Teamsters settle pay equity case with NYC. Woot!

Local 237 President Greg Floyd in 2013, demanding a settlement. 

Teamsters Local 237 reached a settlement of its lawsuit with the City of New York for underpaying women who work as school safety agents -- a terrific Teamster victory for Women's Equality Day!!

The settlement covers more than 5,000 Teamster school safety agents, who brought the largest pay discrimination suit in the United States against New York four years ago, when Michael Bloomberg was mayor.

The school safety agents, mostly women, receive $7,000 less pay a year than male-dominated peace officers in the city. The new mayor, Bill de Blasio, intervened in the class action suit (as he said he would) to fix the problem.

Sister Kangela Moore, who worked as a school safety agent for over 22 years, said:

I'm ecstatic—we've made history! I'm thankful for the Mayor's commitment to ensuring full pay equity for all employees, and for Local 237 and President Floyd's critical work to ensure we're getting the same pay as other special officers around the city. This means so much to me, my family, and the over 5,000 school safety agents employed by the City.

The agreement, which must be approved by a judge, would put school safety agents on an accelerated schedule to achieve equal pay by March 2018. According to a press statement from the mayor's office,

In addition to equalization of salary, today's agreement creates a new seven-year step pay plan for both new school safety agents and new special officers, to take effect on September 1, 2014, making permanent the equalization of school safety agent and special officer salaries. 

Incumbent school safety agents will be put on an accelerated schedule in order to achieve full pay equity by March 2018. The City will provide retroactive pay for wages in the amount of approximately $7,000 for each active school safety agent employed for at least three years as of September 1, 2014, and for school safety agents who retired between March 5, 2010 and August 31, 2014. The City will also provide retroactive pay for wages of up to $3,000, pro-rated for time served, for school safety agents who have left service and did not retire and were not discharged for cause. 

Members of the bargaining unit will vote on the contract.

Said Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237:

Today, we celebrate a fair contract for our school safety agents that provides them and their families with the security they need and deserve.