Heard Around Town: Mark-Viverito kicks 32BJ's Figueroa out of meeting in Orlando

Despite supporting New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in her fight for leadership in 2013, SEIU 32BJ President Héctor Figueroa apparently didn't see eye to eye with the speaker at a conference in Orlando last Wednesday when sources say she ordered him out of a meeting to discuss ways to pressure the federal government into assisting Puerto Rico with its debt crisis, saying the gathering was only for elected officials.  

When a group of elected officials of Puerto Rican descent moved to meet privately, Figueroa asked if he could sit in as an elected labor leader, 32BJ spokeswoman Rachel Cohen said. Other sources, however, said Figueroa assumed he would be welcome and did not ask to attend the meeting. Mark-Viverito told him he could not. The decision to limit the closed-door meeting, however, came from event organizers, not Mark-Viverito, according to a source who was there.

After the encounter several other non-elected officials in attendance also left the room, though were not specifically singled out. Among them was Edwin Melendez, head of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College.

After the roughly 20 elected officials convened, they announced the creation of the National Coalition of Puerto Rican Elected Officials.

Several sources told City & State that Figueroa was angry with Mark-Viverito's power move. But Cohen pushed back on the claim saying Figueroa was not upset and understood the logic behind limiting attendance.