August 20, 2008
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YOU ARE HERE >> About the Union: 32BJ Vice Presidents

32BJ Vice Presidents


Kyle BraggKYLE BRAGG
VICE PRESIDENT


Kyle Bragg is Vice President of Local 32BJ Service Employees International Union, the largest property services union in the country.  Local 32BJ represents more than 100,000 property service workers - window cleaners, superintendents, doormen, maintenance workers, cleaners, porters and security officers - in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. 

Kyle directs operations for the union’s residential members in the metropolitan New York area, including Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, implementing Local 32BJ’s strategies and programs on member representation and services, contract bargaining, political action and union growth. 

In June of this year, Kyle negotiated a three year contract for some 5,000 building service workers at Co-Op City that guaranteed a 10% wage hike and employer paid health care for workers and their families.  In March 2005, he led a successful campaign for a new three-year contract that dramatically improved health care, increased wages and secured retirement benefits for more than 1,700 Bronx residential building workers.  Kyle also plays a key role advocating for “New York Safe & Secure,” the union’s campaign to professionalize New York’s private security industry.

A member of Local 32BJ for more than 23 years, Kyle is a trustee of several 32BJ funds and serves as chair of the union’s social and economic justice committee.  In 2001, he led the merger with Local 32E, bringing 9,000 Bronx and Westchester members into Local 32BJ.

Kyle serves as a Vice President of the Westchester Central Labor Council, Vice President of the African American Caucus of SEIU (New York Chapter) and delegate to the New York City Central Labor Council.  He is a member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the New York Urban League and the New York Chapter of the NAACP.  Kyle sits on the Board of Directors of Project Reconnect, a Queens-based youth program and is the founder of the King Cyrus Youth Literacy Program in Queens.

Kyle attended York College of City University, where he began his activism in the labor movement as a member and shop steward of 1199.  He lives in Queens with his wife and three children.


Read Op Eds by Kyle Bragg


Lenore FriedlaenderLENORE FRIEDLAENDER
VICE PRESIDENT


Lenore Friedlaender is Vice President of Local 32BJ Service Employees International Union, the largest property services union in the country.  Local 32BJ represents more than 100,000 property service workers – window cleaners, superintendents, doormen, maintenance workers, cleaners, porters and security officers – in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Lenore directs the union’s commercial and residential operations in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, implementing member representation and services programs and leading contract negotiations, political action and growth initiatives, including development of the union’s member activist base through steward training and recruitment.  She recently helped manage a campaign for a new four-year contract for the union’s 28,000 residential members in New York City that maintains fully employer-paid health care coverage, raises wages and keeps pensions secure.

During her 20 years as an organizer with SEIU, Lenore has led Justice for Janitors, hospital and public sector campaigns across the country.  Previous to her current position, Lenore served as Local 32BJ’s Organizing Director and as chair of the Local’s Westchester District.  As Organizing Director, Lenore is credited with building the union’s capacity to carry out large scale organizing campaigns and founding the Local 32BJ Summer Youth Brigade program, which introduces young people to the work and mission of the union.

Lenore has worked in the labor movement, as a rank and file activist, organizing committee member and union leader.  She was an active member of a committee to organize clerical workers in the Philadelphia court system and worked in a bubble gum factory as member of the Bakery, Confectionary & Tobacco workers union, where she successfully helped women gain access to male-dominated work in the factory.

Lenore currently lives in Queens where she has been involved in many community and political efforts.  She is the daughter of immigrants who came to the United States in the 1930’s to escape Nazi persecution.



Brian LambertBRIAN LAMBERT
VICE PRESIDENT


Brian Lambert is a Vice President of Local 32BJ, the largest property services union in the country.  Local 32BJ represents more than 100,000 property service workers - window cleaners, superintendents, doormen, maintenance workers, cleaners, porters and security officers - in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. 

In his role as bargaining director for the union, Brian helps ensure standards on wages, health care and pensions are met throughout Local 32BJ’s jurisdiction.  Brian coordinates negotiations, bargains contracts and maintains relationships with employers and property owners.  As the union moves toward master agreements covering larger geographic regions, the goal is to standardize union contracts, enabling members across different regions to benefit from higher wages, health care, training opportunities and secure pensions.

Brian has been with Local 32BJ for nearly 25 years.  In 2000, he was appointed Deputy Director for District Operations and in 2003 was elected to serve as Vice President; he was re-elected for a second three-year term in September 2006.  He is a trustee of Local 32BJ’s New York City benefit funds and the window cleaners’ pension fund, and serves as a delegate to the New York City Central Labor Council.

A native of West Islip, Long Island, Brian graduated from the State University of New York at Brockport. 

He worked as a night watchman at the Empire State Building and in building maintenance for other New York City buildings before being hired as a Local 32BJ business agent in 1982.  He lives in Westchester County with his wife, Patricia, and three school age children, Karina, Keith and Kelly.


Valarie LongVALARIE LONG
VICE-PRESIDENT


Valarie Long is Vice President of Local 32BJ Service Employees International Union, the largest property services union in the country.  Local 32BJ represents more than100,000 property service workers - window cleaners, superintendents, doormen, maintenance workers, cleaners, porters and security officers - in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. 

Valarie directs union operations for the southern region of Local 32BJ, which includes the Capital Area District, serving 8,000 members in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Northern Virginia, as well as the Mid Atlantic District, serving 4,000 members in Philadelphia.  The southern region is leading efforts to win increased training, living wages, and better benefits for the 2,000 predominantly African-American private security officers who protect commercial office buildings in Washington, DC and for the 1,500 commercial cleaners who work in the Philadelphia suburbs.

In collaboration with the SEIU Justice for Janitors campaign, District 82 – formerly Local 82 – led a 10-year fight in Washington, D.C. to bring better wages, benefits and respect on the job to the workers who clean buildings throughout the nation’s capitol.  Under Valarie’s leadership as president of the local, 5,000 new property service workers joined the union in DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

A 20-year veteran of the labor movement, Valarie is Vice President of the SEIU MD/DC State Council, which serves 26,000 SEIU members in the DC/MD Region.  She also serves as a Vice President of SEIU.

 

Read Op Eds by Valarie Long





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