About Us

Local 983 President Joseph Puleo was re-elected to a third term as vice president on the DC 37 Executive Board.

“We are moving our union forward,” said Puleo, “and working with Executive Director Henry Garrido to strengthen our union by organizing and mobilizing members.”

In 2017 Puleo led a successful campaign that blocked a threatened raid by an outsider outfit.

“We led a massive campaign, with help from DC 37’s Organizing and Communications departments, to educate our members about the benefits of sticking with their union,” Puleo said.

Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983 has 3,100 members who are Asbestos Handlers, Assistant City Highway Repairers, City Seasonal Aides, Associate Park Service Workers, Motor Vehicle Operators, Traffic Enforcement Agents, Urban Park Rangers and High Pressure Plant Tenders at the NYPD, the Dept. of Transportation, NYC Health + Hospitals, Parks and other city agencies.

“We fought for career-advancing civil service promotional exams and provided free test prep for our members at union headquarters,” Puleo said. “We won added pay increases and RIPS, benefits the raiders could not match.

“These incentives and many other iron-clad contractual benefits Local 983 and DC 37 have, made sticking with the union a no brainer,” Puleo said. As result the overwhelming majority of Local 983 members who are Urban Park Rangers remained with DC 37.

Puleo began his civil service career over 30 years ago as a Sanitation Enforcement Agent. In 1992, he became a Local 983 Urban Parks Ranger. In 2005 the Dept. of Parks and Recreation promoted him to Associate Urban Parks Ranger. In 1989, members elected Puleo vice president of the local and he served five terms before members elected him local president in 2013.

Puleo chairs the DC 37 Parks Policy Committee and formerly served on the union’s Elections Committee member and as a DC 37 sergeant-at-arms.