By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 hit the streets in April to protest the MTA's decision to contract out design work for the 2nd Avenue Subway.

The local charges that the agency is wasting about $250 million in the $600 million project by failing to keep the job in-house.

Nearly 500 Local 375 and DC 37 members demonstrated April 24 and 25 in front of MTA New York City Transit's capital projects headquarters at 2 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

The protesters expressed outrage over the waste of tax dollars at a time when the city and state are struggling to plug big budget gaps.

"MTA Transit should use its own 1,200 civil service engineers to do this job," Local 375 President Claude Fort said at the noontime April 24 rally.
"The state and city are looking for savings," said DC 37 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, who is also president of Board of Education Employees Local 372. "Well, we are here to tell them that we have over $250 million in savings if they allow us to do this work."

In November, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees MTA New York City Transit, approved a $200 million contract with DMJM+Harris ARUP (DHA) to do the preliminary design work for the project.

Usually the firm chosen for the preliminary plans also wins the contract for the final drawings, which means DMJM stands to earn a total of $600 million for the project. The new train would provide service from the 125th Street area to downtown Manhattan. The union estimates that the whole design job could be done in-house for $350 million.

The protesters carried placards with such messages as "Derail Privatization. Keep the Subway Design In-House," "Civil Servants do it Better. Let Local 375 Design the Subway!" "Hey-Hey MTA. How much money did you waste today?" and "2nd Avenue Subway - For the People and By the People."
One speaker, former New York City Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, suggested that the contracting-out scheme was an ideologically driven attack on public employees. "When government itself says government is the enemy, something is foul," he said. "If you have qualified employees who can do this job, it's criminal to go elsewhere."

Other speakers who offered support included DC 37 Treasurer and Local 983 President Mark Rosenthal, Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez, Local 375 Treasurer and Transit Chapter President Robert Mariano and other leaders and rank- and-filers of Local 375, state Assembly candidates and representatives of the Association of Staff Analysts, the Manhattan Borough President's office, striking GHI workers represented by OPEIU Local 153 and the New York City Central Labor Council.

"You can turn it around," said Transit Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, urging Local 375 to keep the pressure on. "Turn up the heat and take it to the streets!"