Maria Negron rises at 2:30 each morning to travel from her Williamsburg apartment to Staten Island to work the 5 a.m. shift.

As the newest member of a crew of 13 who clean the bathrooms and waiting areas in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, Maria sometimes works double shifts to cover for sick co-workers. Crewmembers praise Maria as a “real go-getter who never turns down an assignment.” And morning commuters look for her: Maria’s presence means they’ll find a safe, clean ladies room.

But as the last hired, the Local 1505 member may be the first fired May 17 when Mayor Bloomberg lowers the ax on city jobs. “I really need this job,” Ms. Negron said, fighting back tears. “If I am laid off I don’t know what I will do. I survive from paycheck to paycheck.”

And Maria is the rule, not an exception, among the working families of New York City. More than 1,000 DC 37 members in mayoral agencies are slated to lose their jobs this month; the mayor’s “doomsday” projections call for another 10,000 layoffs if Gov. George E. Pataki succeeds in blocking the legislative accord that would provide the city with fiscal relief.

Neither her diligent work ethic nor the plight of another working class family seemed to register with Mayor Mike as he planned to close the city’s $3.8 billion budget gap by eliminating jobs and services. His 2004 budget proposal lops off working families like the Negrons at the knees and decimates services like education, health clinics, libraries, and police and fire protection in the neighborhoods where they live.

“What the mayor is doing is just not fair,” Ms. Negron said. “We will not be okay. We are going to suffer.” At home Maria is a single parent of a college student and a 14-year-old. Before joining DOT 20 months ago, she worked in a fast food place. She lives with her seamstress mother, who was laid off last year and recently cashed her last unemployment check.

Maria Negron, herself a cancer survivor, has to stay strong. She is now the sole provider for her family. Attendants like Maria Negron make minimal salaries — less than $25,000 a year. But it’s thousands of low-wage unionized city jobs like hers that the wealthy Republican mayor is cutting.

“The mayor needs to look at the excessive waste in DOT before he starts to cut people’s jobs,” said Local 1505 President Michael Hood. DC 37’s three White Papers uncovered over $600 million in savings the city could achieve if it reexamined contracts that DOT and other agencies have with private contractors and consultants. These contractors often do the same work as city employees — but for more money. Polls show that the public wants City Hall to take a closer look at outside contracts before firing municipal workers.

But rather than cutting waste, DC 37 leaders say the mayor has apparently decided to act on his will and not that of the people. “Like George Dubya, who promised to leave no child behind but has opted for bombs over books, billionaire Mayor Mike is toeing the Republican line by waging an all-out attack on labor and working families,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

But DC 37 is fighting back at the bargaining table and in the streets with the huge April 29 rally. At a recent organizing meeting, United for Peace and Justice Co-chair Leslie Cagan said, “Peace and economic justice are interwoven. We have to ask: Why is there always money for weapons and war, but never enough for schools, hospitals and working families?”

For threatened union members like Maria Negron who want work, fair wages and improvements to the services their tax dollars pay for, the message to the mayor is clear: “We perform a good service for this city. We have families to feed and rent to pay.”

“Layoffs will only adversely affect families, communities and the economy,” said Mr. Hood. “Layoffs are not the solution.”

— DSW.