The president of the union representing New York’s City’s public sector clerical workers was expelled and ordered to repay more than $30,000 for a car service he had used to go to and from work, following a ruling by an oversight .  

Labor chief Eddie Rodriguez improperly used member dues from District Council 37’s Local 1549 to splurge on the black car service from his Rockland County home to the union’s office in Manhattan’s Financial District more than 100 times since March 2020 in violation of union’s financial code, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) judicial chairperson Carla Insinga ruled Jan. 11. 

“Eddie Rodriguez is found guilty of violating Article V of the AFSCME Financial Standards Code and the improper or illegal use of union funds,” Insinga wrote. “Pursuant to Article X, Section 15 of the International Constitution he is expelled from hip.”

In her decision, Insinga expelled Rodriguez and two current and retired officers from union hip, and suspended four others “from the right to hold any elected position at the level at which the charges originate for a period of four years.”

Rodriguez, who has headed the local on and off since the early 2000s, denied the rides weren’t legal and argued the accusations were “political.” 

“What they did to me was wrong,” he told THE CITY on Tuesday. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years. Never had a problem with car service. This is political.

“I’m not sleeping on it,” he added regarding his expulsion and the order to repay $31,339. “I did nothing wrong.” 

AFSCME spokesperson Tracey Conaty told THE CITY that the judicial ’s decision “stands on its own.” 

The oversight also expelled local vice president Alma Roper and Ralph Palladino, the former second vice president of the local, who retired in December 2021. 

Additionally, Palladino was ordered to forfeit a $29,980 compensatory time payout that he got as part of a larger severance package. 

A Win for The Little Guy

Local 1549’s hip spans some of the city’s lowest-paid employees, from secretaries to paralegals and clerks to 911 dispatchers, who earn a starting salary of $43,000 annually. At 16,000 , it is also one of DC 37’s largest locals.

“We brought individuals who did wrong, who misappropriated our ’ dues … to and we held them to justice,” said Local 1549’s Honda Wang, one of three rank-and-file who brought a formal complaint against their leadership. 

Under Rodriguez’s stewardship, the local’s leadership also authorized questionable payments to a former employee working as a consultant and failed to properly track tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gift credit cards, the AFSCME judicial concluded. 

Those findings were first revealed in a September 2022 draft audit, which covered January 2020 to April 2022. AFSCME then took control of the local and placed the union under an ship as a result of that probe. That status is still in place, said Conaty. 

In September 2023, the AFSCME judicial formally picked up the case after Local 1549 Wang, Anthony Lackhan and Stephanie Ramirez filed charges against local leadership, citing the draft audit’s findings. 

A single-day hearing into the matter was held in November 2023.

“We always say ‘the union isn’t a third party,’ you know, ‘the union is you,’ and this is really a story of the case where the union is the ,” Wang, a 31-year-old candidate liaison at the city Campaign Finance Board, told THE CITY on Tuesday. “We brought individuals who did wrong, who misappropriated our ’ dues — we brought them to and we held them to justice.”

As for the car service bill, Rodriguez said he lived in Rockland County and that his commute is over two hours, according to testimony cited in the Jan. 11 decision. 

Before the pandemic, he took a bus to work in Lower Manhattan, he told the . 

“Out of my pocket. I don’t get a car allowance,” he said. 

He said began using a car service to go to his office downtown and to other meetings after the pandemic hit because bus service was halted. 

“The car service was used to do business, job related, not personal,” he testified. 

As for gift cards, the local’s leadership traditionally bought $50,000 worth of cards as Christmas presents. 

The cards went to union staff, delegates, chapter chairs, executive officers, and any rank-and-file member “who has warranted activism,” according to Felix Cooper, the local’s treasurer around April 2018, and who was suspended from elected leadership in Insigna’s ruling. 

But there was no formal policy or procedure to track who was actually getting the cards, Insinga ruled. 

“The local’s practices regarding the ing and distribution of gift cards are seriously deficient and not in the best interest of the hip whose dues are used to purchase the gift cards,” she wrote. 

As for Palladino, he received $170,470 to pay for 71 unused vacation days, 43 compensatory days, and 14.3 years of severance pay, according to the audit. 

That payout was not “properly authorized…and was a breach of an officer’s fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the union’s assets are managed prudently,” the AFSCME review concluded. 

Palladino said the decision was “political” and argued it was generated by a union member with “no firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing.”

“I was retired when I got the check,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was entitled to and what was owed to me.” 

“I did not ask for any special treatment,” he added, noting the compensatory time occurred during the pandemic. 

Wang, who was one of the who filed the complaint, hopes the ’s decision brings about “positive change” for his union — and inspires fellow to remain active and engaged: 

“An ossified and corrupt union is what occurs when aren’t participating,” he said.