One of New York’s largest nonprofit homeless shelter service providers is charged with violating federal labor law by threatening to permanently replace IT workers on strike since November, according to new charges filed Wednesday.
United Auto Workers Local 2325 accuses CAMBA Inc. of failing to bargain in good faith, retaliating against workers and threatening to replace staffers since they went on strike after more than a year of trying to bargain a first contract. The union submitted two separate complaints to the National Labor Relations Board, alleging half a dozen violations of federal labor law.
Among them, the union accused the Brooklyn-based non-profit of having “subcontracted or threatened to subcontract work in retaliation for employees’ protected activity” and of dodging its “bargaining obligation,” according to a copy of the charges obtained by THE CITY.
The union requested that the NLRB pursue an injunction against CAMBA “granting temporary relief or a restraining order to rein in their lawless behavior,” according to a news release.
In January, several weeks into the strike, management at the nonprofit allegedly threatened to permanently replace the 13-person IT department with an off-shore service provider, according to several union sources.
The union also accused CAMBA of excluding IT workers in annual labor peace agreements that human services providers are required to submit to the city, in violation of a 2021 law, according to a formal complaint submitted Wednesday to the city comptroller’s office.
Rafael Faura, a CAMBA IT worker for more than 27 years and a member of the union’s bargaining committee, accused management of “trying to make an example out of us.”
“They are afraid of the whole company being unionized,” he said. “And they’re violating our rights, when they should be bargaining with us.”
CAMBA employs approximately 2,900 people, including supervisors and shelter security, according to its most recently available tax filings. In the IT department, salaries range from $43,000 to $96,000, Faura said.
“CAMBA must come to a fair resolution to this dispute in line with the industry standard before the city and federal government are forced to step in and settle this dispute for them,” UAW Local 2325 president Lisa Ohta said in a statement.
A spokesperson for CAMBA said the organization continues to bargain in “good faith,” noting the two sides met for talks on Thursday and have more sessions scheduled this month.
“The charges filed at the NLRB and the comptroller’s office are baseless,” said Alison M. Zaccone, the CAMBA spokesperson.
Thirteen IT workers joined UAW Local 2325 in September 2024 seeking raises and better working conditions. Legal staff at CAMBA, also represented by Local 2325, are not on strike, though they did walk off the job in a separate job action last summer.
Workers are also seeking the option to do their jobs remotely. IT staffers at CAMBA work at the organization’s Flatbush headquarters, but also perform tech-repair jobs all over the city, across CAMBA’s dozen adult and family shelters and for the organization’s legal and social services staff.
The fresh charges are the latest controversy to rock the organization, one of the city’s most prominent nonprofit providers of shelter and other social services for homeless and low-income New Yorkers.
A July audit of the city Department of Homeless Services by the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that roughly 16.3% of CAMBA’s reported costs during the three fiscal years ending June 30, 2023 — about $4.5 million — did not comply with its contractual obligations, revealing “significant deficiencies” in DHS’ oversight and monitoring. The state comptroller issued a series of recommendations to DHS, including to step up oversight of all contracted providers and to claw back the funds.
The previous year, the city’s Department of Investigations cited CAMBA as one of two nonprofits with strikingly high executive pay, and urged that the city develop clear and enforceable guidelines for all agencies on reasonable executive compensation. In fiscal year 2022, CAMBA’s then-president Joanne Oplustil earned more than $750,000, the DOI found.
“It’s a not-for-profit, which is supposed to be a community-based organization caring about the community, but all they care for is making money for themselves,” Faura said. “All the management makes a lot of money, but the little guys like us — forget it.”
Last November, four men — including two former employees of a “non-profit organization serving the homeless” — pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to misappropriating funds worth millions from contracts to install security cameras at homeless shelters. Though the Department of Justice did not name the homeless services provider, several union sources identified it as CAMBA.
Zaccone, the CAMBA spokesperson, said the organization had “no comment on the federal indictment of former employees, other than to note that CAMBA, our clients and the taxpayers were the ones stolen from.”
The two former employees held management roles and were not members of the union, a UAW source said. Their scheme also predated the IT workers’ unionization effort, the source added.
