Union parking valets lose jobs at Stony Brook University Hospital 

More than 30 unionized parking valets who worked at Stony Brook University Hospital said they lost their jobs after a new vendor refused to hire them because of their union status.

The valets, members of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union Local 1102 of Woodbury, rallied in front of the hospital Thursday to bring attention to their Dec. 1 layoffs and call  for reinstatement to their positions. The workers were previously employed by third-party vendor Classic Valet Parking of New Rochelle before Valley Stream-based Parking Systems Inc. took over the contract with the hospital at the start of the month.

Union members claim that they were told by officials at Parking Systems that their jobs would be safe and that they would be able to apply for work and be hired by the new vendor. The union said none of its members have been offered positions with the new company, and that at least one worker was told that it was because of their union status.

Officials with Parking Systems did not respond to requests for comment.

Union officials said when contracts like the one at the hospital change hands, it's typical for the new vendor to hire the existing staff.

“This happens, particularly in university systems, and the union goes on to work with the new vendor and the union jobs and contract are typically renewed,” Chelsea Connors, director of communications for the union, said in an email.

“It wasn't until late November when the new vendor started interviewing our members and declining them that it was clear union workers would not be continuing their positions under the new vendor,” she said.

The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Parking Systems for not hiring workers because they are union members.

Stony Brook University Hospital, which notified Classic Valet it would be switching vendors earlier this fall, according to the union, said it followed SUNY and state procedures and legal requirements.

“Contracts like this one are awarded using New York State finance laws and State University of New York procedures,” hospital officials said in a statement.

Many of the valets have worked at the hospital for years.

“It’s not an easy situation,” Miguel Perez, 48, who had worked there since 2013, said in Spanish. “I lost my only form of income. I don’t know how I’m going to pay the rent, how I’m going to take care of my family, how I’m going to put food on the table.”

Perez, whose 20-year-old son, Michael — also a hospital valet who lost his job — translated his father’s comments, said the loss of employment right before the holidays has been particularly painful.

“It’s just unfair for something like this to happen,” said the younger Perez, a junior at SBU studying health science.