Worker Sues Her Queens-Based Construction Union Over Sexism

QUEENS, NY — Lori Kirk had been working as a union construction operating engineer for over 25 years when she asked to be appointed to her union chapter’s executive board in Oct. 2019.

In response to her request, Edwin Christian, the business manager of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 14-14B — the Queens-based union chapter that Kirk’s belonged to since 1993 — told her, “it takes more than just being a woman” to be a member of the executive board, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

This was not the first, or last, instance of workplace discrimination that Kirk faced at Local 14, according to the suit, while working as an operating engineer — an overwhelmingly male-dominated profession, data shows.

Local 14 did not respond to Patch’s request for comment by the time of this article’s publication.

Working as a supervisor ‘without the title or the pay’

For a handful of years Kirk was assigned supervisor responsibilities, but not paid for her extra labor.

In 2014, she began working as an operating engineer at a LendLease construction site, but the site's head superintendent often relied on her to do the work of a Master Mechanic — the highest paying supervisor role that Local 14 appoints, records show.

The lawsuit contends that Kirk was the site’s “de facto Master Mechanic, without the title or the pay.” Master Mechanics are paid upwards of $400,000 per year.

After that job ended the head supervisor from LendLease quickly contacted Kirk and asked if she would work for him on a residential tower next to the Museum of Modern Art.

She accepted the job in 2017, where the pattern began again: Kirk was often asked to do the work of the Master Mechanic, including going to supervisor meetings, even though she wasn’t being paid for that job and there was a Master Mechanic at the site.

Eventually, however, the MOMA site’s Master Mechanic needed to take some time off, so Kirk applied through Local 14 to replace him.

Christian, the Local 14 official who appoints Master Mechanics, approved Kirk to work as the replacement Master Mechanic.

It was during that time that he derided her request to join the Local 14 executive board, and subsequently denied her future Master Mechanic opportunities — despite her credentials for both roles, the suit contends.

Denied job opportunities

While Kirk was still working at MOMA, the LendLease superintendent told her that the company’s next major construction project would be Disney's new 1.2-million-square-foot headquarters at Hudson Square.

In Sept. 2019, at a meeting with LendLease, she was approved to be the Master Mechanic for that project. Christian, however, denied the construction firm’s request to grant Kirk the position without any explanation, according to the suit.

Instead, the business manager appointed a male Master Mechanic to the Disney project, records show.

Kirk tried to set up a meeting with Christian for months in order to find out why he didn’t approve her as the Master Mechanic for the Disney project.

When they met, five months later, Christian told her she “lacked the experience” for the Disney site role, despite the fact that she worked as a Master Mechanic at the MOMA job, and had more experience than “at least 50 percent” of the men that Christian appoints for the supervisor role, the suit contends.

Christian was also upset that Kirk had met with LendLease, and told her she would never work as a Master Mechanic for that firm or the other two largest firms in the city, records show.

Kirk regards these incidents — taking on supervisor responsibilities without the title or pay, being ridiculed when she asked for an executive board spot, and being denied the Disney Master Mechanic role — as acts of discrimination on the basis of her sex, which violates the state’s Human Right Laws, according to the suit.

She is suing Local 14, and Christian, for monetary damages, which will be determined in court, the suit reads.