Public Employee Press

Grim holidays for laid-off members
OTB retirees and jobless families suffer

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

DC 37's long fight to restore the jobs and health insurance benefits lost when the Off Track Betting Corp. shut down could end in success if Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers open the 2012 legislative session ready to help the 800 unemployed members and 900 retirees of Local 2021.

"It was my day off when I heard OTB was closed forever," said former Telephone Betting Agent Victorine Gordon. "The news was devastating. Since then my life is filled with worry and stress."

When OTB crumbled, Gordon was nine months shy of the 10 years of service she needed to retire. Her daughter Khalida, the mother of two, also worked for OTB. Since the closing in December 2010, she has found temp work for just one day, and mother and daughter struggle to stay afloat.

Former Betting Clerk Daryl Stallings applied to the Sanitation Dept., Aqueduct Race Track, Verizon and dozens of other companies. The family depends on his Police Clerk wife to make ends meet. "We have cut back and fallen behind," Stallings said. "I don't know where we'd be without help from our family."

For the middle-class Brooklyn family, Christmas is on hold. "We'll have a Christmas dinner, but toys and presents - that won't happen. It used to make me so happy to see my kids jumping for joy on Christmas morning. Today when they ask for things, I tell them we can't afford it. This year our holiday will be sorry," he said. "Now at 40 years old, I have nothing."

Brian Matarrese took an OTB severance package and retired. Now the OTB health insurance that covered a triple bypass, regular checkups and medication is gone. "These are not golden years, they are tarnished," he said.

Attack on public workers

December may mean the last unemployment check for most of the laid-off members. The retirees hoped Gov. Cuomo would take responsibility for their health insurance at an annual cost of $8 million in the $168 billion state budget. But in October the governor said no deal.

"We are not aging gracefully," Matarrese said. "This attack is not isolated, politicians everywhere are going after pensions and health care. As employees, health care was not given to us, we fought for it for decades through our contracts, but the mayor and governor decided to cut off our insurance benefits and throw us away like yesterday's news."

The former NYC OTB employees who did their jobs and took in a handle of up to $1.3 billion a year got a raw deal through a cockeyed distribution formula that funneled millions to the state racing association, paid hefty executive salaries and left crumbs for day-to-day operations. Without OTB, New York State and, city lose about $65 million a month to illegal gambling.

Now the mayor and governor have handed the former OTB workers an unwelcome legacy: They face life-threatening illnesses without health insurance and high rents and mortgages without jobs.

Local 2021 President Lenny Allen, DC37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Political Director Wanda Williams fight on, and the DC 37 Retirees Association has lobbied relentlessly in Albany to restore the benefits. In January they hope Gov. Cuomo and Albany lawmakers will reinstate the retirees' health insurance and let Catskills OTB President David Groth expand into New York City.

DC 37's lawsuit on the benefits is now before the state Court of Appeals, which has requested oral argument. "We see this as a positive indication and welcome the opportunity to provide additional legal arguments that show the lower courts' decisions were in error," said DC 37 General Counsel Mary O'Connell.

"There is no justice in the way we were treated," Stallings said. "When will politicians see we are hurting and help?"

As the holidays approached, Khalida Gordon took her 10-year-old in her arms and asked what he wanted for Christmas: "I want my mommy to go back to work," the child said.