Public Employee Press

Glimmer of hope amid OTB tragedy

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS


DC 37 LEADERS are reviewing two new bills proposed in Albany that would allow a partial resurrection of the New York City Off Track Betting Corporation and potentially give some former employees' jobs and preserve retirees' benefits.

Failed leadership in Albany put 1,100 OTB employees out of work Dec. 7, when Republican State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos pressured Sens. Martin Golden and Andrew Lanza to reverse themselves and vote against a bill that would have kept NYC OTB operating. That bill would not have cost the city or state a penny, said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

Now those same senators propose a new bill that would let private entities run the betting operation and give hiring priority to former employees
who did not retire or take a buyout. Local 2021 will meet March 16 at 6 p.m. at DC 37 to discuss details of the bills.

Since NYC OTB shuttered its 50 parlors and went belly up in December, its 1,100 employees and retirees - part of the city's important middleincome tax base - have been fast-tracked in a race to the bottom. Some worked at OTB since high school.

"It was a big shock. There were always rumors of OTB closing, but we always pulled through," said Guy Rozier. "I met my wife there and started a family. We knew some of us would be let go, but the blow of a full closing was a shock. We both lost our OTB jobs. It put us in a tailspin. We're nervous about the future."

Rozier, a former OTB Voice Broadcast Specialist, started as a Betting Clerk in 1982 and became the "voice of the company," calling race results at branches. When OTB switched to simulcast, he upgraded his skills. "It was interesting work for good pay," he said, "but now someone at the New York Racing Association is doing my job."

Like Rozier, other stunned former OTB employees wonder how this happened to an agency that took in a billion dollars a year in bets and generated revenue for NYRA and the government. They wonder if and how OTB will reinvent itself, fear no longer having medical insurance and union benefits, and doubt they can ever earn salaries comparable to what OTB paid.

They know Republicans threw them under the bus in a union-busting move. They found their experience as innocent workers caught in a political game dehumanizing.

"How am I supposed to feel? My life is in turmoil since December," said Darryl Stallings. He has a $2,200 monthly mortgage, a $330 car note, three young children and a wife. He collects $400 a week in unemployment.

Stallings said, "What OTB did to us despite the concessions we made - we lost overtime, and Sunday double-time and were forced into retirement - is wrong and shameful. You work for 15 years, think you're secure and bam! Within a week it's all gone. How do you recover from that?"

At 43, Stallings has not been called for any of the jobs he's applied for. His family has cut out all entertainment, dinners out and school trips for the children. They worry how they'll pay $800 for a dental retainer for daughter Brianna, 10.

Explaining to his eldest daughter the reason for his tears on Dec. 8, her birthday, was especially painful, he said, "It was my last day at work."

"Small businesses are hurting"

Stallings visited the Flatlands neighborhood where he worked in a high-grossing OTB parlor.

"OTB was part of the fabric of the community," he said. "Now small businesses are hurting. Customers are shuttled to the track and made to stay all day. It's more like jury duty than recreation."

Last December Lillian Santos and other laid-off OTB workers picketed Skelos's office. She spoke to his aides. "I let them see my face. I left OTB in October after 39 years because I thought it would save some jobs," she said.

"I hadn't planned on retiring and didn't get a chance to put my life in order. What OTB did was unconscionable. How do people do this to other people?" Santos asked.

On March 1 in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, DC37 won an extension of a temporary restraining order that reinstates retirees' benefits until a union appeal is decided, probably in May.

But Genevieve Hong is not taking chances.

An OTB Cashier since 1979, she retired in Tier 4 and now pays $92 a month to Emblem Health Insurance, "in case the courts reverse the TRO," she said.

Hong's friend Virginia Lee pays Aetna $2,600 a month for family coverage - an expense she never had as an OTB employee.

"Our branch cleared $80,000 cash a day," said Lee, who was forced out of the OTB job she loved. In a letter to Comptroller John Liu, Lee wrote, "Closing OTB was a serious breach of trust between the city and its employees."

Betting Clerk Larry Goldreyer took a 12 percent hit to his pension that will cost him $10,000 a year for life. "When you've worked nearly 40 years and retire, you expect it's your turn to sit back and relax, but with OTB it's not a picnic, just heartache."

"We have commitments from State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos that he will rectify the mistakes made in December," Roberts said, "We hope that in the near future this issue will be behind us to our satisfaction."

Albany bills

As PEP went to press, two bills were being crafted in Albany. One, in its infancy in the Senate, would reinvent NYC OTB as a privately run entity. The other, sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy McDonald and Democratic Assembly member Peter Abbate, would preserve retirees' health benefits.

"Local 2021 and DC 37, with support from AFSCME, are doing everything possible to reconstruct New York City OTB and protect retirees' benefits," Allen said. "We are cautiously optimistic about both of these bills and believe there may be a good chance that OTB can be revived in some form."