging that Long Island residential homes designated to care for the developmentally disabled have been dangerously short-staffed, underfunded, and generally neglected. More ... UFT, DOE At Odds on School Overcrowding By HOWARD MEGDAL      More than 6,000 city classrooms are overcrowded, according to statistics released by the United Federation of Teachers last week, and the union plans to take the Department of Education to arbitration to resolve what it says is a violation of its contract with the city. More ... Buffalo Teacher Wage Freeze Is Upheld in Court By HOWARD MEGDAL      The head of the Buffalo Teachers Federation reacted with disappointment to a Federal appeals court's decision to uphold the city's wage freeze, locking Buffalo's Teachers into the same terms they've worked under since the union's contract expired June 30, 2004. More ... UUP Head Calls On SUNY To Add Faculty By HOWARD MEGDAL      The dramatic increase in enrollment for State University of New York schools indicates the need for additional full-time Professors, according to the president of the union representing SUNY faculty and staff. More ... Sanchez Rises At Bronx Community      George Sanchez, who has held executive positions at Bronx Community College since 1987, Sept. 25 was promoted to Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs. More ... Allege Teachers Doctored Their Long Illnesses By HOWARD MEGDAL      Two Teachers at John Adams High School submitted inauthentic doctors' notes, including one which stated that a Teacher was being treated at a fictional More ... CLEAN-UP HITTERS:      CLEAN-UP HITTERS: Mayor Bloomberg and Uniformed Sanitationmen's More ... FOR THE RECORD      Former Transport Workers' Union Local 100 President Sonny Hall indicated last week that he has a preferred candidate in the union's upcoming election, but his strongest feeling is that union members should elect anyone but the incumbent, Roger Toussaint. More ... Please click here for our Copyright Notice.