May 2025 Local 1549 Delegates Meeting Report

The May 2025 Local 1549 delegates board meeting took place on Tuesday, May 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM in the DC 37 building (125 Barclay St.). The meeting began with a call to order followed by the pledge of allegiance and an approval of the previous meeting’s minutes. 

DC 37 Report

Division director Tracey Ziemba began the DC 37 report by informing members that DC 37 and Henry Garrido were holding town hall meetings at various work locations. Previous town hall meetings were already held at MetroPlus and HRA (505 Clermont) with upcoming meetings at HRA (Halsey St.) and then Health & Hospitals on June 12th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Harlem Hospital, with all meetings open to any member in DC 37, not just Local 1549.

Ziemba proceeded to state that DC 37 was setting up meet & greet events, similar to one that it held at HRA, in other agencies where the union was having difficulties such as Sanitation and Health & Hospitals.

Additional HRA-related matters included an update on a building walkthrough at 2400 Fulton St. where Ziemba reported that “everything went fine” and that rumors about a ceiling collapse were unsubstantiated. She reported that people are starting to move into the building today.

At this point, NYPD chapter members began to speak out on workers not being called off of civil service lists and complained about workers in Community Assistant titles performing out-of-title work that should be going to clerical workers. A DC 37 grievance representative stated that those workers in the Community Assistant titles were to be converted to Community Associate titles and that they were going to do the same work as PAA positions. Assistant division director Carmen Flores replied that the union could file a reverse out-of-title grievance in this matter. Additional grievance representatives added that they needed to be informed about these matters as soon as possible in order to investigate and assist as needed.

Significant crosstalk ensued between DOB, HRA, and NYPD members about matters related to civil service lists, hiring off of civil service lists, and overtime distribution. The meeting became acrimonious in tone and the response from the district council representatives was that they would be actively working on the issues brought forward.

Local 1549 Financial Report

The business manager for the local, V. Jadwani, presented the union’s financial report for the month, covering a profit & loss statement for April 2025 along with a budget vs. actual report for the previous month as well.

Further details will be published in our financial report section for members-only.

Local 1549 Political Action Committee

Second vice president and Local 1549 PAC chair Lisa Rhymer presented a short report from the most recent Local 1549 PAC meeting stating that a meeting was held, that the committee had established a meeting schedule, and further updates will be forthcoming.

Upcoming General Membership Meeting

Prior to the meeting concluding, Law Chapter delegate Honda Wang raised a question to president Anthony Lackhan about the next general membership meeting. Lackhan replied to confirm that the meeting, open to all Local 1549 members, will be held at 125 Barclay St on June 18th at 6:00 PM and that an invitation will be going out to members soon.