PEP, May 2010: Proud to be DC 37

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The nearly 100 finger-imaging workers who recently voted to join DC 37 hope union representation will bring greater job security, better pay and benefits.

But they say their decision to vote to join Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 was based on more than financial self-interest.

For them, going union also means dignity on the job.

“I wanted a voice,” said Louise Bordley. “We don’t have anyone to go to if we have a problem with a supervisor. We’re already wrong and what she says goes.”

“Oh God,” said Gwendolyn Jones, rolling her eyes and telling how management treated workers at her office in a Human Resources Administration building on Staten Island. “No respect. We are treated like children. They don’t get to know you personally.”

Several of the workers visited their new home at DC 37 April 19 to celebrate the organizing victory. Ninety-eight percent of those who participated in the mail vote tabulated March 10 by the National Labor Relations Board chose to go union.

“I want to thank you for voting for 1549,” said Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez. “You are now part of our family, members of a strong union that will fight for a contract and to protect your jobs. You can count on the support of the city’s largest municipal union, which is part of a national union of over 1 million members.”

The Automated Finger-Imaging Operators, as the workers are titled, work at 43 HRA and Homeless Services sites throughout the city. Their employer is the temporary agency Distinctive Personnel, which has a contract with the state Office of Temporary Disability Assistance.

The workers are responsible for taking digitized fingerprints of applicants for public assistance. Ironically, many of the employees themselves qualify for public assistance because of their low wage of $8.45 an hour.

“I would run into these workers when I visited city work sites,” said Rep Kathleen Newallo, who brought the workers’ plight to the attention of
DC 37 Clerical-Administrative Division Director Ronnie Harris a few years ago. “It seemed like it was almost slave labor.”

Economic hardship

Besides talking about indignities on the job, the workers complained about their economic hardships and the absence of benefits and paid vacation days.

They expressed their concern about their status as temporary employees, who can be dismissed without cause. Some of them are “permanent” temps with 40-hour workweeks, while others are “floaters,” who work fewer hours, sometimes with erratic schedules.

“We need a union,” said Karen Douglas. “I have been with the company seven years, but I don’t have any sick days. I get $300 a week and my rent is $600. It’s very hard.”

George Gonos, professor of sociology and employment relations at the State University of New York at Potsdam, called DC 37’s latest organizing victory a sign of hope for workers in the low-wage, nonunionized, unregulated staffing industry.

“Organizing what are now called contract workers has been difficult for unions and very rare,” said Gonos, pointing out that municipal and state governments use temp agencies to avoid hiring union workers with decent wages and benefits. “Now we are finally making some progress. This is an important example, or model, for other contract workers who are exploited” by staffing companies, he said.

“The next step is for us is to negotiate about workplace conditions and get these workers a contract,” said Jim Cullen, the DC 37’s acting organizing director. “We already are reaching out to the employer.”