Teamsters Local 237 election is a debate on effectiveness
City University of New York (CUNY) peace officer Mohamed Alshami is running for president of Teamsters Local 237 with the goal of unseating Gregory Floyd, who has served as president since March 2007.
According to Alshami, the incumbent Floyd has lost touch with his union members: “We’re all frustrated because they’re not doing anything –– they’re not filing grievances, they’re not handling the disciplinary actions properly, they’re not fighting for our wages,” Alshami said. “Greg Floyd has been ignoring our requests to help us file lawsuits, even when I provided him attorneys that could help us for free. He just ignored it. They wanted to help us to fight for better wages. And, you know, when somebody is providing free attorneys to help us, you take that opportunity and work with them, but he decided to ignore our request.
“Everything that we’ve been asking for is not being met. So once I had the opportunity and was notified about the election, I decided to run for president.”
Floyd pushed back against these accusations. He told the AmNews he has consistently strengthened Local 237 during his presidency and is not hearing from any disgruntled union members. Floyd confessed he does not know who Alshami is nor understand the basis of his complaints. “I don’t know him,” Floyd said. “He’s never been to a union meeting; he’s never been to the union building. He didn’t come to the nomination meeting –– He emailed it in, he’s running by himself.”
Floyd asserted that Alshami’s rhetoric doesn’t match the facts. “This is not my first election,” Floyd said. “This is actually my fourth. And every time there was an election [in the past], there were at least one or two slates of candidates running for office. This is the first time that we had virtually no opposition in the other offices –– or in this office, because he didn’t show up.”
Alshami admits his campaign is a little small. He says he has been surprised by the restrictions on his ability to campaign but is using social media to get his name –– and that of his vice-presidential pick, Nadeem Mohammad –– out in front of union members.
Local 237, the Teamsters’ largest local union with some 24,000 members, represents public hospital police, elevator mechanics, school safety agents, custodians, cooks, NYCHA caretakers, water use inspectors, civil service attorneys, and cement masons/mason helpers.
Ultimately, Alshami wants to make changes to the way Local 237 operates. He said if he wins the election, he would prioritize listening to the union’s membership. “I want everybody to send me an email [listing] their complaints against business agents, lawyers, the executive board, or whoever works for Local 237. I want them to send a complaint and tell me what happened after they submitted their grievance, complaint, or whatever –– what did that Local 237 employee do? Most of the complaints are being ignored or they’re working behind their backs with management, or they negotiate for lesser charges or whatever. Sometimes they’re just being ignored.”
Alshami says that’s one of his chief complaints, and it’s the most serious kind of response to union members he wants to see changed.
“I want to have everybody’s complaints and then investigate who should stay with Local 237 and who should be replaced. That way I could change the whole union from top to bottom. And then after that, I’m going to look into everybody’s salaries and see if I can get better salaries by comparing with other agencies that do the same or similar work as them and then start legal actions through arbitration or courts …. I do believe that we could change this. It’s that I have to lead the unit in order to get this done.”
Floyd counters that because his administration of Local 237 has given members free health coverage, five-dollar copays for prescriptions, maintenance of benefits, annuity plans, and contracts that are up to date, he has seen virtually no opposition from union members.
“If not all of them, most of them are satisfied with the job that we’re doing,” Floyd said. “Now, do I have a few people here and there that are not satisfied? Sure. Is Mr. Alshami one of them, probably so. But I’ve never met him. Never even had a conversation with him. So I don’t know who he is or what his problem is, but this election will show where our members are on this.”
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