By GREGORY N. HEIRES

In two separate meetings recently, city negotiators launched a double-barreled attack on the living standards of municipal employees and retirees with a total of 38 giveback demands.

On Jan. 31, the city pressed a coalition of municipal unions for $600 million in health and welfare benefit cutbacks. Without those concessions by the 300,000-member Municipal Labor Committee, the city would need to eliminate 12,000 positions, according to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Four days later, in the second session of contract talks with DC 37, the city said any raises must be funded through measurable productivity increases and proposed to extend the workweek to 40 hours for all titles without extra compensation — in effect, reducing members’ hourly pay. The city proposals also sought to cut or eliminate night-shift differentials, overtime, transfer, title maturation and many other contract provisions.

At the Feb. 5 bargaining session, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts underscored the union’s position that the city could address its projected $3.5 billion deficit and fund a fair contract without givebacks by reining in contracting out.

As the city copes with its worst budget crisis in a generation, the union has issued three white papers about how wasteful contracting out has led to a “shadow government” with no accountability and a “parallel workforce” of 100,000 consultants. “There is quite a bit of money to be obtained from those contracts,” Ms. Roberts told Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley.

Dennis Sullivan, director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept., noted that the city has already obtained productivity savings through the early retirement program it offered municipal employees last year. More than 4,000 workers opted for early retirement. Furthermore, Mr. Sullivan challenged the city’s position that it would not provide retroactive pay in the new economic agreement. “Just because City Hall says the contract won’t be retroactive doesn’t mean that’s what will happen,” Mr. Sullivan said. “That will be decided at this table.”

The union’s 27-month economic agreement expired June 30, 2002, but its terms remain in effect as bargaining proceeds. The pact covers 100,000 members.

All told, the city presented DC 37 with a list of 17 demands (see box below). Other concessions sought by the city include cutting the pay of new workers by 10 percent, reducing the number of hours employees may be eligible for a night shift differential, and eliminating summer hours and “reverse out-of-title” provisions, which permit some city workers to file grievances if others do their work.

The city’s other giveback demands hit the entire Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella organization that represents city employee unions, in discussions with the city on health and welfare issues.

Teachers President Randi Weingarten heads the MLC, and Ms. Roberts serves as secretary. DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, who is also president of Local 372, and Local 371 President Charles Ensley serve on the MLC Steering Committee. Ms. Weingarten said municipal unions will try to avoid wage and benefit cuts by working with the city to reduce use of consultants, expand the early retirement program, and redeploy workers.

Last year, the MLC and city agreed to $270 million in labor savings in the fiscal year 2003 budget by stretching out the time for the city to make certain pension contributions. The $600 million of concessions are labor savings that the city wants in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The city proposals include a new pension tier, unpaid holidays, a furlough program, and new and higher co-payments for HIP and GHI subscribers. The giveback demands would slash city welfare fund contributions for employees and retirees and eliminate all reimbursement of retirees’ Medicare Part B costs.

City Proposals to Municipal Unions		City Proposals to DC 37
1. General: a. Create a furlough program for all employees. b. Establish unpaid holidays. c. Eliminate all paid release time for union activities. d. Agree to support pension legislation reducing Increased Take Home Pay (ITHP) provisions by 50%. e. Reduce all accrual thresholds of annual leave by 3 days. f. Reduce the effective hours of Night Shift Differential by two (2). 2. Health Insurance: a. Eliminate the PICA program effective 6/30/03. b. Eliminate Medicare Part B Reimbursement. c. Eliminate the subsidy of the HIP-HMO Mental Health/Substance Abuse Rider by 6/30/03. d.Maintain the GHI-CBP participating provider fee schedule at its current level. e. Institute co-premiums for all health insurance plans. f. Institute co-pays for all office visits and hospital admissions in the HIP-HMO program. g. Increase all existing co-pays and deductibles for G+HI-CBP/Blue Cross Blue Shield for all employees and retirees. h. Cap the City’s increase in health insurance contributions to increases in the Medical CPI. i. The City’s annual contribution to the Stabilization Fund shall be reduced by the CBP Basic Program’s dividends. j. Eliminate all premium subsidies for the GHI and Blue Cross optional riders effective 6/30/03. k. Implement an administrative fee for the Health Insurance Program for all employees and all retirees. 3. Welfare Funds: a. Reduce Active Welfare Fund contributions by $200. b. Reduce Retiree Welfare Fund contributions by 50%. c. Require Welfare Funds to provide and self-fund line of duty survivor benefits by 6/30/03. 4. Pension: a. Agree to support legislation creating new pension tier for all new employees.		1. Term: a.Two (2) year contract term. 2. Increases: a. Any future wage increases shall be funded entirely through prospective productivity savings. All productivity proposals must achieve measureable/quantifiable savings. b. New hires for all titles shall be paid 90% of the incumbent rates for those titles. 3. Premium Pay: a. Reduction in hours during which civilian employees can be eligible for night shift differential from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. to midnight to 8 a.m. b. Amend all contractual premium (1.5X) overtime provisions to the time actually worked standard used by the Fair Labor Standards Act , by excluding paid leave and holidays when calculating eligibility for overtime over 40 hours in a week. c. Elimination of all references to minimum recall periods. In a recall instance where work is actually performed, compensation for the period actually worked shall be at the straight time (1X) rate. 4. General Economic: a. Increase workweek to 40 hours for all titles, with no corresponding wage increase. b. Change Sick Leave payout from 1 for 2 to 1 for 3 upon separation. c. Ad hoc Release time for collective bargaining shall be unpaid. d. Eliminate all paid release time for union activities. e. Eliminate Summer Hours. f. Increase fees for dues deduction and other voluntary check off items. g. Eliminate automatic maturation of titles. h.Eliminate all restrictions on the transfer of employees within and among City agencies. i. Eliminate all “reverse-out-of-title” provisions. j. No payments shall be made until there is a signed separate unit agreement. k. The separate unit agreements and citywide agreement shall express all agreements and understandings between the parties and no other agreement, understanding or practice shall be of any force or effect unless referenced therein.