Beyond our Local, our 'parent union' is District Council 37, representing 150,000 workers in every City agency, dozens of private non-profit agencies and thousands of different titles. DC37 organizes itself into over 60 different Local unions, according to a combination of factors, including employer and title-groups. Some Locals are very big (there are several with more than 10,000 members each) but about 3/4 of the Locals have less than 1,000. We're in the middle of this size range, with 4,500 members.
In many ways, DC37 is what most of our members think of as "the union". As the collective bargaining agent for our contracts, they employ the researchers who coordinate those negotiations with our employers. DC37 manages the benefit funds that provide us with a wide variety of services (see Benefits page here for details). They employ an impressive team of attorneys who advocate for us around grievance issues as well as larger political fights to protect the union and the broader labor movement.
Perhaps most importantly, however, DC37 employs the Council Representatives who are often the face of the union that members interact with the most. They support our Shop Stewards where we have them, but also have the tremendous responsibility of being a gateway to the broader expertise and authority of DC37.
DC37's top officers
According to DC37's Constitution, our members elect 'Delegates' to represent their Local at the DC37 Delegates Assembly, the highest authority in DC37. There are over 300 members of the Delegates Assembly, with each Local allotted a number of delegates based on their size of membership (see our Local 768 Delegates here).
Outside of Delegates Assemblies, DC37 is lead by an Executive Director and an Executive Board (including President, Secretary, Treasurer & 25 DC37 Vice Presidents). These officers are elected by the Delegates Assembly every 3 years.