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Meet your DC 37
Vice Presidents The DC 37 Executive Board includes many experienced leaders and some dynamic new members. The board is the governing body of the union when the Delegates Council is not in session. The board includes the union’s top officers (the executive director, president, secretary and treasurer); vice presidents from the five largest local unions (with at least 5 percent each of DC 37’s total membership), who were elected by their locals’ delegates in November 2009 (or at a later date to fill a vacancy); 20 vice presidents from the smaller locals, who were elected at-large Jan. 26, 2010, by the delegates from those locals, and the head of DC 37 Retirees Association, an ex-officio member who cannot vote. Click photo
for bio
President, Local 2627 Robert D. Ajaye started at Borough of Manhattan
Community College in 1983 as a Program Analyst and is now an Information Technology
Sr. Associate.
President, Local 2021 As the president of Off-Track Betting Corp.
Employees Local 2021 for 12 years, Leonard Allen has battled mayors who have tried
to privatize or close the betting parlors and eliminate OTB’s workforce.
A Betting Clerk with over 25 years experience, Allen has served on the DC 37 Executive
Board for the past decade. As chair of the Political Action Committee, he galvanized
the union volunteers who helped elect President Barack Obama, battled Mayor Bloomberg’s
2009 mayoral bid and raised DC 37’s political profile.
Carmen
Charles President, Local 420 Carmen Charles became president of Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420 in 2002 when she led the Workers 4 Workers slate to victory. Her climb to the top post began as a Nurse’s Aide at Coler-Goldwater Hospital. In1987 she became a shop steward and in 1999 was elected vice president of the 10,000 member local. As president she has negotiated upgrades for her members, made the local more financially accountable and fought against contracting out while encouraging members to get more active in union affairs. A strong advocate of using education as a tool for empowerment, Charles is a graduate of Cornell University’s Union Leadership Program.
Santos
Crespo President, Local 372 Santos Crespo was part of the historic organizing drive that brought thousands of Puerto Rican public employees in into DC 37’s national union, AFSCME. He spent a year and a half on the island with the U.S. team that helped organize social service workers into Servidores Publico Unidos Concilio 95. The veteran activist served as a Local 372 shop steward and grievance rep for 10 years and in 1999, he was elected executive vice president of the 26,000-member local. In March 2011, he was elected president of the local to complete the term of the previous president, who retired Feb. 28, 2011. Crespo is a former president of the New York City branch of the AFL-CIO’s Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and is currently a member of its Executive Board as well as co-chair of DC 37’s Latino Heritage Committee.
President, Local 1507 “These tough economic times demonstrate more than ever how important unions are to working families,” said Sirra Crippen, president of Local 1507, which represents Gardeners and Assistant Gardeners at the Parks Dept. She works to instill a pro-union ethos in members and educate them about the important work the union does to win and protect their benefits. “As a union leader, I view my role as promoting public policy that supports working-class people,” Crippen said. “The union is the strongest vehicle in our country fighting for economic and social justice.” In addition to her regular duties as a Gardener, Crippen teaches horticulture to children in the schools and the Housing Authority.
Michael
DeMarco “Our board is united in its efforts to deliver a good contract that protects members’ jobs and hard-won benefits and to contract-in work and counter this administration’s attempts to privatize the jobs and public services our members provide,” DeMarco said. DeMarco chairs the DC 37 Education Fund
Trust, Credentials and Italian Heritage committees and co-chairs its DOT Equipment
Committee. He served on AFSCME’s Appeals and Election committees and represents
DC 37 on AFSCME’s Transportation Committee.
Cuthbert
B. Dickenson President, Local 374 Cuthbert Dickenson’s public service career began in 1984 as an electrical maintainer for the New York Public Library. He joined Local 374, became an activist and chapter chair and was elected president in 2002. In 2007, he was elected to the DC 37 Board. Dickenson chairs the DC 37 Citizenship Committee and is a trustee of the NYPL Health and Security Trust and a member of the DC 37 Caribbean Heritage Committee and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. “As a representative of members in the libraries and cultural institutions, I am trying hard to hold on to the gains we have made. As union leaders, we on the Executive Board are faced with challenging times,” he said.
Jonathan
H. Gray President, Local 1655 Jonathan Gray, president of Metropolitan Transportation Authority Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1655, was elected to the DC 37 Executive Board in January 2010. Gray went to work as an Associate Cashier Level I in August 1982, became a shop steward and was elected vice president in 2004. When President Kevin Smith died in 2008, Gray was elected to the position. He grew up in the Bronx, graduated from Mount Vernon High School, and attended Bronx Community and Skidmore colleges. Gray, and wife Theresa, have three children. “Union work is a passion for me,” he said. As a member of the DC 37 Executive Board, Gray will serve on the union’s Laws and Rules Committee.
President, Local 1501 Robert Herkommer, in his first term on the
DC 37 Board, got his first taste of union life as a shop steward in 1991.
Dennis
Ifill “When you grow up in the Third World, you need to get involved in labor early in your life,” said the president of Rent Regulation Service Employees Local 1359. His mentor then is now a Caribbean public services union leader. Ifill immigrated to the
U.S. in 1984 and landed a state job as an Assistant Rent Examiner. His local includes
some 370 state Attorneys, Clerks, Hearing Officers, Rent Examiners, Rent Inspectors
and Stenographers, Accountants and Housing Specialists. He has a diploma in accounting
from the Guyana Technical Institute, a year of labor law at Guyana’s Critchlow
Labor College and a bachelor’s degree in math from the University of Guelph
in Canada.
Morris
R. Johnson Chapter Chair, Local 154 Morris R. Johnson is a classic American immigrant success story. A native of Liberia, he settled in New York in 1978, earned a bachelor’s degree in finance, joined the city workforce as a Claims Specialist in 1990 and became a shop steward in 1996. He is a Local 154 delegate. He has fought for civil service exams so co-workers can become permanent employees with promotional opportunities. Now in his second term on the DC 37 Board, Johnson plans to continue as a passionate voice behind Executive Director Lillian Robert’s drive for civil service improvements. Johnson and his
wife,Tonya, are the proud parents of two sons; his youngest is presently serving
in Iraq with his wife.
Michelle
Keller-Ng Member, Local 375 Local 375 member Michelle Keller-Ng, an Associate Housing Development Specialist at the Dept. of Housing, Preservation and Development, rejoined the DC 37 Executive Board in April 2010. She joined the city workforce 33 years ago and soon moved up to Housing Specialist and became active in Local 375. She served 20 years as a grievance rep and held many elected positions, including 2nd vice president and executive committee chair. Local 375 delegates elected Keller-Ng to the DC 37 board in November 2009. She later stepped down but subsequently rescinded her resignation and returned to the board on April 14, 2010. "I am honored to be able to speak up for members and to help shape the direction of the union," she said. Keller-Ng's mother was a School Aide and Local 372 member, her father a Teamsters member at the Housing Authority, and her husband, Joseph Ng, is a member of Electronic Data Processing Personnel Local 2627. Their 15-year-old daughter, Chloe, regularly attends union activities like the Labor Day Parade.
Eric
Latson President, Local 1597 Eric Latson is president of Custodial Assistants Local 1597, which represents about 2,000 Custodians, Elevator Operators, Security Aides and Watchmen. A 25-year veteran at City College, he got active in the union “after reading the contract led me to become a shop steward,” he said. After 12 years, Latson became VP, and in 2006, the members elected him president. “A lot of positions are under fire, and our main concern is to protect members’ jobs and benefits,” Latson said. “We have to fight for a decent contract that includes a wage increase. That’s the bottom line. It’s what members count on us to do.” Eric Latson is married and lives in Queens. He has
three children and one grandchild.
President, Local 371 Faye Moore began her city career as a clerical
employee and worked her way up to Caseworker. She joined the staff at SSEU Local
371 in 1993 and was soon elected VP of grievances. In 2008, members elected her
president of the local, which includes 17,000 social service and juvenile justice
workers.
Eileen
M. Muller
Deborah
A. Pitts
Walthene
Primus President, Local 957 Walthene Primus moved from St. George, S.C., to Brooklyn as a 5-year-old and has been working since she was 15. Her civil service career began in 1977 at the NYC Housing Authority. She served the members of NYCHA Clerical Employees Local 957 for almost 15 years as a shop steward before being elected president. She has served on the DC 37 Executive Board since 2002. Primus brings three decades of experience to her union roles, which include chairing the DC 37 Women’s Committee and serving on AFSCME’s Women’s Advisory Committee. “DC 37 is facing a lot of challenges,” she said, “ but Lillian Roberts has a good program with the White Papers and is showing great tenacity in sticking to it.”
Darryl
A. Ramsey Delegate, Local 768 Darryl Ramsey has been active with Health Service Employees Local 768 since 1993. He was appointed chief shop steward at Kings County Hospital in 1993, became a grievance rep in 1997 and served as local president from 2003 to 2008. As president, he pushed to expand members’ participation and stressed the importance of steward training. “The strength of the union depends on the active participation of rank-and-file members,” he said. Currently he chairs the labor caucus, which includes employees from all the unions at Kings County Hospital, and co-chairs the labor management committee. Ramsey is also an active member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the Save Our Safety Net Coalition.
Fred
Ricci President, Local 1322 Fred Ricci was elected to his first term as a DC 37 Executive Board vice president on Jan. 26, 2010. He served many years as a Local 376 shop steward and Local 1322 Executive Board member, until the Dept. of Environmental Protection made him a manager. “But after three years, I wanted to belong to a union again,” he said. Local 1322 members elected him president in 2006 . “Without a union, workers have no rights or say about salary increases. Only unions can protect our future earnings as the backbone of New York’s middle class,” Ricci said. “I am proud to be part of Lillian Roberts’ team to help not just my local but all members,” he said. Married for 27 years, Ricci has five
children and lives on Staten Island
Alma G. Roper
Executive VP, Local 1549 Alma Roper was elected Executive Vice President of New York City Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 in 2009 and a Vice President of DC 37 on June 28, 2011. Elected PCT/SPCT Chapter Chair in 2003, Roper played a major role in lobbying for groundbreaking legislation eliminating the age requirement for 911 personnel to receive a full pension. In 2008, she became a grievance representative in the DC 37 Clerical-Administrative Division. Roper attended SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where she received an associate’s degree in fashion design and, in 1981, a bachelor’s degree in marketing. She has three daughters and three grandchildren.
Jackie
Rowe-Adams She chairs DC 37’s PEOPLE Committee, the grassroots political fundraising arm of DC 37’s national union, AFSCME. As PEOPLE chair, she is leading a drive to sign up members and local leaders as VIP MVPs, who contribute every pay period throughout the year. “We have to fight back even harder, and PEOPLE gives us the power to do that,” she said. As a community activist she is also involved with
the Harlem Mothers S.A.V.E., a group that advocates stricter gun control laws.
Peter
Stein Peter Stein, a committed unionist for over 40 years, is president of Lifeguard Supervisors Local 508. He calls his members “the first responders who patrol New York City’s public pools and beaches.” With help from DC 37, he recently recouped almost $200,000 in longevity and retroactive pay for the Supervisors and Local 461’s Lifeguards. Stein has made political action a priority for his local. In elections, he volunteers with hundreds of Lifeguards and Supervisors to support the labor-friendly candidates DC 37 endorses. “Political action is labor’s essential
battleground for economic victories and social justice for our members. As public
employees, the ballot box is where we show our strength as a union,” he said
James
Tucciarelli
Esther
(Sandy) Tucker President, Local 384 Currently serving as the president of CUNY and Educational Opportunity Centers Local 384, Esther (Sandy) Tucker began her union career as a shop steward in 1989 and was elected local president in 1999. She is now in her third term on the DC 37 Executive Board. For five years she also chaired the DC 37 PEOPLE Committee, the grassroots political fundraising arm of DC 37’s national union, AFSCME. Taking full advantage of one of her many union benefits, she has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. Tucker began working for the City University of New York in 1968 as a provisional employee at City College. One test later, she had a career as a civil servant.
Anthony Wells
President, Local 371 Anthony Wells was elected president of New York Social Service Employees Local 371 (SSEU) in April 2011 and a Vice President of DC 37 on June 28, 2011. Wells began his career in 1980 as a Caseworker at Spofford Juvenile Center in the Bronx. He became active in the local as a delegate then an organizer, becoming the local’s Associate Director of Organizing in 1990 and Associate Director of Negotiations and Research in 1995. He was elected Vice President of SSEU in 1999 and, as head of the Negotiations and Research Section, led Local 371’s Bargaining Committee and conducted labor-management meetings. He also served on the DC 37 Pension Committee. Wells received his MSW from Stony Brook University and his law degree from New York Law School.
Shirley
A. Williams President, Local 1219 Shirley A. Williams, the president of Real Estate Employees Local 1219, began her city career in 1972 at the Dept. of Employment. Inspired by the example of her mentor, the late Local 1219 President James Cobb, she got active in 1990 as a DC 37 delegate. Williams was elected local VP in 2005 and became president in 2006. She is now in her second term on the DC 37 Executive Board. “I am truly honored to be part of making history at DC 37,” she said. Williams chairs the DC 37 Education Committee, which every year awards academic scholarships to deserving college-bound high school students whose parents or grandparents are union members.
President, DC 37 Retirees Association Don’t
forget, you’re all future retirees.
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