2025 Labor Power Players

Christopher Erikson grew up in Electchester, Queens, and was accepted into IBEW Local 3’s Electrical Apprenticeship Training Program in July 1975. He was elected business manager by the Local 3 Executive Board in October 2006 and has been re-elected by the membership every three years since 2008. He has successfully negotiated over 150 collective bargaining agreements, resulting in improved pensions and benefits for tens of thousands of Local 3 members and their families.

Rafael Espinal is a former New York State Assembly member and NYC Council member, known for his progressive leadership in advocating for workers’ rights. He currently serves as the president of the Freelancers Union, where he champions the needs of independent workers, fighting for fair wages, benefits, and protections. Espinal’s dedication to improving labor conditions has made him a prominent voice in advancing the rights of freelancers across the United States.

Gregory Floyd is president of Teamsters Local 237, the largest public sector Local in the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents nearly 24,000 members of municipal employees in New York City and on Long Island. President Gregory Floyd has been a committed and dedicated union member since joining Teamsters Local 237 more than 35 years ago.  His strong leadership abilities enabled him to advance from a hospital police officer position to the rank of captain with the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), making him the youngest hospital police captain in HHC’s history.

Wonderful personality, positive outlook, a very dependable person, hard worker and a great motivator are the attributes to best describe Shaun D. Francois I, the successful president of Local 372. After working for the NYC Department of Education for over 32 years, in August 2014, Shaun D. Francois I, was elected the new president of Local 372, the largest local in District Council 37 with a membership of over 24,000. President Francois also was elected vice president of D.C. 37 in November 2014. In January of 2019 he became the president of District Council 37, the largest Municipal Labor Union in NYC with over 150,000 active members and retirees.

What are your organization’s goals for 2025?

• Staffing: It’s a major issue
  
• SAPIS: We need one on every school 
• Safety: Stop our members from working at the safety officer’s desk

How can policymakers support your organization?
By putting proper legislation in place. Priorities are a must. Allocate needed services.

What is your favorite part of your job?
Helping my members, making them whole.

George Gresham is president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the nation’s largest health care union. Under his leadership, 1199SEIU has secured industry-leading job standards for health care workers and positioned the Union as a major force for advancing progressive causes.  He began his career in the housekeeping department at Columbia Presbyterian, and over four decades has held nearly every position in the Union, from member delegate to president, a title which he has had since 2007.

Ligia Guallpa is the executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project (WJP), a 15,000-member worker center that educates, organizes and fights to win better work conditions. In 2020, WJP organized Los Deliveristas Unido (LDU), a gig worker collective making historic strides for delivery workers – from raising labor standards through six landmark laws protecting New York City’s 65,000 app-based delivery workers to winning the nation’s first minimum pay law for these workers.

What are your organization’s goals for 2025?
Building stronger worker rights co-enforcement strategies with local and state agencies to protect due process for immigrants and to defend immigrant workers from increased exploitation and anti-immigrant policies in the coming years. Securing a Delivering Justice 2.0 policy platform that includes deactivation, pay and tipping transparency protections for app delivery workers as well as the expansion of the city’s minimum pay law to workers delivering from grocery stores.

How can policymakers support your organization?
Policymakers can support the Worker’s Justice Project by joining our advocacy and organizing campaigns to pass needed labor protections for immigrant workers at the city council and state level. 

What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of the job is organizing and seeing the transformation that occurs when workers who feel like they’re powerless discover that they have power when they organize.

A native of Haiti, Nancy Hagans, BSN, RN, CCRN, has worked at Maimonides Medical Center for 32 years. She serves as president of the New York State Nurses Association, co-president of National Nurses United (NNU), and vice president of the New York City Central Labor Council and the New York State AFL-CIO. Under her tenure, nurses navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, won groundbreaking safe staffing legislation, and achieved historic contract victories.

What are your organization’s goals for 2025?
This year, nearly 20,000 NYSNA nurses at 12 hospitals will negotiate new contracts and will fight for quality patient care, wages and benefits that respect nurses, and a voice in patient care. NYSNA nurses and health care professionals will continue to be leaders in the fight for health equity and healthcare for all by advocating for the NY Health Act, fair funding for public and safety net hospitals, and the future of our profession.

How can policymakers support your organization?
We are guided by a vision of health care justice for workers and patients, and our fights  – whether the goal is safe staffing or to protect public and safety net hospitals – follow that commitment. By listening to the nurses, who are experts in patient care, policymakers can help ensure that every New Yorker has access to quality care.

What is your favorite part of your job?
I love winning for workers and patients. Our 2021 contract victories are some of my favorite moments of the job. We had a successful contract campaign and strike that won historic gains for nurses. That same year we won pay parity for public sector nurses, which has had a huge influence on staffing our public hospitals safely and making sure patients get the care they deserve.

Patrick Hendry is a 31-year NYPD veteran and the president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the nation’s largest municipal police union. Since his earliest days on the job as a hardworking patrol cop in South Jamaica’s 103rd Pct., Hendry has had a passion for standing up for his fellow police officers. He started out as a union delegate in 2002 and became PBA president in June 2023.

What are your organization’s goals for 2025?
As always, our top goal is to improve our members’ quality of life. Right now, staffing is a major issue. We are at our lowest headcount in more than 30 years, and we’re losing hundreds of talented police officers every month, often to other police departments. That means an even heavier workload for the cops who remain. We’re seeking incentives and benefits enhancements that will help the NYPD retain and recruit the Finest.

How can policymakers support your organization?
We need leaders to recognize the enormous pressure and burdens our members are under. New York City police officers are overworked and exhausted. They are second-guessed every second of every day, and they are fed up with a criminal justice system that doesn’t have their backs. We need lawmakers at every level to help us reduce those burdens, rather than adding to them.

What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of this job is being in precincts across this city, turning out roll calls and hearing directly from cops about the issues they’re dealing with. We’re fighting an uphill battle in so many areas, but whenever we can help even one cop in a way that makes life better for them or their family, I know we’re on the right track.

Claudia Henriquez is the director of workers’ rights at the Office of the NYC Comptroller, where she oversees the enforcement of prevailing wage laws and broader workers’ rights advocacy through legislative policy, research, and education. Ms. Henriquez began her career as a legal aid attorney representing migrant farmworkers and day laborers before moving to enforce NYC workplace laws at the State Attorney General’s Office and the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

What are your organization’s goals for 2025?
In 2025, our goals are to maximize recovery for workers who have been cheated out of their NYC prevailing wages and to advocate for our most vulnerable workers – immigrant workers, workers with limited English proficiency, and workers of color. We will continue to provide resources for the public such as the Employer Violations Dashboard, launched in 2024, which tracks workplace violations in the five boroughs across federal, state, and city government enforcement agencies.

How can policymakers support your organization?
At a moment when federal policies are in flux, local government agencies and organizations are more critical than ever. Policymakers can support our agency by ensuring that we have the resources we need to do the work that they care about. They can continue to reach out to us on legislation and policy initiatives that impact workers in New York City, especially those workers who may be covered by prevailing wage laws.

What is your favorite part of your job?
There are many great aspects of this job. I am surrounded by incredible colleagues who work tirelessly on behalf of all New Yorkers. The work itself is interesting and intellectually stimulating. Of course, being able to call workers up and let them know that we settled a case and that they will be getting their long-overdue wages is undoubtedly the most rewarding part of the job.

Herbst is a visionary leader and staunch advocate for transformative infrastructure. As executive director of the Long Island Contractors’ Association, he has championed the interests of 170 heavy construction firms since 2006, advocating tirelessly at the local, state, and federal levels. Appointed by Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, Herbst serves on the prestigious MTA Board, shaping the future of New York’s transit systems. His bold leadership continues to drive innovation and economic growth.