Alshami, longtime CUNY employee, challenges Local 237 head in election

Mohamed Alshami, a campus peace officer at CUNY, is challenging the longtime president of Teamsters Local 237, Gregory Floyd, in the union’s upcoming election.

Local 237 represents about 24,000 city workers, including school safety agents, police officers at NYC Health + Hospitals and the Department of Homeless Services, and maintenance workers at the Housing Authority. Alshami, who has worked at CUNY for nearly 13 years, said he decided to run because he senses that Local 237’s current leadership has “lost touch with the membership.”

“I want to change things from top to bottom,” he told The Chief during a recent phone interview.

Although Floyd’s slate is largely running unopposed, Nadeem Mohammad, a fellow campus officer at CUNY, is also running against incumbent Ruben Torres for vice-president.

Alshami criticized Floyd for supporting the city’s plan to switch retired city workers to a Medicare Advantage plan from their traditional Medicare. The plan is backed by the Municipal Labor Committee, of which Floyd is the secretary.

He also pointed to Floyd’s role as a board member of EmblemHealth, stating that members’ emergency room, urgent care and other copays have increased in recent years. “He plays a role in making those decisions. So he’s playing two sides right now,” Alshami said.

Floyd, who has headed the union since stepping up after then-president Carl Haynes retired prior to the end of his term in 2007 and was elected to his first full term in 2009, is seeking a fourth five-year term.

He pushed back against Alshami’s criticisms. “I’m running on my record,” Floyd said. “I’m getting up everyday to do the honest job that’s in front of me.”

He said Alshami has not attended the union’s meetings. “He doesn’t know anything about anything. I’m dealing with a guy who hasn’t been to a union meeting,” Floyd said. The union leader also questioned how Alshami would control the board without running as a full slate.

Alshami claims that the current officers “do nothing but collect a paycheck,” and neglect to file grievances on behalf of members. 

“I want to take every member’s complaints and find out what the business agents, the grievance reps, or whoever, what they did and didn’t do,” he explained. “I want to create a paper trail for every person and see if they should remain with Local 237.”

He criticized the local for refusing to support a lawsuit filed in January, which argued that CUNY peace officers, who are mostly people of color, earned tens of thousands of dollars less than SUNY police officers, who are predominantly white, despite having similar job duties. Alshami is among five campus peace officers who have sued. “When my attorneys reached out to [Floyd] to cooperate with our potential lawsuit, he ignored it,” he said.

Floyd noted that “I don’t support frivolous lawsuits,” adding that he previously filed a pay parity lawsuit on behalf of school safety agents, and backed a suit in which school safety agents were awarded $27 million for overtime wages.

Alshami is also interested in conducting a salary analysis for various titles within the union. For example, school safety agents start off making just under $37,000 a year, moving up to $53,264 after five years on the job.

“When I look at titles like school safety agent, NYCHA custodians, H+H police, when I check their salaries, compared to the private-sector, I feel like they deserve more,” he said.

The mail ballot election is being conducted by Global Election Services. Local 237 members have already begun voting; the ballots are expected to be counted on Oct. 18.

“I just want people to exercise their rights by voting,” Alshami said. “People have said they’d rather vote for anybody but Floyd. Thank you, but I’m not just anybody, I’m somebody who will do something.”

clewis@thechiefleader.com