Parks unions sound alarm about City Hall-backed outsourcing

Contractors preferred for emergency tree clearing

The July 18 rainstorm that flooded streets and ripped down tree branches required the response of a fleet of city workers across agencies, but not included in their ranks were the dozens of tree climbers and pruners employed by the Department of Parks and Recreation, the union leader representing those workers told The Chief last week. Instead, the department turned to emergency private contractors to collect fallen and displaced branches across the five boroughs, including one contractor previously convicted of defrauding the state’s insurance fund.  

"They could have asked us to work because we had numbers,” Eric Gibson, the president of Local 1506 representing more than 80 climbers and pruners, told The Chief. “I don’t know why they did not."