Public Employee Press

Locals battle cuts

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Determined to fight the vast range of city budget cuts proposed by Mayor Bloomberg, DC 37 local leaders spoke out at City Council and other hearings to explain the devastating effects the cuts would have on city residents and employees.

Bloomberg’s $22 million in cuts aimed at the two-year community colleges of the City University of New York would come on top of Gov. David Paterson’s sharp cut in state funds for the senior colleges. Speaking March 26 at a special hearing convened by the CUNY Student Senate, the Professional Staff Congress, which represents faculty, and DC 37, College Assistants Local 2054 President Colleen Carew-Rogers, charged that the “draconian cuts will affect 10,000 District Council 37 workers who live in the community and provide critical support services for all of the CUNY schools.”

At a joint hearing held March 26 by the City Council’s Education and Finance committees, Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo delivered the testimony of Local President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, who could not attend. He attacked the waste in the city’s five-year $55 million contract with Maximus, Inc. of Virginia for a special education data-tracking program and $23 million in related expenses. Santos called the high-priced software solution “obscene and reckless at a time when school support service employees, who are vital to the learning readiness of all our students, are facing layoffs.”

Health Dept. workers who provide services to public school students are threatened by program cuts and layoffs. Judith Arroyo, president of Local 436, the United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists, testified March 25, calling on the City Council to “do the right thing by the citizens of the city and fund the child health clinics, summer School Nurses, Dentists and Dental Assistants.”

Staff needed at HRA

Local 768 President Fitz Reid reminded Council members that the Health Dept. Oral Health Program that the mayor plans to close is the only school-based dental program in the state that treats uninsured children.

Uniformed Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics Local 2507 President Patrick J. Bahnken and Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Local 3621 President Thomas Eppinger spoke March 20 at a rally in front of City Hall before they appeared before the Council’s Fire and Criminal Justice Committee. Bahnken warned that proposed budgets cuts would “reduce tours of duty, drive up response times, lower the standard of care and impact negatively on patient survivability,” and Eppinger charged that recent decisions by EMS management “will seriously impact delivery of patient care.”

The city’s cultural institutions are facing budget cuts totaling $19.2 million for fiscal year 2010, which begins July 1. At the March 13 hearing of the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Libraries, local leaders representing members at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which includes the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium, stressed the importance of the revenue these tourist attractions generate for the city.

“Many people do not realize that for every dollar the city provides the museum, $7 is returned to the city,” said Peter Vreeland, president of AMNH Local 1559. Also testifying were Local 1306 President Reggie Qadar, Local 1503 President Raoul Baptiste, Local 374 President Cuthbert Dickenson, and Local 1501 Vice President Jonathan Perez.

“In these times of economic downturn, libraries are one of the most important organizations in the community,” Queens Library Guild Local 1321 President Margalit Susser told Council members at the hearing. Emphasizing that message were New York Public Library Guild Local 1930 President Carol Thomas and Brooklyn Library Guild President Eileen Muller.

The recession has “triggered an increase in food stamp applications that has placed a heavy burden on staff at the Human Resources Administration,” Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez told the Council’s Economic Committee as he advocated using more Eligibility Specialists.

At the Finance Committee on March 9, SSEU Local 371 President Faye Moore charged that the Administration for Children’s Services budget proposal “goes beyond fiscal necessity, sets back services by decades and puts children and their families at risk.”

Local 1549 2nd Vice President Ralph Palladino gave the members of the committee sound advice on the overall budget situation: “Don’t ask city workers to pay for a crisis they did not create.”