Public Employee Press

DC 37 launches campaign to halt
The temp threat to union jobs

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

District Council 37 has launched a campaign to fight New York City's increasing use of temporary employees to do the work of union members .

In recent years, the Bloomberg administration has employed thousands of temporary workers as it has shed similar numbers of civil servants.

In his State of the City address Jan. 12, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg crowed that he had cut the city workforce by 20,000. He didn't tell the public that he has also employed thousands of temps to do civil service work.

Temporary workers are supposed to be just that - temporary. Private-sector and public-sector employers have long used temps to meet short-term needs.

But nowadays New York City keeps temporary workers for years. That practice is among several ways the elite 1 percent have cut the living standards of working families in recent decades - along with undermining unions, cutting taxes for business and the rich, slashing government programs, shifting health-care costs to employees, getting rid of traditional pensions and exporting jobs.

A shadow labor force

Using "permanent temporary" workers, or "permatemps," lets the city lower its official head count, cut the cost of health care, pensions and other benefits, and avoid employing unionized workers who demand fair treatment on the job.

"The city's use of part-time and temporary workers is not new," said DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido. "The city has always brought in temps to meet emergencies, cover for parental leave, help with one-time projects and fill short-term gaps. But what's happening now is pernicious."

What's new, he said, is that the city is now employing an army of permatemps, full-time temporary workers who work alongside civil servants. Together with consultants, they constitute a shadow labor force of nonunion workers, Garrido said.

And the composition of the temporary workforce has changed. Once, temps were mainly clerical employees and unskilled and less-educated workers. Now their ranks include professionals with bachelor's and master's degrees, such as librarians, engineers, social workers, nurses and information technology workers.

Temps are everywhere

The School Construction Authority, Health and Hospitals Corp. and the Departments of Health, Education, and Information Technology are among the places they work. "They're everywhere," Garrido said.

The city stepped up its use of permatemps after the 2007 Long Beach court ruling, which directs governments to replace provisionals with civil servants after nine months if there is a civil service list for the job. The city has been slow to schedule exams and use lists, but it keeps a huge temporary workforce.

The union has set up a team of field and communication workers and lawyers to document the city's temporary employment practices and press the administration to reduce its use of permatemps.

"The existence of a large pool of permanent temporary employees with no benefit or pension costs could doom the civil service system in the long term, opening the way for more cronyism and corruption," said Kenneth Mulligan, an assistant director of the DC 37 Clerical-Administrative Division. "They threaten the jobs of our members. Simply put, we cannot allow this bad employment practice to continue."

"Our members have done what's right to earn their jobs by preparing for civil service exams and becoming civil servants by virtue of their skills and qualifications," Mulligan said. "The hiring process for temps is not as rigorous; it often does not even involve background checks."

Sr. Assistant General Counsel Steven Sykes of the DC 37 Legal Dept., who leads the legal team in the union's drive to curb the city's use of permanent temps, said that in the campaign the union will use many resources, including negotiations, grievances and arbitration and lawsuits.

"DC 37 will rely heavily on rank-and-file members to gather information about the city's temporary employment practices," DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. "Shop stewards and activists are the eyes and ears of our union. They are going to be the key to winning this campaign and protecting our jobs."