Public Employee Press

Bargaining heats up
Slight progress at table as mayor visits labor conference, demands productivity and benefit concessions.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

District Council 37 resumed talks for a new economic agreement on Sept. 15 as the bargaining climate in the city heated up.

Through his representatives at the bargaining table and later in person at a Municipal Labor Committee meeting, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg continued to insist that raises must be funded by increased productivity and benefit changes.

Some movement occurred at the bargaining session last month. The city dropped some minor demands, but the two sides left the table Sept. 15 at loggerheads over the administration’s insistence that the union come up with ways to fund its own wage increases.

“We are pleased that we have been able to restart bargaining, but to come to an agreement there is going to have to be a lot of give and take by both sides,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said.

Rally Oct. 29 at City Hall
The September session occurred as the union began gearing up for a mass demonstration at City Hall at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29 to bring membership pressure to the bargaining table.

“We are urging all members and retirees to turn out for the Rally for a Fair Contract Now,” Ms. Roberts said. “We need to send a strong message to City Hall that we deserve decent raises. It is unreasonable to ask us to pay for our raises with givebacks when we have already increased productivity by doing more with less at work. Like other city residents, we are paying higher taxes, rents, fees, transit fares and living costs.”

The talks stalled earlier this year as the city confronted its worst budget deficit in a generation and municipal unions fought for and saved 10,000 jobs as the mayor laid off over 5,000 city workers.

Three days later, Mr. Bloomberg addressed the Municipal Labor Committee at a conference in Melville, Long Island. Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged that his failure to reach agreements with the unions was the biggest blemish on his record, but his blunt speech dashed hopes that his appearance signaled a more conciliatory approach to negotiations.

The conferees reacted with indignation and anger to his continued insistence that “There is no money in the budget for pay raises. The only way we are going to get salary increases is through real cash-generating productivity increases.”

Labor rejects mayor’s position
At a news conference after the mayor’s talk, union leaders blasted his rigid position. MLC Chair Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers union, said labor rejects “a situation where the people who run this city give and give and the mayor takes and takes.” Ms. Roberts said the city had no business pleading poverty when corporation taxes have not been increased for 40 years.

“When the city talks about increasing productivity, they mean cutting benefits and taking money out of our pockets,” said one conference delegate.

The MLC coordinates bargaining on welfare fund and health benefits on behalf of unions representing about 300,000 city employees and 200,000 retirees. Ms. Roberts, who serves as secretary, DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa and Social Service Employees Union Local 371 President Charles Ensley are on the MLC’s steering committee.

Shortly after the mayor’s blunt address, New York City Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley spoke on a panel about negotiations. Ms. Roberts, who served as moderator, turned to Mr. Hanley and said, “We are very serious about reaching an agreement, but with our $29,000 average salaries we don’t have anything to give back.”

Economic bargaining is occurring as the city and municipal unions are holding parallel talks over health insurance and welfare fund issues. “We expect the health care and benefit discussions to jump-start the collective bargaining process,” Ms. Roberts said.

On Sept. 19, the last day of the conference, the Steering Committee considered a list of potential health care and benefit changes as it prepares for difficult and probably heated discussions with the city. The unions are adamant about preventing serious erosion of the living standards of members and retirees.

Prescription costs an issue
These talks are occurring as the city and the unions grapple with a huge drain on the health care Stabilization Fund. The city’s health care payments are determined by the HIP-HMO rate, and the fund helps cover differences in the cost of the HIP plan and other health-care plans, including GHI-CBP.

Three years ago, in one of its largest benefit agreements, the city agreed to a number of benefit enhancements. Part of the agreement shifted the cost of the expensive PICA (psychotropic, injectable, chemo-therapy and asthma) drugs from the union prescription plans to the Stabilization Fund.

But the cost of PICA has soared to a projected $140 million for fiscal year 2004, and the program threatens to drain the Stabilization Fund by December or January. “The Stabilization Fund problem reflects the gravity of the nationwide prescription drug crisis. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical companies are winning the battle over drug prices as they succeed in passing the buck to employers and you and me,” said Rosa R. Esperon, administrator of the DC 37 Health and Security Plan.