Insurgent slate looks to topple Local 3005 leadership

Dissident members of Local 3005 who last year succeeded in passing a motion calling for the union's pensions to be divested from Israeli stocks and bonds are now seeking to oust the local's leadership in elections being held this month. 

The ‘Rank and File Voices’ slate is running candidates for every one of the District Council 37 local’s leadership positions with the goal of building a more “democratic and transparent local.” The union represents about 1,000 research scientists,  criminalists, administrative public health nurses, architects, engineers and other titles working in the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner. 

“Under current leadership, the rank and file are consistently alienated from decision making,” members of the slate said in response to questions from The Chief. “Decisions are made top-down, behind closed doors, by a select few who claim to have unique expertise to run the union. Members are seen as ‘clients’ of the local rather than as active decision-makers. We want to change that." 

The group is led by Meghan Peterson, a city research scientist at the Department of Health who’s served as a union shop steward. She is running for president of the union. 

Peterson is running against Samantha Rappa-Giovagnoli, the union's current president, who has organized a slate of her own made up almost entirely of incumbent officers.

Only one member of Rank and File Voices, Paul Brown, is now in Local 3005 leadership. Currently a trustee, Brown is running to be the union’s vice president against Kimani Barley, the incumbent.

Rank and File Voices members say their priorities are to increase union democracy and member engagement, secure contracts with raises higher than the cost of inflation, enshrine work from home benefits, oppose the privatization of union positions and retiree health care plans and achieve equity in pension benefits across tiers.  

“We will implement more accessible, efficient, and discussion-based meetings that actually get people excited to participate in the union,” they said. “We will democratize knowledge and skills-building by dedicating more time to member organizing and training. We will directly involve members by practicing open communication and instituting processes for members to vote on endorsements, legislative priorities, and events.” 

Rappa-Giovagnoli did not respond to a request for comment.

Long opposed union leadership 

Several members now running as part of the insurgent slate have long attempted to mobilize their coworkers and engage them in union business and for nearly two years butted against union leadership in their attempts to do so. Peterson and another member of the slate, Kate Klein, told The Chief last year that members’ attempts to create a membership committee, speak out about city budget cuts and move forward a motion calling for divestment were stifled by the union’s former president, Jeff Oshins.  

The members eventually passed a motion calling for “divestment of NYCERS pensions from all Israeli bonds and holdings in industries that fund and profit from the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” after 62 members signed a petition forcing Local 3005’s leadership to hold a meeting to discuss the motion; 92 percent of members who attended the meeting voted in support of the divestment motion. 

Oshins resigned  before that meeting was held. Rappa-Giovagnoli, as vice president, stepped in and is now running to win her first full term as president under the slogan of “Team Members Come First,” according to a mailer the slate sent to members.  

The mailer includes pledges to expand members’ paid family leave benefit, “aggressively” pursue grievances, begin negotiations over a new economic agreement with the city, protect member and retiree health care benefits and recruit new shop stewards, among other policy points. 

The incumbent slate includes the union’s current vice president, secretary, treasurer and several other members of the executive board. 

The members used to be part of Local 375, but Local 3005 broke away from the larger union when it was placed under administratorship in the mid-2010s.

Oshins has also thrown his hat into the ring, running for an at-large position on the executive board and not as part of either slate.  

“I decided to run because regardless of the outcome of who wins for the top positions, my experience, my knowledge would be helpful to the board,” the former union president said last week. "I think I'd be a great asset to the elected leadership." 

Oshins, who declined to speak on the record about why he resigned from his post last year, said that he’s been frustrated with how the union’s election committee has run the nominations process and election. Oshins said there were irregularities in the letter sent to members regarding the nominations, that the election committee has so far failed to answer questions he emailed them, and that some nominated members from the “Rank and File Voices” slate are not on the official nominations list disseminated by the union.  

A member of that slate confirmed that candidates running for trustee positions were initially left off the official list, but they have since been added. Ballots will be mailed to members' homes sometime this month, though the election committee has yet to inform members when ballots must be turned in.

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com