CWA Local 1180's next president is molded by Middleton

Robin Blair-Batte was elected the next president of Communications Workers of America Local 1180, filling the role of the departing Gloria Middleton. Blair-Blatte, the union's currently secretary-treasurer who's been a civil servant since 1993, spoke with The Chief about how Middleton encouraged her to run, her background and her top priorities as president of the 9,500-member union in the new year. Local 1180 represents thousands of workers in administrative, technical and supervisory titles across the city's civil service. More than 1,200 of its members are employed at non-profits and in the private sector.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The Chief: What made you want to fill Gloria's shoes and become president? 

Robin Blair-Batte: Well, it wasn't my idea. I was actually approached by Gloria. She thought I would be a good candidate for the presidency.

We have worked together for a very long time. I've been working with 1180 since 2011 when she was the secretary-treasurer. So, she saw me grow as a shop steward, then a staff representative, then I became a member-at-large and finally the secretary-treasurer, which again, she asked me to do that, to fill her shoes as secretary-treasurer, and now as the president. So even though I didn’t see that in my future, I can see it now of course.  

I have a lot of passion for the union. I love being around my members and fighting for my members.

Actually, it's like doing god's work. I'm a person of faith and I just love doing what I do. I love representing the members, but I'm glad I went this route, to be the secretary-treasurer first because I was over the entire operations of the local, so I learned even more. And now going back to representation. It is something I do believe I can do. 

The Chief: What do you feel like you learned in those earlier roles that will help you in this new role? 

Robin Blair-Batte: Just speaking up for people.

I was able to attend some of the meetings with supervisors and see how some of the members were treated. Of course, some of our members were wronged as well. So, we have to sit and figure out what went wrong, why did it go wrong, so that whole investigative piece of it, I learned that early.

And listening. Listening was a big part of it. So that helped me the most. Our communications with our members. When they come to you, most of the time they are already at their difficult stage already so it's best to listen to them and help them out and find out the best way to do that. I got really good at that, and people felt really comfortable coming to talk to me. So, communication was the first thing that I learned early on.

The Chief: There's a new contract cycle coming up. What are your priorities for the next contract? 

Robin Blair-Batte: We will go over member surveys, and we will formulate our demands. And we will add in what we feel should be in there as well because we're still members ourselves. 

The Chief: Are there specific priorities you could speak to now? 

Robin Blair-Batte: Well of course salaries. Everybody wants a salary increase. We have to start with the pattern of what [District Council 37] has. Their wage increase, we have to follow that. Of course, job security, [members'] longevity, experience differentials. 

The Chief: Something that we've been tracking at The Chief is rising healthcare costs. Is that something you think could be workshopped or negotiated in the coming years?

Robin Blair-Batte: I know that the [Municipal Labor Committee] is involved in that and I should be a part of that soon. I won't be discussing that with the members because the MLC will be the one fighting for that. 

The Chief: Another interesting trend we've seen in Local 1180 specifically has been new organizing among non-profits, in the private sector, is that something you're planning on continuing and supporting your new organizing there?

Robin Blair-Batte: Oh absolutely. We're still working on that to get more leads and bring more non-profit organizations into our union. And we have been growing over the years with our non-profit organizing. If anyone wants to get in touch with us, we will definitely be there for them. 

The Chief: Your core membership is public sector and now more and more you've been moving into the private sector, the non-profit sector, do you expect any challenges to come up from that? Has it been a learning curve for the union organizing in the private sector? 

Robin Blair-Batte: Well, we have a very good organizer. Alex Dinndorf, he's very good at what he does.

So of course it has its challenges. Even though the non-for-profits are supposed to be do-gooder organizations, the management can be rough. Sometimes they can be anti-union. So those are what our challengers are.

Most of the time the workers do want to organize. Here and there some don’t, but most of them do. And that's why we're able to organize them. However non-for-profit organizations will go out and get lawyers who are anti-union to fight for them, and there's a push and pull at the bargaining table. And there's been a couple of years sometimes, we expect it to take at least a year, but sometimes [bargaining] will go on for at two years to get our first contract. 

The Chief: And you also learned how to be an accountant and file tax returns early on. Since you were 17 years old you've been doing that? 

Robin Blair-Batte: Yes, that was my mom. A very very smart lady. She taught me and my sister how to do our taxes. We both started working since we were 14 years old. She used to do her own and then I started doing hers. Manually, there were no programs out at the time. So, I did that all by paper, and I liked that too. I just liked numbers so that helped out a lot.  

The Chief: Was there anything I didn't ask you about that you wanted to mention? 

Robin Blair-Batte: We do have our legislative priorities that we would like to get done. I have to meet with my team to discuss some new ideas, but we do want to continue with the equal pay fight, we're looking for benefit transparency and wage transparency, we want to continue with that.

And then I'm on the committee for the CUNY [School of Labor and Urban Studies] advisory board, and we would like to continue to push for that, to get money for that program.

And workforce housing, that is something we are staying on for our members and for the city workforce. We're required to live in the city if we work for the city so New York City has to be affordable for us to stay here and live. So that's something we would like to work with our politicians about. 

Now that we've got the new tsunami wave here, and we've got the Democrat powerhouses here in New York City: Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Governor [Kathy] Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we're looking to have some money for New York City to make it affordable. We're looking forward to work with any politicians who are in our best interest. 

The Chief: You sound very optimistic. Do you feel you'll be able to win all of these? 

Robin Blair-Batte: We got them in place, and everybody has been talking about affordable New York City so were going to be pushing hard on that, and I am hoping to get them won.