PEP, February 2009: We marched to stop unfair budget cuts

DC 37 is fighting the following proposed reductions, which are among the $3.5 billion of cutbacks projected in the 2009-10 state budget that Gov. David Paterson announced in December. The cuts would adversely affect hundreds of DC 37 members’ jobs and the services they provide at city and state agencies:

$1.5 billion cut from education
$1.2 billion cut from health care
$400 million cut from Medicaid, which would have a severe impact on public hospitals and health care facilities in the city’s Health and Hospitals Corp.
The $10 million cut from the Dept. of Education’s $19 million budget for Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists would be given to community-based private contractors to do the jobs Local 372 SAPIS employees do. The mayor says this privatization plan would provide newly certified drug counselors, but Local 372 and DC 37 already provide training that leads to certification of union SAPIS counselors. (See article in Dec. 2008 PEP.)

The union is also battling the following aspects of the governor’s proposed budget:

Require employees and retirees to make annual contributions of $20 to $30 for singles and $80 for families for the Medicare Part B benefit.
Create a new Tier 5, with the retirement age raised to 62; exclude overtime from pension calculations and require Tier 5 members to contribute for the life of their employment, instead of their first 10 years.
Merge SERB (State Employees Relations Board) with PERB (Public Employees Relations Board), consolidate agencies, close offices and possibly downsize housing agencies and redeploy workers.
Lay off 521 state employees through attrition and retirement; demand union givebacks including a giveback of 3 percent of wages under recently negotiated contracts and a one-week lag in paying salaries, with the week’s pay to be returned upon retirement; and threaten layoffs of 3,000 to 5,000 more state employees. DC 37 locals 1070, 1359 and 2021 represent state employees who would possibly be affected.

DC 37 is also pressing the governor to implement a millionaire’s tax and a slight increase in the tax rate on annual earnings over $200,000, which would bring in an additional $5 billion in revenues to the state.

In response to the governor’s proposed 2009 budget, which was announced in December 2008, “We hope to preserve and continue the friendship we have with the governor, but we will use all that is available to us to defeat this budget proposal and restore funding for the vital services our members provide,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

DC 37 is working with other unions and coalitions to present “workable solutions like early-retirement incentives rather than layoffs,” to address the state and city budget crises, said Political Director Wanda Williams. “This year it is more important than ever for as many locals and individual members as possible to participate in our AFSCME Lobby Day in Albany on March 31.”

—DSW