2023 Labor Power Players

Patrick J. Lynch is a 39-year NYPD veteran, a lifelong Queens resident and president of the NYC PBA, the nation’s largest municipal police union. Civil service is in Pat Lynch’s blood: he first followed his father into the NYC Transit Authority as a subway conductor, before joining his great-grandfather, uncle and brother in the NYPD in 1984. He and his wife reside in Bayside. They have two sons, both of whom are NYC police officers.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Since the Lynch administration took office in 1999, the PBA has transformed into a member-driven service organization and has engaged in seven hard-fought contract battles that have increased police pay by nearly 80%.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
The PBA is not only the voice of rank-and-file New York City cops — it has become one of the most recognized advocates for law enforcement nationwide.

William M. Lynn has served as IUOE Local 30 business manager and financial secretary since being elected in 2014. Business Manager Lynn also serves as vice president of the International Union of Operating Engineers, a position he’s held since 2019. In addition to the IUOE, Lynn holds leadership positions at several labor organizations including the Municipal Labor Council, New York Public Employee Conference, Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades, Long Island Advisory Council, Cornell’s ILR Climate Jobs Institute.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
I am very proud to say that IUOE Local 30 has doubled in size over the last eight years.  We have had impactful wins in organizing and this not only improves the reputation of Local 30 as an organization but has also encouraged people to join our ranks. We work hard to negotiate the best and most fair contracts for our hard working members and we will continue to strengthen and grow for years to come.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
Union membership has many life-long benefits. Being a union member means that you have a team of people working with you and for you and your family to make sure that you have the best possible wages, health benefits and a dignified retirement. Your union brothers and sisters will show up when you need them and stand shoulder to shoulder to ensure that your voice is heard in the workplace.

UNITEHERE! Local 100 represents over 20,000 service workers pre-COVID in New York, many of them in food service throughout several business sectors. Jose Maldonado took over as president in 2021 after several years as Secretary Treasurer. Maldonado’s time with Local 100, since taking over, has strived to raise standards and push for $20 minimum. He’s also dedicated to securing pension plans, family healthcare, as well as boosting membership since it declined after the 2020 pandemic.

Frank Marchese, Jr. currently serves as executive director of the New York State Laborers’ Health & Safety Trust Fund. The New York State Laborers’ Health & Safety Trust Fund was launched as a program that focuses on workers’ health and worksite safety and serves to innovate new ways of increasing the health and safety of workers and their families. The Fund also works throughout the community participating in various outreach programs.

Rich Maroko is the president of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union representing nearly 40,000 workers in the hotel and gaming industries in New York and New Jersey. During his 20 years at the union, Rich has distinguished himself as a fierce negotiator and advocate for workers. He has overseen the union’s explosive growth in NJ and NY where HTC doubled the number of union hotels.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Despite the prolonged economic downturn due to the pandemic and the devastating impact it had on tourism, the union successfully organized thousands of new workers – significantly increasing our union density. In 2021 in NY and NJ, we organized over 850 workers at 22 non-union hotels and casinos. And in 2022 the Union organized another 550 workers across 11 hotels and casinos.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
HTC has the strongest contract for hospitality workers anywhere. Casino and hotel workers have strong middle class wages which are on average almost twice as high as their non-union counterparts. Members have free family healthcare, unparalleled job security, generous retirement benefits, and members in NYC have access to four state-of-the-art health centers. During the pandemic when hotel workers were facing unprecedented unemployment, the union negotiated to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in relief funds.

Vilda Vera Mayuga was appointed commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection in February 2022. She is a seasoned public servant across all levels of government with extensive experience in consumer protection, workers’ rights, and engagement with immigrant New Yorkers. Prior to becoming commissioner of DCWP, she served as deputy secretary for Economic Opportunity at the New York State Department of State. Mayuga is also a member of the New York Bar.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
I am so proud of the work we have done over the last year to help our city’s delivery workers. Throughout the pandemic, delivery workers proved to be essential and put themselves at risk to allow many of us to stay healthy and safe at home. From allowing delivery workers to set their own routes, giving them more control over their deliveries, to establishing a minimum pay rate, DCWP is committed to protecting workers’ rights.

James McCarthy joined the FDNY in 1988 and was assigned to Engine 71 Ladder 55 in the Bronx. He is an active member of the UFA as a delegate and is a member of numerous committees. McCarthy was promoted to Lieutenant in 2009 and assigned to Ladder 25 on the UWS. In 2012, McCarthy was elected as Battalion 11 delegate for the UFOA. He was elected to the UFOA executive board in 2014 and served as treasurer until being elected as president in 2021. McCarthy currently serves on the executive board of NYSAFL-CIO.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
The UFOA has recently improved our dental plan by increasing the number of dentists in the plan and the benefits provided. We continue to fight for the best healthcare for our active and retired members.

​​Gloria Middleton became president of CWA Local 1180 in 2018. She is the first African American and first female to lead the 9,000 active-member local. She is chair and trustee for the Local’s Benefits and Annuity funds, is the diversity member-at-large eastern region for the national CWA, is a vice chairperson of the Municipal Labor Committee, executive board member of the Central Labor Council, and co-chair of the Public Employees Conference.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
As a follow-up to NYC Local Law 18, brought on by a 2013 lawsuit against New York City by CWA Local 1180 charging that the city discriminated against women and people of color making up a majority of administrative managers, the council has passed a series of bills designed to close racial and gender wage gaps within the municipal workforce. We’ve also acquired several new nonprofits and successfully negotiated first contracts with unprecedented language.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
Local 1180 strongly believes that enhanced education is one of the best ways for our members to advance their careers. That’s why the Local 1180 Benefits Fund recently increased the education benefits it provides members that enables them to earn degrees at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Members can also apply for funding to take courses at any accredited college or university.

Michael Mulgrew is the fifth president of the United Federation of Teachers, which represents nearly 200,000 New York City active and retired public school educators and school-related professionals, as well as child care providers, nurses, adult education instructors and other titles. Elected president of the union in 2009, he was re-elected to his fifth full term in spring 2022.  Mulgrew began his career as a teacher at William E. Grady HS in Brooklyn.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
He fought for stringent health and safety protocols during the COVID-19 crisis, even creating the union’s own vaccine program.  In addition, under his leadership, the UFT helped ensure the passage in Albany of new legislation reducing maximum class size in New York City and has successfully lobbied for historic levels of state support for education, including for the union’s United Community Schools and the Teachers Center’s professional development for members.

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
In addition to bargaining a succession of labor contracts recognizing the hard work of UFT members, Mulgrew secured a Paid Parental Leave policy that provides six weeks of time off at full salary for maternity, paternity, adoption and foster care leave.

Luca Negrino joined the labor movement in 2009, when he worked at a Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW represented Foodtown supermarket and became a union member. He was brought on staff of Local 338 nearly a decade later as an organizer, after working on organizing campaigns for the United Food and Commercial Workers in 2017. Currently, he is part of Local 338’s cannabis team as a union representative and organizer, representing workers from Albany to Long Island.

What is one of your organization’s recent successes?
Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW proudly represents hundreds of cannabis workers across New York’s full supply chain, from seed to sale. Our organizing efforts have helped set the standard for the industry and ensured that it is a viable career option for working people statewide. Local 338 recently welcomed the workers at the first adult-use dispensary in the state to their union family—a long-awaited victory for the cannabis movement in New York. 

What are the benefits that union membership (your union if applicable) provides?
Unionized cannabis members have won guaranteed wage increases, health care at no cost to them, job security, paid time off, and our union organizing has increased the industry’s standard for wages and helped set the standard for what cannabis jobs can and should be. Unionization has helped ensure that these jobs will be reliable careers for years to come and ensured that workers are seen as an important stakeholder as the industry continues to form.