Public Employee Press

Roberts to city: Speed up wage talks

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

With the one-year anniversary of the expiration of the 2002-2005 economic agreement approaching, the union pressed the city to pick up the pace of bargaining for a new pact.

“It’s time for the rhetoric to match reality,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, who expressed her anger over the slow movement in contract talks May 15 at the latest bargaining session.

“The union has shown great flexibility in its effort to move along these talks, but unfortunately, the city has not acted similarly,” she said.

At the May 15 meeting, while the city increased its wage offer slightly and dropped a few of its demands, the union modified its economic demands in a significant step toward reaching a conclusion as quickly as possible.

Addressing Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley, Roberts indicated that she had hoped for better progress at the meeting. She strongly underscored the union’s desire for both sides to focus more acutely on substantive issues and come up with an agreement soon.
“We need to really intensify our efforts if we are to reach a voluntary agreement,” said Dennis Sullivan, director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

Hanley acknowledged that the pace of negotiations has been slow. And he expressed a willingness to schedule more frequent sessions between the city and the union, which have held six formal meetings so far.

During caucus sessions on May 15, members of the Negotiating Committee, which is made up of DC 37’s 56 local presidents, raised a number of concerns. These included substantially increasing resources for the welfare fund (which covers union benefits such as prescription drug coverage), providing a reasonable wage increase, and addressing modifications contained in the last economic agreement.

Roberts said that two factors — the potential savings that the union identified in its White Paper project on city waste and contracting out, and the city’s projected $5 billion surplus in the current fiscal year — established the economic parameters for a settlement with a decent wage package.

Nearly 100,000 DC 37 members are covered by the economic agreement. While the pact expired June 30, 2005, its terms remain in effect.
“I am not happy with what is happening,” Roberts said at the conclusion of the May 15 bargaining session.

“We are very serious about our demands,” she said. “We presented a reasonable package at the table that addresses the needs of our members, who include some of the lowest paid but hardest working employees on the city payroll.”

She summed up the union’s position this way: “When the union has presented its White Paper research, the city enjoys a huge surplus and we have modified our demands, there is absolutely no excuse for the insufficient movement in these talks.”