October 14, 2015
By Steve Wishnia
LaborPress honored 13 people for outstanding achievements in labor advocacy, community service, and dedication to their union at its fourth annual Heroes of Labor awards Oct. 8. The presentation took place at Emblem Health, 55 Water St. in Manhattan.
This year’s honorees are:
• Keith Mayo, a longtime stalwart of Teamsters Local 237’s member support system.
• Sheila Gorsky, head of the Organization of Staff Analysts, who developed training that helped over 20,000 people become permanent New York City civil servants.
• Traffic Enforcement Agents Christina Drayton and Rahim Harris, members of Communications Workers of America Local 1182, who in June chased and captured a hit-and-run driver who had killed a 5-year-old boy.
• United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2013 President Louis Mark Carotenuto, who has resurrected the local from a past tainted with corruption.
• Patrick Peterson, training director for Local 15 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
• Evet Stephens of IUOE Local 14, the first woman to achieve a city hoisting machine operator's license, and head of a charity for sick and impoverished children.
• Decorated Iraq war veteran Roberto LeFurgy, who became a journeyman ironworker through Local 361’s Helmets-to-Hardhats program.
• William Carameo of IUOE Local 94, who created a union-history class for the local’s training program.
• School safety agents Corinthians Andrews, Bernice Christopher, and Patricia Williams, Local 237 members who were lead plaintiffs in a landmark lawsuit that won equal pay for the mostly female agents who’d been making $7,000 a year less than the mostly male safety officers at other city agencies.
• Longtime labor lawyer Vincent Pitta will receive the Labor Advocacy award. In the past year, he fought tirelessly to win a fair contract for the Bridge and Tunnel Officers Benevolent Association.
LaborPress, founded in 2009, provides daily coverage of labor news and issues in the New York area and the nation. It is the nation’s largest Web site specifically dedicated to labor news.
For more information, contact
Neal Tepel, Publisher
neal@tepel.org
(646) 591-6484
Stephanie West, Client Relations Director
Stephanie@laborpress.org
(646) 529-8435
Tara Jessup
Tara@laborpress.org
(347) 513-7386
