Elevator Mechanics Spread Too Thin, Union Testifies; Hearing Spotlights Malfunctions

Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd defended his union's Elevator Mechanics at a City Council hearing Oct. 29 where Housing Authority managers were grilled about the fact that only 20 percent of their projects' elevators have received satisfactory ratings in routine inspections.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James THE DEADLY PRICE OF DEFERRED MAINTENANCE: Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd tells a City Council hearing that outmoded elevators for which replacement parts are hard to find coupled with a shortage of Elevator Mechanics have created conditions that contributed to the recent deaths of a 5-year-old boy and an infant.

Mr. Floyd contended that his workers are spread too thin, especially since layoffs and budget cuts began in 2002. "Only 185 Mechanics — the employees who perform direct, hands-on service and repair of equipment — are responsible for 3,335 elevators across the five boroughs," he told the City Council's Public Housing Committee. "Mechanics ... have their hands full under the best circumstances. And the current circumstances are certainly not the best."

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James FEELING THE URGENCY: Housing Authority Chairman Tino Hernandez said he will double the budget for elevator maintenance and has placed a moratorium on employees seeking second jobs in response to the tragic consequences of malfunctioning project elevators.

 

 

 

 

 

'So Old It's Hard to Find Parts'

Mr. Floyd laid much of the blame for the current state of elevators in public housing at the Bush Administration, which cut $611 million from HA funding over the last eight years. He said that this had left the system hopelessly obsolete. "Much of HA's elevator stock is so outdated that replacement parts are no longer manufactured and can be difficult to locate, resulting in serious delays of the repairs that must be performed ... veterans at HA remember 'good old days' of a storage facility filled with elevator parts," he said.

Two recent widely reported deaths in public housing projects have spurred action on the issue. On Aug. 19, 5-year-old Jacob Neuman fell down a shaft in a Brooklyn housing project after jumping from his stalled elevator to try and reach the ground, and on Oct. 10 a baby being rushed to a hospital by two police officers got stuck in an elevator, delaying essential care too long for it to be saved.

Mr. Floyd said that his workers had taken these deaths personally. "The death of that young man, that young boy, really touched their hearts. They were stricken with grief, as if the child was their own," he said. "Although they weren't responsible, they did feel personally responsible, even though it wasn't their fault."

Moonlighting Issue Raised

He defended members after questions were raised to HA Chairman Tino Hernandez about Mechanics taking second jobs to supplement their income. "The moonlighting situation does not have a bearing on this," Mr. Floyd asserted. "They're given an assignment, they're given the hours to work; if the HA wanted them to work more hours, they would gladly do so. But to supplement their income, they work second jobs, and they're fit for duty when they come into the HA." He added that due to recent events, Mechanics were "under [increased] public scrutiny."

When questioned on the issue, Mr. Hernandez said, "city government employees have the right to outside employment ... I personally believe that we have a highly dedicated elevator staff." But while they are permitted under the Local 237 contract to take second jobs, he added, "given the circumstances of the elevator operations, I have placed a moratorium on any outside employment for now."

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer proposed that the Fire Department, which "got called more than 10,000 times last year to rescue people from elevators," could be utilized in inspecting elevators, rather than having the HA spend money on outside consultants. He also suggested utilizing Department of Buildings personnel, who "conduct three elevator inspections over a two-year period for the city's private building owners, but not for Housing Authority elevators."

Sharp Falloff in Maintenance

Civil Service Technical Guild Chapter 25 President Mitchell Feder, who represents 300 HA workers, said that the problem was rooted in the 2004 disbanding of the Design Department's Elevator Design and Review Section. "Prior to 2004, during an 8-10 year period, somewhere between 800 and 1,000 elevators ... were totally renovated and rehabilitated," he testified. "During the 2004 to 2008 period, at best about 25 to at most 50 elevators have been replaced."

During their testimony, HA officials said they were planning to raise the Authority's 2009 elevator operations budget from $50 million to $107 million in an effort to replace more than 500 elevators over the next five years and modernize units in other ways to make repairs less cumbersome. Their plans did not include the hiring of new Engineers or Engineer Helpers. Mr. Floyd pointed out that since 2002, about 80 of those positions had been cut by the HA.