FACT: Every 26 seconds, a student drops out of high school in America. That adds up to more than 1.1 million students per year. [America’s Promise Alliance, 2008]

In The Spotlight

Gregory Floyd, President, City Employees Union Local 237, Teamsters – the Largest Local in the 1.4 Million-Member International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)

Council for Unity's Board of Directors is a strong, diverse, committed group of leaders. The Council strategically attracts key leaders from public and private, corporate, academic, and criminal justice arenas who have the passion and perspective required to help Council realize its mission. We are honored to recognize Gregory Floyd as one of these individuals and to introduce him to you. Greg is an enthusiastic and key member of the Board. When reading about his more-then 20-year association with the Teamsters, you find strong leadership qualities and unprecedented accomplishments.

As President of Local 237, Greg represents a diverse group of over 24,000 New York City and Long Island public employees working in a variety of occupational areas. Significant to the Council for Unity are the more than 4,000 school safety agents the union represents. In our interview with Greg, he affirmed that in joining Council's Board he hoped to make a difference. He acknowledged that school safety agents are frequently confronted with violence in the schools - and its collateral impact, adding that almost every time there is a violent incident in a school, gangs are involved. School safety agents witness this reality and struggle with it every day. Greg emphasized that aggressive steps must be taken to reduce the violence and the ingrained causes of it, and to address the failure of city officials to recognize that violence is growing. Floyd says this issue affects all of us - our local economies, communities and our quality of life.