Public Employee Press

Layoffs hit city workers

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Mass layoffs hit in September and October as Mayor Bloomberg cast hundred of DC 37 members into the street during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The latest firings slammed school and social service workers — about 600 in Local 372 and 300 in Local 371 — three months after the mayor terminated 300 provisional employees.

“This is a disgrace,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. “Unemployment in the city is over 10 percent. Where are these workers supposed to find jobs?”

The layoffs of workers in the public schools hit some 47 Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists and dozens of others on Oct. 2 and were planned for 526 School Aides on Oct. 16.

“Tragically, the administration targeted the most vulnerable and modestly paid workers,” said Veronica Montgomery-Costa, president of Local 372 and DC 37. “The loss of these dedicated workers will severely hurt support services for our schoolchildren, who are also victimized by these cuts.”

Local 372 fought to protect members’ jobs by lobbying to restore state and local funding, and in September, the local launched a radio ad campaign against the layoffs (see back page). The actual layoffs represented a substantial cut from the 2,600 projected earlier this year and the 900 announced more recently. The lobbying effort helped reduce the SAPIS layoffs from about 300 to less than 50.

State of shock

In many instances, the Dept. of Education ignored principals who said their budgets would let them keep School Aides, who provide vital support services. “The notion that principals have control over their budgets is a joke,” Roberts said. “This is a system of budgetary dictatorship.”

Certain communities, particularly affluent ones, were not hit as hard as schools in poorer communities, such as District 6 in Harlem with its 45 firings, noted DC 37 Schools Division Director Marva Lewis-Bradford.

DC 37 staffers and Local 372 activists joined Roberts and mayoral candidate William C. Thompson Sept. 14 at a school board hearing (page 5) to criticize DOE’s plan to lay off workers while wasting millions of dollars on outside contractors.

“We work very hard for the schools, and I don’t think this is fair,” said School Aide Leslie Vazquez. “The children love us and we provide very important support for the teachers. I’m a single parent, and it will be very rough for me if I lose my job.”

The September layoffs targeted permanent employees at the Dept. of Homeless Services and the Administration for Children’s Services, where the city is privatizing the work of employees who prevent child abuse. About a dozen layoffs hit members of Locals 154, 983, 1549 and 2627.

“I am just still in shock,” said Child Welfare Specialist Vaughn Charles, on her last day at ACS. “I was told you have a city job for life. Now I’m sending out my résumé to contractors we work with.”

Her family faces the immediate loss of health insurance, because her laborer husband has no coverage.

The federal COBRA law allows laid-off workers to pay to extend their health insurance and union-benefit coverage, typically for 18 months. Under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, as terminated government employees, laid-off DC 37 members are eligible for a 65 percent reduction in the cost of the premium for the health insurance and union benefit coverage.

Charles worked at the placement center for at-risk children, where 35 workers were let go on Sept. 25. She was hurt and bitter over remarks by ACS Commissioner Jon B. Mattingly, who called the laid-off workers “non-essential” employees whose dismissal would not result in a noticeable deterioration of services.

Union fight-back

SSEU Local 371 President Faye Moore blasted the layoffs as “ideologically driven,” reflecting the zeal of Bloomberg and Mattingly to contract out city services.

Initially, the union received 613 layoff notices at ACS — double the number that actually hit on Sept. 26. The union successfully lobbied the City Council to restore $3 million for ACS services, and Local 371 fought back with demonstrations and a media campaign that used radio ads and a YouTube video.

The September and October layoffs were scheduled for the early summer but were postponed 90 days by an agreement on health-care savings between the city and the Municipal Labor Committee.

Over the past few months, the union’s Executive Office and Research and Negotiations Dept. have worked with locals and met with labor relations and ACS officials to protect members’ seniority and transfer rights.

At Roberts’s request, the DC 37 Legal Dept. has been exploring tactics to deal with the layoffs, General Counsel Mary O’Connell said.

Many workers who had received layoff notices or “at risk” letters remained on the payroll through special transfers allowing them to fill vacancies or replace provisional workers at the Human Resources Administration. Some from ACS took HRA jobs at reduced salaries, and Local 983 got five Motor Vehicle Operators redeployed to other agencies.