PEP, March 2010: Members prep for budget battles

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

With their city and state facing multibillion-dollar deficits, DC 37 activists set an ambitious agenda of fighting for fair funding for public services Jan. 23 at the union’s annual legislative conference.

“We are fighting for our survival and for our children’s right to a quality education,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts told the 600 participants. “This conference is preparing us for the battles ahead and I am glad to have you in the union’s army.”

Political leaders including U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, state Sens. Eric Adams, Frank Padavan and Bill Perkins, joined the unionists at the seminar organized by the DC 37 Political Action and Legislation Dept. and chaired by Political Action Committee head Lenny Allen, president of Local 2021.

A panel on revenue-generating options concluded that the city could raise millions of dollars in needed income by reinstating the commuter and stock transfer taxes and hiring more Assessors.

The “Race to the Top” panel blasted the federal initiative for its pressure to increase the number of charter schools that divert public tax dollars to the for-profit businesses that run them (see 'Just say no to charter schools').

“That plan uses taxpayer dollars to create a divisive, two-tier, separate and unequal education system in public schools in our communities. This is union busting and can only make our public school children feel inferior,” said DC 37 and Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa.

“The Department of Education fired 500 School Aides,” Padavan said. “Teachers in my district told me School Aides were the most cost-effective measure they had. The city would have saved money if it had prevented the layoffs.”

Fund schools, HHC

Retirees Association President Stu Leibowitz, Local 1320 President Jim Tucciarelli, Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo and DC 37 staffers Moira Dolan, Lee Clarke and Sue Graham led workshops on retirement, pensions, education, health and safety, and child care that helped participants shape the 2010 political agenda the conference adopted.

Topping the state agenda are opposing a higher cap on charter schools, bringing back the stock transfer and commuter taxes and restoring the Assessors’ oath of office.

The union’s city political targets include ending contracting out of civil service positions, banning municipal job cuts without first cutting the city’s $9 billion handout to private contractors, and creating a due process provision for workers denied jobs under the “1-in-3” rule.

DC 37 is also pressing Albany and City Hall for adequate funding for education and health-care programs that aid children, poor people, the uninsured and seniors, urging the city to increase civilianization in the police and other departments, and seeking state legislation to preserve the city Off-Track Betting Corp. by improving its racing handle distribution formula.

“The sickness of outsourcing is part of a plan to privatize our city and make it so only rich people can afford to live here,” said Adams. “Government’s bottom line should be compassion, not profit. We were here when the city was unsafe, when there was a crack epidemic, and we stayed to make this city run. We will be here to enjoy it when prosperity returns.”