OLR Commissioner Renee Campion to retire Dec. 1

Courtesy Office of Labor Relations

The city's labor negotiators will soon have a new leader. 

Renee Campion, commissioner of the New York City Office of Labor Relations since 2019, will retire Dec. 1. Campion informed staff of her plans on Tuesday and told The Chief in an interview on Thursday that she will miss the agency that has become her home in the 24 years she's worked there.

Campion will depart her post almost a year into the tenure of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the third mayor she's worked for, just before the latest cycle of bargaining with the city's municipal unions is set to begin.

"It's the right time for me personally and for the agency," she said. "Stepping down on December 1st ensures that there's a complete runway to lead the entire multi-year cycle from day one instead of handing it off mid-stream."

After 11 years working for the Doctors Council, a union for doctors in the city, Campion joined OLR as assistant commissioner in 2002. She steadily rose the agency's ranks to associate commissioner, first deputy commissioner and was named the city's 9th OLR commissioner by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in January 2019 after Bob Linn retired.

The first woman to run the agency, Campion stewarded OLR through the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 contract cycle that began with the ratification of District Council 37's agreement early in the year and introduced remote and flexible work schedules for thousands of city workers. The agency settled 90 percent of city's contracts for that year's bargaining cycle within nine months, the fastest time the city reached that mark in its modern history, Campion said.

"We've never settled contracts that fast," she said. "It's really important to me that we settle contracts as quickly as we can, because I do feel strongly that city workers should have the money in their pockets so they can go on and do their jobs and not have to wonder 'when's my contract going to get settled?' or 'When's my next raise?'"

'We'll miss her'

During her tenure, Campion oversaw the ratification of contracts with nearly every single union in the city including those that had stymied other city officials like the Police Benevolent Association contract that was reached seven years after the union's previous pact expired and the agreement for the union representing workers at the Staten Island Ferry that took 13 years. OLR also helped negotiate the new healthcare plan for public employees that was finalized last year.

Campion said credit for those deals goes to her 160 employees at OLR.

"My staff has always been up to the challenge," she said. "I’m very proud of them. I'm very proud of this agency."

Robert Croghan, Chairperson of the Organization of Staff Analysts and one of the longest-tenured union leaders in the city, said that Campion was kind.

"We'll miss her," Croghan said. "She was a very personable person and quite warm."

'New York City is a union town'

On top of bargaining with over 150 distinct bargaining units that cover more than 350,000 workers, OLR oversees the city's Healthcare Employee Assistance Program, Flexible Spending Accounts program, Management Benefits Fund, Deferred Compensation program and more.  

“For the last 24 years, Renee Campion has sat across the table from DC 37 and negotiated in good faith on the issues impacting working New Yorkers the most— from their salary and health care, safety in the workplace, benefits to help care for their families, and their overall quality of life," Henry Garrido, DC 37's executive director, said in a statement. "Together, we’ve reached agreements that brought public sector workers the historic wage increases they deserve, rectified decades of inequitable availability of medical providers across the boroughs, improved access to mental health services, and tackled pay parity across titles. Throughout every difficult negotiation and budget circumstance, Renee always demonstrated respect for our union’s goal of securing our members the best possible contract. O

Campion said that she's received no indication from the Mamdani administration on who the next commissioner will be. Daniel Pollack currently holds the position of first deputy commissioner, the job Campion held before she was elevated to the agency's top post.

“Commissioner Campion has spent decades serving New York City and fighting for the dignity of working people," Mamdani said in a statement. "She has helped secure fair contracts for hundreds of thousands of City workers while protecting the benefits of countless public servants and remaining responsible to City taxpayers."

Reflecting on her 24 years in the agency and 11 working for the Doctor's Council before that, Campion said that maintaining and building productive relationships that can last through heated bargaining debates are what she built her career on.

She encouraged her successor to remember one key thing.

"If I were to give advice it would be to always keep in mind that the unions we are working with, they have been here since the beginning," she said. "New York City is a union town, it will always be a union town. The unions will always be here."