Public Employee Press

Bargaining briefs
Brooklyn Academy of Music workers approve worksite pact

A new working-conditions contract that covers maintenance workers, security guards and custodial workers at the Brooklyn Academy of Music provides for a new $750 cash bonus at 10 years and a $1,000 pensionable longevity at 15 years.

Members of Local 1502 overwhelmingly approved the contract on Sept. 7. The working-conditions contract, which runs from Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2013, and affects 20 workers, also calls for double-time for work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day; a prohibition on including three-year and older disciplinary cases to support new cases; and paid job-related training. While working condition contracts do not cover general wage increases and generally focus on noneconomic issues, the agreements do cover compensation other than salary.

"This is a pretty good contract," Local 1502 President Wilson Souffrant said. "Members were satisfied and that's what's most important to me."

What might appear to be an unusual provision to outsiders is the new contract's requirement that members receive time and a half for cleanup work more than 5 feet from the sidewalk curb of BAM, a provision important to the custodial staff.

"With the growing popularity of BAM, events are attracting bigger crowds, which means there's more garbage strewn in front of the Academy and in the neighborhood," said Michele Trester, an assistant director with the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept. "The job of our members is to keep BAM's premises clean, not to do the job of sanitation workers responsible for picking up the neighborhood garbage. This was a matter of safety, principle, fairness and dignity."

Working with Trester on the bargaining committee were Souffrant, Local 1502 Vice President Kenneth Aguillera, Local 1502 Treasurer Sylvan John, Supervising Maintainer Anthony Shields, Rep Madonna Knight and Council Rep Michelina Eberlein.

The new contract also requires that shift vacancies be offered to members in order of seniority, and the agreement calls for speedier arbitration.

The new training provision is important to the HVAC maintenance workers, who need to keep their heating, ventilation and air conditioning maintenance skills up to date.

Union prepares for working conditions negotiations

The union has drafted nearly 100 demands as it prepares to bargain with the city for a new citywide contract, which covers working conditions.

The citywide contract has not been renegotiated for more than a dozen years.

Last year, when the union and city opened talks on a new economic agreement, the city requested that negotiations on a new citywide contract occur simultaneously with wage discussions.

On Aug. 28, the DC 37 Negotiations Committee, made up of the union's local presidents, caucused at union headquarters to go over the demands for the citywide agreement.

Earlier this year, the committee started working on the demands. The union leaders reported back to the negotiating committee after hammering out demands on such topics as civil service and time-and-leave rules.

Evelyn Seinfeld, director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept., led the discussion at the caucus as the committee formally approved the demands after significant discussion.

Associate Director Henry Garrido discussed the political context of the negotiations, noting that the talks will occur in an especially tense climate in which the city is claiming funds aren't there for pay increases while the union has pointed to substantial revenue sources, including uncollected fees, and possible savings from cutting back on consultants and contractors.

Seinfeld said in light of the many years since the last talks on the citywide contract, the new round of negotiations would likely focus on technology- related issues. The last time the city and union negotiated on the working-conditions contract cell phones weren't even commonplace.

—Gregory N. Heires