Public Employee Press

Union battles layoffs, contracting at NYCHA

DC 37 is battling the New York City Housing Authority over its plan to lay off 169 members—virtually all provisionals—on April 16. The union is also at odds with the HA over an administrative reorganization and the agency decision to contract out $445 million in construction project management, which could lead to attrition of hundreds of Local 375 positions.

“We are very angry that the authority is moving forward with layoffs, and we are doing everything we can to protect our members,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. At a labor-management meeting last month, the union proposed that the authority offer a severance package to employees who were on a preliminary layoff list.

The union is also pressing the authority to avoid some layoffs by reassigning workers and to consider seniority as it carries out layoffs. In addition, Ms. Roberts is working with mayoral agencies and the Health and Hospitals Corp. to find job openings for workers targeted for layoff.

The authority informed the union of the layoffs March 2, and it planned to provide official layoff notices to affected employees two weeks before the termination date. Virtually all of the workers on the preliminary list are provisionals, who don’t enjoy the job protections of civil servants.

The layoff list
The lion’s share of the layoffs — 110 positions — would hit Housing Authority Clerical Employees Local 957. Also targeted are Amalgamated Professional Employees Local 154, Social Service Employees Union Local 371, Health Services Employees Local 768, Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983, Accountants, Actuaries and Statisticians Local 1407 and Electronic Data Processing Personnel Local 2627. The 169 DC 37 positions are among 686 jobs that the HA plans to cut.

“This is a horrible situation,” said Local 957 President Walthene Primus. “Many of our affected members have worked at the authority for years, and we are very worried about their chances of finding new jobs when the economy isn’t strong. The authority should really have worked with the unions to consider alternative savings before taking this drastic step.”
Local 2627 President Edward W. Hysyk blames the Bush administration, which cut $240 million in aid to the HA. City funding, canceled recently, once provided 10 percent of the agency’s budget.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of how important it is for us to support our national union’s political action committee, which presses the federal government to continue its support of programs here in New York City,” Mr. Hysyk said.

Meanwhile, Local 375 is holding labor-management meetings to deal with the impact of a reorganization that has disrupted the lives of many members by reassigning them to new locations and changing their responsibilities. Some have received promotions, but the authority has also taken away the supervisory responsibilities of many professionals.

“We are not against the reorganization as such,” said Local 375 President Claude Fort. “But it has been brought about very poorly. There are a lot of hardships. Some people with less experience are now overseeing people who have been stripped of supervisory responsibilities that they have had for years.” Although contracting out construction project management will not cause immediate layoffs, the authority is shifting important public oversight and inspection responsibilities to the private sector, Mr. Fort said. The local wants the contracts to be scrapped.

“We face the possibility that over three to five years, we will not be qualified for some of the work because our skills in this area will have eroded. This opens the way to phase out public employees.”