PEP, June 2009: Layoff war

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The union is engaged in a war to win back the jobs of 48 zoo and aquarium employees in Local 1501.

The Wildlife Conservation Society fired the workers in April after it claimed that not enough employees took a voluntary separation package to avoid the layoffs.

DC 37 has blasted the WCS for callously moving forward with the layoffs while ducking its legal and contractual obligations to explore alternatives with the union.

During the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the laid-off members are scrambling to find new jobs and struggling to cover their living costs with savings and unemployment compensation.

“I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus,” said Supervising Maintainer Bill Sheehan, 60, who was let go after 12 years at the New York Aquarium. Two weeks after his firing, Sheehan returned to pick up his possessions only to find a nonunion, part-time worker he had trained doing his job.

“The noose is already tightening. The future is bleak out there,” he said.

Richard Walton, who worked in the zoo’s Horticultural Dept., said he has a possible job lined up as a horticulturalist. But while the pay is comparable to his $31,000 zoo salary, the benefits would be significantly poorer.

“The zoo did what it wanted,” he said. “They didn’t care about anyone. For the average Joe who simply wants to work, it’s a slap in the face from corporate America.”

While the WCS arrogantly refused to discuss alternatives, most other cultural institutions have worked constructively with the union to minimize the harm caused by budget cuts, said DC 37 White Collar Division Director Michael Riggio. About a dozen layoffs have occurred at those institutions, but the union has avoided mass layoffs by negotiating reassignments, furloughs, and temporary closings with the institutions, he said.

Anti-union management

“We are doing everything we can to protect your interests, and we will not rest until every one of you is back to work,” DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Dennis Sullivan told a group of the laid-off workers at a meeting on May 12. He expressed his frustration and anger at the anti-union personnel practices of current WCS management, which he said marked an unfortunate sharp departure from the behavior of previous administrations.

In the briefing, Sullivan, Riggio and Sr. Assistant General Counsel Steven Sykes informed the workers about the legal, political and other steps the union is taking to battle the layoffs.

Assistant General Counsel Meaghean Murphy filed a federal unfair labor practice charge against the WCS for failing to negotiate with DC 37 before laying off the members, and the union has inundated WCS with grievances about how management’s actions violated the contract by ignoring seniority rights and cutting the pay of members bumped to new positions.

On May 20 at the Bronx Zoo and May 21 at the New York Aquarium, Local 1501 members distributed leaflets to the public and gathered with their laid-off co-workers during their lunch breaks in a poignant show of solidarity.

The union has begun a petition drive asking zoo visitors to oppose the layoffs and service cuts and plans a letter-writing campaign to trustees and City Council members, as well as media outreach.

At DC 37’s Lobby Day in Albany May 5, Assistant White Collar Division Director Chris Wilgenkamp led a delegation of staffers and Local 1501 activists that visited politicians, including State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., who represents the Bronx.

“Zoo visitors are paying the same money, but they are getting less to see,” said Robert Herkommer, president of WCS Employees Local 1501. The WCS has closed three Bronx Zoo exhibits — the World of Darkness, the Yak House and the Rare Animal Range — and is seeking new homes for some of its animals.

“Enough is enough,” Herkommer said. “Now the Wildlife Conservation Society needs to be responsible, which means they have to sit down and negotiate.”

If there is a silver lining in the tragic situation, Herkommer said, it’s that the layoffs and cuts are increasing unity among members. “It’s definitely bringing us closer. That is what unions are about in tough times like these.”