Razzle Dazzle
Javits Center Clash Brewing

By RICHARD STEIER

Minority freight-handlers at the Jacob Javits Convention Center say that just when opportunities are beginning to emerge for them, Javits management is seeking to halt their progress - and to do it with the pretzel logic that it is in the name of better diversifying the work force.

DISPUTES MANAGEMENT CLAIMS: While Javits Center management claims it wants to do away with a preference list in order to better diversify its work force, shop steward James Lawrence calls that 'curious' given that more than three-quarters of those slated to advance onto the list in coming years are black or Latino.

Workers who claimed they were risking retaliation by talking to a reporter, as well as officials from their union, Teamsters Local 807, said diversity is not the motivating force behind management's position. Rather, they say, it is intended partly as payback for a racial discrimination suit brought by the employees that resulted in a consent decree including an $8.4-million settlement last year, and primarily as a way to weaken the union and gain greater control over who works at the center and how often.

'A Way to Control Us'

"It's a way for them to have control over how many days we work and the hours we work," said Natasha Perez, a Local 807 assistant shop steward who was the lead plaintiff in the class-action suit, which wound up including minority carpenters and housekeepers at the Javits Center as well as freight-handlers.

She said she has had first-hand experience with management's vindictiveness, having been fired shortly after the lawsuit, initially filed by Local 807 in 2000, became a class action. As part of the settlement reached in June 2006, the Javits Center was required to guarantee all the plaintiffs income of $50,000 a year for the next three years. Some of them worked enough hours last year to exceed that amount, but Ms. Perez was fortunate - she would have earned only $32,000 based on the number of hours for which she was assigned, primarily as a helper-checker - the clerical part of a freight-handler's duties, which pays about $5 less per hour than the $33.58-an-hour jobs in which they handle fork-lifts over oversee those operating them.

Her hours last year were consistent with what she had gotten prior to becoming the lead plaintiff in the bias suit. "Eight years I was working there and I didn't make over $30,000," said Ms. Perez, who began working at the Javits Center in 1995.

That was the point when state officials, determined to rid the Javits Center of organized-crime influence, took responsibility for personnel deployment away from exhibiters by becoming the employer of the center's workers.

A contingent of new employees was brought in to take on some of the work previously performed by workers with mob connections. A preference list based on seniority was compiled under an agreement management reached with Johnny Brown, whom then-International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Ron Carey had named trustee of the previously mob-influenced Local 807. Javits Center management agreed to have 60 persons, of its choosing, on the list, and they were given work preference by the order in which they appeared.

According to Local 807 officials, most of those on that list for freight-handlers were white and Irish. Except for the periods - usually for a week or less - when the car shows and boat shows are held at the Javits Center, it employs a work force of between 100 and 150 people. With those on the preference list getting first crack at available work, other employees often scrambled to make $25,000 a year, going through the kind of shape-up procedure that was less dehumanizing than the old waterfront shape-ups only because they were selected at random rather than as the result of favoritism or bribery.

Didn't Replace Retirees

Even as the bias lawsuit meandered through Federal court over six years, however, opportunities began to open up for minority freight-handlers. The older employees on the preference list were retiring in increasing numbers. According to Local 807 President Bill Turis, however, management was "refusing to backfill the list," leaving a decreasing number of employees assured of steady, well-paying work.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow GIRDING FOR A SHOWDOWN: Teamsters Local 807 President Bill Turis (second from left) and freight-handlers (from left) David Sanchez, Natasha Perez and Jim Leyden say they believe management at the Jacob Javits Convention Center is looking to eliminate a preference list based on seniority in retaliation for a discrimination lawsuit the union filed that cost the center $7.725 million and the state another $675,000 to settle last year.

Then the union filed an arbitration case over the matter in 2004. That, too, wound up being settled - in this instance as part of a contract agreement reached that summer creating what the union describes as a "B" list which contains about 35 employees who are given the same preference as those from the original roster. They also were chosen based on seniority provided they worked a combined 1,000 hours during the previous two years.

They do not have the same job security, however, because under that deal, Local 807 agreed to waive the contractual rights granted by the Triborough Doctrine, under which the terms of an expired contract continue in effect until a replacement accord is reached. This means that once that contract expires at midnight July 18, management has the discretion to ignore the B list.

The potential impact on minority workers would have the effect of undoing the progress made in the settlement of the arbitration case and the class-action suit. According to Local 807, five of the roughly 25 employees on the original 1995 preference list who are still working are minorities; their representation on the B list grows from 20 to 60 percent, with 21 of the 35 workers being people of color. Even more significantly, according to union officials, 13 employees on the A list are expected to retire within the next five years, and 10 of those scheduled to step up when they do are black or Latino. All told, 77 percent of the 74 employees who are eligible to go on the list in future years based on their seniority are members of minority groups.

Steward: 'Strange' Stance

Local 807 shop steward James Lawrence remarked during a June 27 interview, "The Javits Center is going to be rebuilt and there are going to be a lot of jobs available, but unless this attack on the B list is defeated, [many minority workers] may not be around. It really strikes me as strange that after a billion-dollar lawsuit and [more minorities] now having a chance to become part of this seniority list, why would they want to knock it out?"

Mr. Lawrence is among those with a full appreciation of what's at stake for those now on the B list and those waiting their turn. A 47-year-veteran of the freight-handling business who began working at the Javits Center in 1991, he is among those on the original list, something which enabled him to make $128,000 last year, at least half of it from overtime that he was eligible for because of the preference afforded him.

"I think the only way to get up the ladder is seniority," he said. Management's attempt to scrap the B list, he believes, is an arrow aimed at the heart of that fundamental union precept. It's not the first time that Javits Center officials have sought to eliminate preferred status for senior workers, Mr. Lawrence said, but he believes this effort is more serious and that retaliation for the class-action suit is a big reason.

Stood Up, Was Sat Down

That view is shared by David Sanchez, whose career has been a testament to how much union rights make a difference for employees at Javits.

He began there in 1995 in the wake of the clean-up, but one day in 2001, after working 26 hours straight, Mr. Sanchez balked when a supervisor instructed him to sign out so that he could be paid straight time to begin a new 12-hour shift.

Until then, Mr. Sanchez said, "I was considered an exemplary employee." Once he refused an order that would have denied him overtime to which he was entitled, he said, "As a form of retaliation, they just stopped calling me."

Eventually the supervisor who penalized him left, and he began receiving steady work again. He's on the B list, and last year made about $60,000. Even so, he said, "There's weeks when we're not working. You're at their beckon call, where you may not know until 8 o'clock tonight that you're working the next day. We're out in freezing cold and the rain and operating dangerous machines."

Benefits Tied to Hours

Those not on the lists sometimes struggle to get the 1,000 hours of annual work - 250 per quarter - that is the minimum needed for an employee to qualify for health benefits. Mr. Sanchez said that when those on the lists voluntarily give up shifts to allow colleagues to get the required number of hours for a quarter, they are sometimes reprimanded by supervisors for unexcused absences.

Union officials said Javits Center management has tried to portray itself as benevolent by proposing that workers become eligible for health benefits after 600 hours worked in a year, knowing that the union fund could not support those additional participants unless it slashed benefits. They said they were bringing attention to the issues as a pre-emptive strike against the public-relations offensive they are anticipating from management as the contract expiration date approaches.

"One of the biggest union-busting law firms in the country has been on retainer at the Javits Center," Mr. Sanchez remarked, referring to Jackson Lewis, a firm with a reputation for taking a hard line in labor battles.

Andrew Peterson, the Jackson Lewis attorney representing the Javits Center at the bargaining table, did not return calls seeking a response to the claims by Local 807 officials and members.

The more-casual employees brought in to work the boat and car shows are known as "white badges." Mr. Turis said he believed management would like most of the work force to be "white badges": "spread out the work and have everybody make $30,000 a year and collect unemployment" during the periods when no work is available.

Jim Leyden, another veteran freight-handler, said that past complaints from union members about not getting enough hours to earn more than $25,000 a year had been met with the response from supervisors that they should find another job.

"That's the life of everybody that doesn't have the seniority list," he said.

'Leave You in Limbo'

"Without being on the list," Mr. Turis noted, "they don't have any obligation to call you. You're in limbo for the rest of your life."

Mr. Sanchez said management has told the union it wants to discontinue the B list because of "operational difficulties, even though we've never had a show not open on time."

Mr. Leyden indicated that there has been some management discontent with veteran employees who are on the A list and therefore are guaranteed preference as long as they're active. "I think part of [management's] problem is they don't know how to fire anyone. Eliminating the list solves the problem for them: they would simply throw away your phone number," he said.

Mr. Turis said that whatever complaints might exist about individual employees, the current system provides "a solidified, reliable work force. Seniority's been part of the Teamsters since 1903."

Mr. Sanchez chimed in, "Everything's negotiable except seniority."

And Ms. Perez said of the preference system tied to tenure, "We want to preserve it so that when somebody leaves, everybody moves up."

Barred From Striking

Complicating the negotiations for the union is that, because the Javits Center is a public benefit corporation, those employed there are considered public employees and therefore prohibited from striking under the Taylor Law.

For that reason, Mr. Sanchez said, the looming showdown should be of concern to other public-employee unions despite the relatively small work force involved here.

"If they break our seniority," he asserted, "they'll come after everybody that works for the government."

Mr. Turis described the battle as a management attempt to weaken the rights and protections Local 807 members enjoy.

In contrast, he said, "We don't want to control them. All we want is a little piece of heaven and a little peace of mind."