Kevin McCaffrey, Suffolk legislator, wins back Teamsters local presidency in revote
Suffolk County Legislator Kevin McCaffrey speaks beside Legislator Robert Trotta during a press conference at the William Rogers Legislature Building in Hauppauge Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015. Photo Credit: Barry Sloan
Kevin McCaffrey won back the presidency of his Teamsters union local, regaining the $106,000 union post that he had lost in November following cuts to members’ pensions.
McCaffrey, minority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, retook the position as head of Teamsters Local 707 in Nassau County by a vote of 525-455, according to ballots opened Wednesday. The election was rerun because ambulance company employees originally did not get their ballots.
Local president John Kelder, the president who had beaten McCaffrey by six votes in November, said he would challenge the revote.
“There were plenty of irregularities,” Kelder said. “We’re appealing the decision and we expect to persevere.”
McCaffrey called Kelder and his slate of candidates “desperate people.”
Steve Lucas, a retired trucker from West Babylon who had his pension cut, has criticized McCaffrey for working both the Teamster positions and legislative job.
McCaffrey, a Lindenhurst Republican, said he uses union vacation time when he attends legislative meetings.
“I’ve been balancing it for the last two years. I think I do a good job. The fact that I’m a legislator brings something to the table,” McCaffrey said.
David Schwartz covers Suffolk government and politics. A native Long Islander, he's worked at Newsday since 2013.
A general view of the Hudson Yards construction site.Christopher Sadowski
A union group accused of ballooning construction costs by paying “coffee boys” a whopping $42 an hour is now allegedly slashing tires and using “thuggish tactics of yesteryear” at the Hudson Yards mega project.
The Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York has been wreaking havoc at 50 Hudson Yards, ordering its union members to refuse to make concrete deliveries or to block the entrance and picket the project, according to new court papers.
The alleged bad behavior began just 11 days after the developer filed a March lawsuit accusing BCTC of puffing up the project’s cost beyond $100 million.
That’s when union drivers claimed they “feared for their lives” and refused to make deliveries, alleges Related Cos. subsidiary Hudson Yards Construction LLC in a second Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Saturday.
Two truckloads of concrete from the original supplier, Ferrara Bros., and its affiliates were turned away and another six weren’t released.
BCTC “vehemently” denies the allegations, spokesman Jordan Isenstadt said, adding the “absurd claims are meant to tarnish the reputation of the Building Trades Council.”
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