By GREGORY N. HEIRES

To combat looming layoffs and a $3.4 billion projected budget gap, DC 37 prepared to press for a fair contract at a bargaining session scheduled for March 25, after PEP went to press.

The union planned to respond to the city’s demands and to modify its own demands, said Dennis Sullivan, director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

Mr. Sullivan has said that the union faces the most challenging bargaining conditions since the mid-1970s, when the city was on the brink of bankruptcy.

“The bottom line is that you have to keep your eye on the prize,” Mr. Sullivan told a crowd of 1,000 stewards and political activists, who gathered March 13 at union headquarters to mobilize for a contract demonstration on April 29. DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts expressed hope that the unity exhibited at the meeting would translate into power and leverage at the bargaining table.

Bargaining continues as the city grapples with the huge budget deficit and a local economy battered by the effects of the attack on the World Trade Center and the recession. In January, the city’s unemployment rate hit 8.6 percent, significantly higher than the national average of 5.7 percent.

Complicating the contract talks, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has demanded $600 million in benefit givebacks from municipal unions and noted that $600 million is equivalent to 12,000 jobs.

The unions have been battling the proposed concessions, which include payless furloughs, co-payments for health-care premiums, a new, leaner pension tier for incoming workers, smaller city contributions to union welfare funds and the elimination` of Medicare Part B reimbursements.

In March, the DC 37 Executive Board voted against accepting benefit cuts. A joint committee of the city and the Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella group of city unions, is studying possible savings, including delays in certain city payments to pension funds that could occur without affecting benefits.

Ms. Roberts points out that the unions have helped the city before in fiscal emergencies. “We’re not averse to doing our part — but it has to be a two-way street. The contract we’re negotiating and saving our jobs are related,” she said.

At a meeting on March 6, members of the DC 37 Bargaining Caucus — a 300-strong group that serves as a link between the union leadership and rank-and-file members during contract talks — urged the union to fight concessions. At the meeting, top union leaders and staff described how DC 37 is working to stop layoffs and mobilizing for the contract.
“We have to stand together,” said Local 924 President Kyle Simmons. “We have to make sure that we are not going to give anything back.”

“My members are very clear,” said Local 371 President Charles Ensley. “We have nothing to give back and we need a raise.” “If you want a fair contract,” Ms. Roberts urged members, “you have to be part of the fight. We need every member at the rally at City Hall from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on April 29.”