2023 Labor Power Players

Imogene Jones started her career in the New York State Unified Court System in 1990. She was promoted to senior court clerk in 1998 before being elected as a delegate to the New York State Court Clerks Association in 2006, and rising up to president in 2021. She represents clerks within New York City. She has been dedicated to assisting her fellow court clerks in maximizing their talents and holding the court system powers that be accountable for fairness in hiring and conditions in the courthouses within New York City.

Assemblywoman Joyner is a proud product of New York’s public education system who participated in the State University of New York at Stony Brook’s Educational Opportunity Program, studied abroad in Ghana and became a member of Chi Alpha Epsilon Honor Society and Phi Beta Kappa. She obtained her law degree from the University at Buffalo Law School, where she was an associate editor for the Buffalo Journal of Gender, Law and Social Policy.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
As chair of the Assembly Labor Committee, Assemblywoman Joyner won enactment of a statewide salary range disclosure law that reduces wage discrimination by increasing transparency and the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, key legislation enhancing on-the-job safety for a growing number of workers. She also secured enactment of the strongest wage theft protection legislation in New York’s history and the Welcome Home – Reentry Barrier Reduction package of legislation expanding opportunities for those re-entering the workforce.

Patricia “Pat” Kane, RN, CNOR, is NYSNA’s executive director. Pat has been a distinguished member of the NYSNA community for many years. Her experience extends to the many significant facets of the professional life of a NYSNA nurse, as well as to the social and political realm, advocating for quality care, community engagement, and social and economic justice. Pat combines hands-on experience with big-picture strategy and an understanding of our union, its operations and goals.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
The New York State Nurses Association and National Nurses United are proud to announce that in October 2022, the New York nurses have overwhelmingly voted to affiliate with NNU, the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States, to mutually grow and strengthen the power of nurses within the state and nationally to advocate for themselves and their patients.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
NYSNA members have won strong retirement and healthcare benefits. Strong benefits help us retain veteran nurses and recruit the next generation of RNs. That’s good for patient care.

Mike has been a go to advocate for unions and those seeking to work with labor since joining Bolton-St Johns. He has advised public and private sectors on dealing with the City in building trades, transportation, environmental, new technologies and public employee sectors. Mike has also advised industries seeking to work with labor in New York on workforce issues  or on public policy matters. 

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
We have been able to assist in the public policy development of the new cannabis markets so that a unionized workforce will be a hallmark of this industry, We have also been able to secure Labor Peace Agreements including in the technology, entertainment and energy sectors.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
Labor unions have a strong political presence in New York. They have been able to secure enormous benefits for their members, including public employee pension reforms, increases in minimum wage and opportunities to collectively bargain for pay and benefits in industries that have not seen it before. Strong unions also have the benefit to raise wages across sectors.

Alan is recognized as one of the leading public sector union lawyers in the metropolitan NY area, having a significant impact on seminal matters for major labor unions. Alan serves on the board of NYU Law School, along with its Labor & Employment Center, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is vice chair of the Anti-Defamation League’s NY/NJ Region. He is a frequent lecturer on issues of import to the public sector workforce.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Lead counsel for NYC unions in negotiating and litigating the healthcare aspects of the COVID crisis. In this context, represented the UFT in challenging the implementation of the City’s “vaccine only” mandate before PERB. Mediation and arbitration resulted in an award finding the City was required to allow UFT members to pursue claims of medical contraindication or religious objection to the vaccine. This award served as a model for the rest of the municipal
workforce.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
Stroock offers comprehensive counsel to public sector unions and their associated benefits funds in connection with collective bargaining matters, arbitration proceedings, improper practice proceedings and regulatory oversight to the operation of the affiliated benefit funds. Alan’s counsel to major unions and their funds – the UFT, Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, Teamsters Local 237, CSA, DC-37 and the umbrella NYC Municipal Labor Committee –facilitates their ability to deliver successful results for their members.

Eric Koch has experience at the highest levels in political campaigns, crisis communications, government, public affairs, brand management, and corporate communications. Eric works with dozens of national and global clients to garner significant earned media and served as a senior strategist for various organizations. This includes driving messaging and earned media on successful political campaigns, counseling clients through high-profile crises, and providing strategic guidance to unions, legislative campaigns, non-profits, media organizations, educational institutions, and ballot initiatives.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Whether it’s organizing airport workers or supporting contract campaigns it’s been an honor to work with the hardworking people of a number of labor unions. Workers deserve a voice and a seat at the table, and sometimes you need to fight for it.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
The benefits of a union are clear: worker protections, healthcare, wages and more. However, unions are under attack and we need to do everything we can to make sure labor is strong and protected. Workers deserve a voice and a seat at the table, which is why we need unions and a strong labor movement.

Frederick E. Kowal has served as UUP’s president since 2013. In 2022, advocacy efforts led by Kowal resulted in securing bonus pay for SUNY healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic, and hundreds of millions more in state funding for SUNY. In October, Kowal moderated a roundtable discussion on mental health equity and racism in Buffalo. He also hosts UUP’s podcast, “The Voice,” which has addressed issues such as environmental justice and abortion rights.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Holding a series of press conferences at SUNY campuses across upstate NY in fall 2022 that focused on structural and projected multimillion-dollar deficits at 19 SUNY campuses. The deficits threaten the viability of public higher education and the economic future of communities that host and surround SUNY campuses. The press conferences were widely covered in the media; UUP is focused on getting more state funding for these campuses in the 2023-2024 state budget.

Marc Kramer is president of the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes of New York, where he channels over 35 years of experience in labor relations to lead the organization in  labor negotiations for 90 non-profit medical centers, hospitals, nursing homes and their affiliated facilities in the greater New York metropolitan area. Kramer also serves as the principal, managing director of Port Media Solutions, which provides management consulting, principally in labor relations media and restructuring.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
In recent years, Kramer has represented many of New York City’s largest hospital systems – including NewYork-Presbyterian, Mount Sinai Health System and Montefiore Medical Center – during collective bargaining with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), using his decades of experience to bargain in good-faith and navigate high-stakes complex issues facing the nursing profession, including impacts of the global shortage of healthcare workers and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gary LaBarbera is president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an organization comprising local affiliates of 15 national and international unions representing 100,000 working men and women in New York City. LaBarbera  also serves as president of the NYS Building and Construction Trades Council, which is comprised of 15 local building trades councils, 12 district councils and state associations, and 135 local unions and represents 200,000 tradespeople.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Recent wins include New York’s implementation of a wage theft task force, improvements in construction safety standards, including the establishment of Carlo’s Law, and the incorporation of ensured labor standards into clean energy development projects.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
Unions offer workers a career – a family-sustaining career that paves the way to the middle class. Through our pre-apprentice and direct-entry programs, the New York City Building Trades provides individuals the skills and training they need to launch their career.

Daniel Levler is now in his third consecutive term as president of Suffolk AME. Levler has played a key role in many important issues, including defeating the Constitutional Convention and passing Proposition 2, which delivered hundreds of millions of dollars for Suffolk County’s General Fund and preserved AME jobs during an unprecedented global fiscal crisis.  President Levler was also instrumental in leading the charge to get 911 dispatchers and operators recognized as first responders.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
We have recently increased the starting salary of our nurses, mechanics and wastewater treatment personnel and continue to advocate for many more titles that are not competitive with the current job market. Last year, we were successful in boosting the salaries of our school crossing guards.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
We offer short and long term disability, life insurance coverage for active members, as well as dental, optical, legal and other important benefits. Additionally, we negotiate group rates for mental health, financial planning and have recently made cyber security insurance available to all our members. These key benefits are in addition to the benefits we negotiate with our employer, most notably a retirement supplement for healthcare costs.