Public Employee Press

Grievance News
Why is this clerical worker wearing a hard hat?

Answer: Because she won a grievance about the dangerous working conditions at the Laurel Hill tow pound beneath the Kosciusko Bridge in Queens.

Dressed in her new protective gear, at right, is Local 1549 Shop Steward Debra Henegan, a Principal Administrative Assistant who has worked at Laurel Hill for five years.

The pound office is a collection of trailers. Walking between them, workers face a hard rain of metal and other debris that falls through holes in the roadway and over the sides of the bridge. In the winter, road salt showers down, damaging skin and clothing and corroding window air conditioners and outside wires.

Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 filed a grievance that forced the Police Dept. to issue members hard hats and raincoats. Tow truck operators and workers at the pounds are used to dealing with irate motorists as they bring in revenue for the city; their physical working conditions are also horrible.

PEP described “disgusting and dangerous” conditions at Laurel Hill in September 2007, and there has been little change. The pounds in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens all have hazardous conditions and the state Labor Dept. has cited the Bronx location. Principal Program Coordinator Lisa Baum of the DC 37 Safety and Health Dept. has conducted walk-through inspections and attended the conferences between PESH officials and management at the tow pounds. At the Bronx pound, the official safety citations have been remedied, but conditions are still horrendous, she said.

At Laurel Hill, things are still falling, said Henegan. “They really just need to move it, because it’s unsafe for everyone!” The hard hats went to her members, who filed the grievance, but the Local 983 members who drive the tow trucks have been issued no protection.

“The Queens pound continues to reflect the view that money comes first and safety and health come last,” said Local 983 Vice President Marvin Robbins.