By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

Sisters and brothers, you were a beautiful and powerful sight October 29, ignoring the rain and chill and massing far up Broadway beyond City Hall. Thousands of voices roared “Contract NOW!” together. I know our message penetrated the building’s thick walls. Our rally for a fair contract proved again that we are a mighty, mighty union.

I want to thank all our members who participated. I also want to thank the leaders of our national union, AFSCME, as well as the many public officials, community organizations and supporters from other unions who rallied with us to tell the city that DC 37 members are not alone in this battle.

Over my many years of service to this great union, I have learned the importance of speaking truth to power. And the truth is, the city wants to play games instead of giving us a fair contract.

The mayor is attacking our health benefits and our pensions. I told the mayor, “Hands off our benefits! We fought too hard and too long for these benefits to let you take them away.”

Amid the huge throng at the rally, hunched over against the rain, Patient Care Associate Felipe Rodriguez told a PEP reporter he is fighting “to make ends meet and put food on the table for my family.” I told the mayor, “My members deserve a fair contract just to keep up with inflation.”

I told him it is outrageous that management has not even had the decency to put a financial offer on the table when my members are having trouble paying higher taxes, higher transit fares and higher rent. “We have waited too long already,” said School Aide Felicia Cruse.

Now the mayor is planning another $300 million in budget cuts. I told him this would erode services, hurt working and poor families and undermine businesses that are just starting to recover from 9/11 and the Bush recession. The mayor claims he can’t afford to raise our pay, but our DC 37 White Papers have proved that the city wastes hundreds of millions of dollars every year on private contractors.

We learned recently that the Health Dept. pays a writer halfway around the globe $45,000 a year to edit a 4-page monthly newsletter. That’s about $1,000 a page. At DC 37, dozens of our locals put out newsletters — for a lot less. We estimate that the city is handing over $2,000 a day for this work!

We’re not paid that much. Clerical Associate 2 Josephine Alameda said she braved the nasty weather October 29, “because I’m fighting for enough money to live on.” Mr. Mayor, listen to her. Give us the fair contract we deserve, and acknowledge the importance of our hard-working, dedicated members.

Contract NOW for the everyday heroes of DC 37
When the Staten Island Ferry crashed, Emergency Medical Service Lt. Steven Cuevas was the first rescue worker on the scene. He dashed onboard. “It was like after a bombing, torn metal, pools of blood and people screaming,” he said. He radioed for help and 56 EMS workers answered the call. Red-tagging the most urgent victims, he made sure they got to hospitals first.

Among the severely injured was a Local 1549 member, Paralegal Aide Tina Evans, and I want to extend DC 37’s best wishes to her.

Doctors said the Techs and Paramedics of Local 2507 and officers in Local 3621 were true heroes who saved many lives. “We have the best skills and training in the world. We go into burning buildings and face exposure to blood and disease every day,” Mr. Cuevas said. “And most important, we are people who care. But the truth is, the compensation is not what it should be.”

As soon as a crisis is over — and especially at the bargaining table — the mayor tends to forget the value of the city’s workforce. We rallied to remind him that thanks to his cutbacks and layoffs, our members are already doing far more with far less as we deliver the services that provide the quality of life for all New Yorkers.

When we joined hands and sang, “We Shall Overcome,” it brought me back to the civil rights movement. We rallied there in the wind and cold fighting for our civil rights as working people, for human dignity and economic justice. Deep in my heart, I know that if we stick together and don’t let anybody divide us, we shall overcome.