Public Employee Press

Political action conference
Legislative agenda

The union's Oct. 26 Legislative Conference included several workshops where participants discussed issues and legislative proposals.

Dennis Deahn, director of field services for the DC 37 Health & Security Plan, answered activists' questions on pension and retirement issues during his workshop. Senior Assistant Director of Research and Negotiations Moira Dolan led a workshop on school policy, where members called for the Dept. of Education to provide one Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialist for every school. In a session led by Safety & Health Director Lee Clarke, participants called for legislation to establish a standard for controlling workplace exposure to infectious aerosols such as H1N1 (swine flu) virus and TB.

In 2014, DC 37 will be lobbying for legislation on a variety of issues, including the following:

1. Creating a new preferred provider child care program to provide subsidies to working parents in Brooklyn who use a licensed child care provider.
2. Supporting the Triborough doctrine, which keeps public employees' contracts in effect until new contracts are negotiated and signed.
3. Protecting consumers against predatory lending practices by enacting the Consumer Credit Fairness Act, which has passed in the state Assembly but not the Senate.
4. Reopening off-track betting in New York City by expanding the Catskill region's OTB to include New York City.
5. Maintaining affordable housing by enacting a moratorium on buyouts of co-ops and rentals at Mitchell-Lama apartments and raising the ceiling on the senior citizen rent increase exemption from $29,000 to $40,000.
6. Amending the New York State Penal Law to make an assault against any public-sector employee a felony.