Public Employee Press

1,300 jobs saved at OTB

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Off-Track Betting employees in Local 2021 won another down-to-the-wire race for survival April 17 as the directors of NYC OTB canceled plans to close the operation and lay off all 1,300 employees the next day.

The last-minute decision will keep the beleaguered New York City betting operation alive for another year.

“I am thankful to OTB Chairman Meyer ‘Sandy’ Frucher and OTB’s Executive Committee for preserving the jobs of 1,300 families,” said Local 2021 President Lenny Allen. “Tonight, our members will probably have one of the best nights of sleep they’ve had in a couple of months.”

Allen called the plan “a short-term fix” and said he is “still looking forward to working with NYC OTB and any other stakeholder to create a long-term and permanent solution.”

Bailout talks

Frucher announced the plan a week after progress in Albany bailout talks, with Local 2021 and DC 37 intensely involved, convinced OTB to move its shutdown deadline from April 11 to April 18.

Closing OTB without regard to that progress and restructuring efforts under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy law “would be fundamentally unfair to the employees who have loyally and proudly served,” said Frucher.

The new arrangement preserves the1,300 jobs and honors the January Memorandum of Understanding between the union and the state-run OTB. For long-term survival, the OTB Board called for immediate interim legislation to offer union employees an early-retirement incentive to help reduce the payroll. Frucher also said the needs of the cash-strapped New York Racing Association would have to be addressed.

At an April 7 meeting at DC 37 headquarters, Local 2021 President Lenny Allen delivered a message of solidarity mixed with anxiety to about 160 shop stewards and members as he laid out the union’s hard-fought struggle to save OTB jobs.

In 2001, DC 37 stopped former Mayor Giuliani’s attempt to privatize OTB. In 2008, Gov. David Paterson put the agency under state control, thwarting Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to shut it down.

“There are people who don’t give a damn about us and others who want us dead,” Allen said. “If they let St. Vincent’s (the hospital that served downtown Manhattan for 160 years) close, you know what they think of us.”

In September, Paterson allowed NYC OTB to file for Chapter 9 restructuring, but that depends on Frucher’s ability to raise $250 million through the sale of bonds — a crucial part of a resuscitation plan that to date has not materialized.

At the peak of its success in 2006, OTB took in a handle (total number of bets) of $1.3 billion. Yet a significant portion of the operation’s annual profits goes to upstate breeders, defunct harness tracks and the Racing Association under a legislated distribution formula that cheats New York City of its rightful share, union leaders said. As a result, NYC OTB, whose profits were intended to fund vital city services, has a multi-million dollar deficit.

“Despite everyone who said we would not survive — we are still here,” Allen said. “We are proud of the job we do, proud of our union. Our members have shown courage under fire.” As PEP went to press, Allen and DC 37 Political Action Director Wanda Williams were planning to bring Local 2021 members to Albany April 20 for a special OTB Lobby Day and May 4 as part of DC 37’s annual Lobby Day.