Public Employee Press

Annual breakfast
City Council gets union message

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

District Council 37 presented its 2014 legislative and budgetary priorities Feb. 26 at the union's annual City Council Breakfast. Executive Director Lillian Roberts, Associate Director Henry Garrido and Political Action Director Wanda Williams welcomed over 200 participants, including DC 37 local leaders and a majority of the City Council, who attended personally and sent representatives to the traditional early morning meeting at union headquarters.

In her opening remarks, Roberts stressed the importance of eliminating the one-in-three rule - which lets management select at will from among the top three candidates on civil service promotion lists - and instead appointing eligibles in list order.

Doing this would eliminate favoritism and potential discrimination based on race, sex or age from promotion decisions, Roberts said.

Garrido reminded participants that the Dept. of Education continues to be the biggest abuser of consulting and private contacts and pointed out that the city still fails to collect millions of dollars in outstanding revenue that could be used to improve public services. "Working together with the City Council we can help collect this money," he said.

Garrido reiterated the union's support for Mayor Bill de Blasio's universal pre-kindergarten proposal. "His plan provides a permanent stream of revenue to fund UPK," he said.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito introduced the Council members present, praised the vital services city employees provide and promised to work closely with DC 37 and the other unions of municipal workers.

"I look forward to working together with you to address your contract situation, which is long overdue," she said. "This City Council has always stood firmly with labor because we respect labor." The election of Mayor Bill de Blasio created an "incredible opportunity" for enacting progressive legislation, she added.

Standing together

"It's important that we work together," Roberts told the assembled City Council members. "Together we can do some great things for our members and for this city."

The 60 proposals the union presented include measures to increase the availability and affordability of child care, require agencies to seek reductions in outside contract costs, end contracting out of civil service positions, offer more civil service tests, add personnel to meet service and revenue needs, establish fair share taxation of corporations and the wealthy, restore the commuter and stock transfer taxes, strengthen school substance abuse services, improve funding of public hospitals and clinics, ensure civilianization of uniformed agencies and improve health-care coverage for retirees.