Another Nassau County union goes after Laura Curran

Another billboard truck from another county union is being rolled out Saturday morning to attack Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

Civil Service Employees Association president Jerry Laricchiuta said he expected his newly commissioned billboard truck to begin making the rounds with a 12-foot by six-foot display of Curran’s photo alongside this message in Spanish and in English: “Is Laura Curran CHEATING Latino park workers out of benefits.”

A Police Benevolent Association billboard truck has been driving around for weeks, accusing Curran of being soft on crime while allegedly increasing taxes through her countywide property reassessment.

All major county unions’ contracts expired at the end of December 2017 but negotiations over replacements have yet to begin.

The unions also are angry that Curran told them she plans to appeal a court decision that found Nassau owed union members longevity payments — annual bonuses based on length of time on the job.

Laricchiuta said he has been fighting on behalf of about 35 seasonal park workers, primarily Latinos, who had been working 40 to 50 hours a week for nearly a year without any benefits.

After he brought the issue to the administration, the workers were laid off on Dec. 20, Laricchiuta said.

Given the recent controversy over federal immigration agents located on the grounds of the county jail, Laricchiuta questioned whether Curran, a Democrat, is really concerned about the immigrant community.

“I don’t think she wants to purposely target Latino workers but she can say, ‘We can take advantage of these guys because they need the money,’ ” Laricchiuta said.

Spokeswoman Christine Geed said Curran, “appreciates the hard work of all Nassau County’s employees and cannot comment on any pending labor relations issues.”

In response to the PBA truck rollout earlier this month, spokeswoman Karen Contino invited union leaders “to serious negotiations” if they wanted to resolve their complaints.

Curran had ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to move out of their longtime offices in a trailer at the East Meadow jail by next Thursday.

After protests from the corrections officers, Republican legislators and law enforcement representatives, Curran said Tuesday ICE would move next door to the grounds of the Nassau University Medical Center.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue, saying at a news conference that “radical Democrats” on Long Island wanted to get rid of ICE “because they don’t want them to do anything to disturb MS-13.”

But Curran said ICE’s trailer at the jail created a chilling effect on immigrants coming to visit incarcerated relatives and friends. But immigrant and civil liberty activists complain that ICE at the hospital will deter undocumented immigrants from seeking medical treatment — though Curran contends ICE’s new location is far from the hospital’s main entrances.