The Candidates

                                                                                                                             

President: Hashim Abdel Razig (Candidate)

Hashim is an IT Support Technician who has been with the Queens Library since 2009 and lives in Astoria. He graduated college with a background in Economics and worked as a Commodity Futures Broker for a Wall Street investment firm until he turned to the public sector. He was drawn to Queens Public Library, in particular, because of its distinctly egalitarian and community-oriented non-profit mission. During his time at the Library, he has successfully advocated for a series of salary increases, additional staff, and increased access to capital resources within his department.

• In 2017, he successfully coordinated a staff-led campaign to amend a Union negotiated side letter which ultimately resulted in a six-fold raise to the proposed increase in employee salary

• The following year, while reviewing an old contract, identified language which committed the Library to hiring additional staff within his department. The Library responded immediately and hired additional staff within days of being informed of this matter.

• He has worked steadily to improve the employment conditions of his coworkers while enhancing the Library’s delivery on its promise to the public

Executive Vice President: Charlene 'Char' Gwizdala (Candidate)

Char is a Senior Librarian who recently transferred to the Hollis Library and previously worked at the Central Library for 26+ years. She was a member of Local 1321’s original Budget Action Committee in 2008-2009 in which layoffs were averted. She again worked with the Union to challenge the Galante administration and their unscrupulous practices, which eventually led to his termination. She represented the Queens Public Library in the International Exchange with the National Library of China in 2005, was a member of the Best of Reference committee for 2 years, and mentored 2 pages during the Page Mentor program. Char lives in Queens Village with her rescue cats.

Vice President Clerical: Kevin Aragon (Candidate)  

Kevin is currently a Customer Service Representative at the Central Library. He started at QPL as a Page in the Shipping Department in 2015, where he applied his great work ethic to quickly go from an Hourly-Rate to a full-time CSR in early 2016. Kevin has thrived, using his passion and principle to make a better working environment for his co-workers and himself. Outside of work, Kevin is a caring, loving person from Brooklyn who travels into Jamaica each day because he is committed to making Queens Public Library better.

Vice President Non-Librarian Technical and IT: 

Lisa Soler (tentative) (Candidate)

Lisa is a Customer Service Specialist who has worked for the Queens Public Library for 16 years. She started as a Customer Service Representative in 2006 at the Broadway Community Library. In October 2007, she was promoted to a Specialist and stayed at Broadway until 2016. During that time, she was recruited by Talent, Development and Training to become a trainer when the library obtained a grant for mobile devices. She also trained staff on the updated version of SAM. Lisa temporarily worked for Human Resources for 8 months and returned to Hillcrest Library as a Specialist. Currently, she works in the Cyber Center at the Central Library. Lisa lives in Astoria with her youngest daughter.

Secretary: Patricia 'Pat' Miller (Candidate)

Pat is a Senior Librarian who currently works at the Bellerose Library. She joined Queens Public Library in 1999 as a Librarian in Youth Services, moving to Literature & Languages as a Reference Librarian in 2008 and then Collection Development as the Current Collection Librarian, which adds up to 22 years of service at the Central Library. She has been a strong and continual voice for workplace rights. She lives on Long Island with her husband and their cat Roo.

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