PEP, March 2009: Union sues over NYCHA layoffs

The forces of privatization, led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, targeted hundreds of union members to lose jobs and thousands of vulnerable schoolchildren and senior citizens to lose important services in New York City Housing Authority projects in late February.

The city plan, announced in December as an answer to funding gaps, would have closed 19 community centers in public housing developments, leaving 149 members of SSEU Local 371 and 69 members of Health Services Employees Local 768 jobless after Feb. 20. The centers provide essential after-school programs, such as counseling for teens, recreation and even meals for seniors and some of the city’s poorest children.

When the City Council answered union and community protests by agreeing to provide $18 million to keep the centers open, the Bloomberg administration decided to fire the dedicated and well-trained Community Service Aides, Community Assistants and Associates anyway and contract out the operation of the centers.

Working closely with locals 371 and 768, theDC 37 Legal Dept. has filed a lawsuit and a request for arbitration of a grievance against the layoffs. The court case charges that NYCHA violated Section 312 of the City Charter, state Constitution and Local Law 35, which requires the agency to conduct a comparative cost analysis before contracting out.

“What makes this so outrageous is that they are using contracted workers to displace longtime civil servents,” said Local 371 President Faye Moore.

“They’re laying off some very good people,” said Local 768 member Helen Selby, who got her firing notice in the mail. Selby works with senior citizens at the Langston Hughes Community Center in Brooklyn.

“To give money to nonprofit organizations to hire replacement workers with years of continuous service is union busting,” said Local 768 President Fitz Reid. “The city and NYCHA have the obligation to allow the union to make alternate proposals before they hire replacement workers to do jobs formerly done by union members.”

“We are going fight this every step of the way for however long it takes,” said Moore.

— Alfredo Alvarado