PEP, April 2009: 50,000 protest cuts

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

More than 50,000 workers and community activists demonstrated March 5 against devastating service and job cuts proposed by the mayor and governor and called for tax hikes on the wealthy to close looming deficits.

DC 37 leaders and activists were among the huge throng of protesters who lined Broadway from City Hall to beyond Canal Street. Major contingents came also from the teachers’ union and Service Employees 1199.

The lively two-hour demonstration was one of eight rallies throughout the state that day protesting budget cuts that threaten to cripple education, health care and other services and wipe out the jobs of thousands of public employees.

The “fair share” tax reform proposal supported by the One New York Coalition — which spearheaded the statewide demonstrations — would close $6 billion of the state’s $14 billion budget gap by modest tax increases on families with annual incomes over $250,000.

Class warfare
“We’re saying loud and clear, ‘Stop your union-busting tactics of pitting workers against the community!’ ”DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said at the New York City rally.

In the current budget crisis, “War has been declared on the middle class, the poor and the unions,” Roberts said. In the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, the state, city and unions worked together constructively and “shared the pain,” she pointed out.

“The mayor is spending $9 billion of taxpayers’ money to contract out our jobs when city workers do the work better and for less,” Roberts said. She called for political leaders to close the budget gaps by dipping into the state’s rainy day fund, ending the use of highly paid consultants, reforming the tax structure to make the wealthy pay their fair share, and restoring spending cuts to prevent service reductions and layoffs.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who spoke at the rally, supports raising the local tax on high incomes to help address next year’s projected $4 billion deficit.

Demonstrators carried placards with messages like “Service Cuts Bleed Us All,” “Stop Contracting Out,” “Layoffs Make Recession Worse,” “Stop Destabilizing My Community,” “Protect Seniors, Save Health Care” and “Protect Immigrant Services.”

Backlash against financial lords

In interviews, members voiced fear of losing their jobs because of budget cuts and said they are angry that public employees are being asked to bear an unfair share of the pain of an economic crisis brought on by a corrupt financial elite that profited from the dot-com and housing bubbles.

“You got a guy who stole $50 billion,” said School Aide Shelton Moore, a member of Board of Education Employees Local 372. “When you steal that much, it means that you don’t care about people.”

Moore was referring to Bernard Madoff, who a week later pleaded guilty to running perhaps the biggest investment fraud in history. “With $50 billion, you could take care of Washington, New York and Philly,” said Moore.

“Before the mayor starts to cut the services that keep the city running, there is so much waste that they could cut, like outside contracts,” said Local 375 member Rajiv Gowda, a Project Manager at the Dept. of Design and Construction. “You don’t start by cutting health and schools. First you get at the fat.”

The labor leaders, community activists and politicians who addressed the crowd spoke from a podium with a giant monitor that allowed demonstrators to see them from blocks away and a huge sign that said, “Cuts are not the answer.” For speakers, the answer was that the best way to deal with the budget crisis and to prevent a social calamity is to make the rich pay their fair share.DC 37’s Council Rep Sheila Rabb provided sign language for the speakers.

Over the last 15 years, the state enacted tax cuts that shaved revenue by $20 billion this year, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. The cuts went mainly to the wealthy, whose tax rate was reduced by 50 percent. From 2002 to 2009, only the richest 5 percent benefited from the economic growth, while the income of everyone else stagnated, according to FPI.

DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray introduced the DC 37 leaders who spoke to the crowd. “We did not create this economic nightmare,” said DC 37 President and Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, charging that Paterson and Bloomberg were unfairly hitting public employees with the burden of budget shortfalls caused by corporations and their CEOs. Besides Montgomery-Costa and Roberts, the DC 37 speakers included Clerical-Administrative Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez, Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482 President Eileen Muller, Hospital Employees Local 420 President Carmen Charles and Social Service Employees Union Local 371 President Faye Moore.

Other labor leaders who spoke included Denis Hughes, head of the New York State AFL-CIO; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; George Grisham, president of Health Care Employees 1199; Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, and Harry Nespoli, chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, which represents municipal employees on health and welfare benefits.

An out-of-touch billionaire mayor
In his weekly radio address the day after the rally, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg commented on the proposal to raise the taxes on the wealthy. “We can tax the rich, except that, if you haven’t looked at the stock market lately, they aren’t making any money,” said Bloomberg, who is the richest person in New York City with a net worth of $16 billion, according to Forbes magazine. “We want the rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people.”

“The comments by Mayor Bloomberg sadly illustrate that he just doesn’t get it,” said New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., who spoke at the rally and plans to run against Bloomberg in this year’s mayoral election.

“Our country and our city are facing one of the most difficult economic challenges in history. Our working families, who make this city great, are struggling to keep their homes, their jobs and their health care. We need fair and balanced solutions to protect them.”