TESTIMONY
Kyle Simmons, President of the New York City Labor's Union Local 9 24, on Racial and Gender Disparities in New York City's Construction Industry
2:23:48
·
10 min
Kyle Simmons argues there is a systemic pattern of economic suppression of certain races and genders in New York City's construction industry through entry-level labor class titles that require no formal education or experience.
- Laborers in these titles earn substantially less than skilled tradesmen, who are predominantly white males.
- City agencies misallocate duties and provide inadequate supervision for laborers, undermining the value of their work.
- There are stark racial and gender disparities in the composition of the labor force versus skilled trades.
- Promotional opportunities for laborers are obstructed, perpetuating the disparities.
Kyle Simmons
2:23:48
Good afternoon, community chair.
2:23:50
I wanna thank you for this opportunity to speak.
2:23:54
My name is Kyle Simmons.
2:23:57
I have been the president of the New York City Labor's Union Local 9 24 since December 2021.
2:24:04
It's a entry level prevailing rate title into the construction industry.
2:24:11
And You heard from these distinguished panelists in reference to their credentials behind it, their positions that they hold.
2:24:22
I'm a firm believer it has nothing to do with credentials, educational backgrounds, and things of that nature is a systemic pattern to keep people of a certain race and gender economically down.
2:24:38
The reason why I come to that conclusion a long time ago because in my title, as an entry level into the prevailing rate, My members come in at $75,760 a year.
2:24:54
It's a labor class title.
2:24:57
There is no formal education required.
2:25:01
No experience necessary for this position.
2:25:05
The city of New York in the construction industry have approximately 40 1000 skilled trades members.
2:25:14
So you can have an understanding what laborers do.
2:25:18
You have to look at the hospital setting.
2:25:22
The doctors are the skilled trades.
2:25:24
The skilled trade means are the doctors, the plumbers, the corporates, the electricians.
2:25:29
The labor is all the nurses.
2:25:34
We are to support staff to help these individuals.
2:25:38
My membership, because there is no competitive examination, is a very appointed position.
2:25:45
Each and every one of y'all could be appointed to these positions easily.
2:25:52
Why is there only 400 and the laborers supports that.
2:25:57
Besides the other duties, we know the nurses do, the laborers got all the responsibilities they could do under the prevailing rates statue also besides that.
2:26:05
If you got 14,000 skilled tradesmen, that is mostly white male.
2:26:10
And the salaries that you may say that These laborers come in at 75,000.
2:26:14
These individuals are making well close to a $100,000 and more.
2:26:20
They make $10 to $15 more an hour than a laborer makes.
2:26:25
Either they're doing unskilled work, and receiving these benefits that they're not supposed to receive of doing unskilled work, and they looked a certain way And when you only have 450 laborers that us the support group for these individuals, who's doing all the work and what do they look like?
2:26:47
And it goes beyond that because they're looking at promotional opportunities.
2:26:51
When I look at it as a whole, is given the individuals to correct titles in the first place based upon the work that they are actually doing.
2:27:01
Not what it says on the paper because they may say they're doing janitorial work with, in fact, their sisters diploma, electrician, or the carpenter, and they receive in less wages than they are supposed to receive, and what do they look like.
2:27:18
When you look around at agencies.
2:27:21
Let's look at the Parks Department.
2:27:24
Our union was found there in 1945 at this day, there's not one laborer in there, yet they still have the skill trades force working in there.
2:27:36
So who is performing those duties?
2:27:40
And what do they look like?
2:27:42
And how much are they being underpaid?
2:27:46
Beyond that.
2:27:47
It has to do with who is supervising these individuals.
2:27:53
As a labor, I'm fighting these battles right now, how they have.
2:27:59
Secretaries of no knowledge of the construction industries giving laborers their responsibilities of work to do.
2:28:08
You have police officers giving laborers responsibility to do.
2:28:12
But in these other trades, they use the right supervision.
2:28:16
They're in the right meetings to do their trade.
2:28:21
I have in nature.
2:28:23
I'm fighting with them right now.
2:28:25
Out of the 450 laborers that are in my group right now, 250 of them was just hired between 2018 and today.
2:28:35
And the only reason why they are there is because the federal monitor had made them hired a support group.
2:28:45
That is there in homeless services.
2:28:48
They got 20 something laborers in there, but not one of them are assisting the 80 skilled tradesmen they have employed in there.
2:28:58
So they're not giving them the opportunity to actually learn to trade.
2:29:02
Yes, they making plenty of money.
2:29:06
But when they are signing them to janitorial duties like cleaning toilets, People of color we're talking about.
2:29:15
They're assigning them to traditional duties.
2:29:21
That came out of the days when there was slavery
Farah N. Louis
2:29:24
Mhmm.
Kyle Simmons
2:29:24
And the Jim Frost rules and regulations.
2:29:28
They don't see us as working class of individuals no matter how much education you all may have.
2:29:34
They will continue.
2:29:36
To continue to low grade you in a different category when it comes down to the work.
2:29:43
These rules have been in place for the longest time.
2:29:45
And if it wasn't for the local law 18 where y'all can do your investigation Mhmm.
2:29:51
They never fixed any of this.
2:29:54
Until this day, they still haven't really fixed anything.
2:29:57
They come up here and they tell you all a lot of stuff and it looks really good on paper.
2:30:03
But the actual what is being done is not really there.
2:30:11
Now, I I work for the Department of Environmental Protection Agency.
2:30:16
And when they was looking to diversify it and give opportunities to individuals, and they says, oh, we went and we gave tests for the sewage treatment workers, the construction laborers.
2:30:29
You want you gotta take a test for all of that.
2:30:32
Yes.
2:30:32
They pay a little bit more than the labor is make.
2:30:35
But I says, why never you offer the opportunity?
2:30:40
For the city labor's position because you are public utility.
2:30:45
You're supposed to be paying prevailing wages for these type of jobs.
2:30:49
And you'll hear crickets.
2:30:50
There is never a response to.
2:30:53
It's a labor class title.
Arthur Chilliotis
2:30:54
Mhmm.
Kyle Simmons
2:30:55
It's an appointed position.
2:30:57
After 1 year, you become permanent.
2:31:00
No formal education.
2:31:03
No experience necessary is on the job training.
2:31:06
It's an opportunity.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
2:31:07
Mister Simmons, can we ask that you give the committee I don't know if you have in writing some of the information that you're sharing with us?
2:31:14
We'd we'd love to follow-up, but we're short on time just because, you know, we're we've go we're going over the clock.
2:31:21
We'd like to I'd like to follow-up with you on this specific matter and see if we can come to a place where we can reconcile some of what's been going on in your industry specifically.
2:31:32
Is there do I don't know if you have your testimony written.
2:31:36
If not, you can you can submit to us 72 hours after the hear up until 72 hours after the hearing.
2:31:42
So I'll give you the email address for that.
2:31:43
And if you could get that to us, I'd also appreciate meeting with you offline.
2:31:47
Is that okay?
Kyle Simmons
2:31:48
That'll be fine.
2:31:49
I was just told about this here.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
2:31:51
No.
2:31:52
I appreciate it.
Kyle Simmons
2:31:52
And I came in added a fly
Carmen N. De La Rosa
2:31:54
Yeah.
Kyle Simmons
2:31:55
You know, no written testimony, but I can write something up for your committee to look.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
2:31:59
Thank you.
2:32:00
The the email address is testimony at counsel.nyc.gov, and we'll give it to you in writing right after this.
2:32:07
So I do have a question for EMS.
2:32:10
What would be the most helpful in aiding workers to break the pattern of low bargaining trends that you referenced in your testimony, in your opinion?
Michael Greco
2:32:21
Well, right now, like I said, we have an EEOC to termination that ruled that the FDNY has been discriminatory in their pay practices and treatment of EMS.
2:32:31
So instead of having the city of New York, like, I know they're they're walking out, but 11 80 went through many years of fighting a very similar discrimination lawsuit.
2:32:43
It would be helpful if they don't decide to send us to court for the next 15 years and actually listen to what the recommendation from EEO was and utilized that as a break from the pattern and also take a look at the NY ESMA decision because they went to arbitration, and the arbitrator awarded a higher than pattern because of COVID and because of the medical field.
2:33:09
So I believe after the past 3 years, 4 years that my members have been, you know, working literally to death, we have 11 people have committed suicide since COVID, we've had multiple code related deaths.
2:33:21
So to simply prove that our our members showed up during a major pandemic when everybody and I was doing counsel hearings from Zooms and everybody's a lot of people still working from home, our members showed up.
2:33:36
So it's it's time to, you know, stop the games, look at the lawsuit, look at the nizuna decision, and come to the table with a a significant offer.
2:33:47
That's that's above pattern.
2:33:49
So that would be the help.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
2:33:50
Shares, you all have any questions?
2:33:52
Okay.
2:33:54
Okay.
2:33:54
So I'm gonna ask my staff to to get the contact information so that we can have separate meetings.
2:34:02
Offline.
2:34:03
I'm I'm looking forward to continuing to dive deeper into the separate issues here.
Dalvanie Powell
2:34:08
I just wanna tell you, we have an EOC EOC I'm sick.
2:34:12
So we're an EEOC case pending too with the same attorney as 11:80 and you guys too.
2:34:18
So we're going through the same as I think.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
2:34:20
Great.
2:34:21
Thank you so much, and Kiana, my staff will follow-up.
2:34:23
Thank you.
2:34:27
Okay.
2:34:28
Thank you all who came here to share your thoughts and experiences today.
2:34:33
If there is anyone in chamber who wishes to speak, but has not yet had an opportunity to do so, please raise your hand and fill out an appearance card with the sergeant arms in the back of the room.
2:34:43
Seeing no hands in chamber, we will now shift to Zoom testimony.
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Dalvanie Powell, President of the United Probation Officers' Association, on Pay Disparity and Working Conditions for Probation Officers in New York City
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Beverly Neufeld, Founder and President of PowHer New York, on Initiatives and Recommendations for Achieving Pay Equity and Addressing Gender and Racial Wage Gaps
