Public Employee Press

Union battles Bloomberg's budget cuts
Massive demonstration June 14. Contract talks to open June 15.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Thousands of DC 37 members will hit the streets June 14 for a massive rally against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's budget plan, which would devastate education and other public services and wipe out 10,000 municipal jobs.

The protest will hit City Hall the day before District Council 37 is scheduled to open negotiations on a new economic agreement for 100,000 members.

The fightback rally will start at 4:30 p.m. outside City Hall Park at Broadway and Barclay streets. Members will demonstrate to stop layoffs, protect services for communities, stop privatization and protect the civil service system.

"We want to send a loud message that the budget the mayor issued May 6 would unravel the fabric of our government and damage the living standards of working people in New York City," DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. "In this fragile economy, public services are needed more than ever."

The mayor's ruthless $66.7 billion fiscal plan would cut city spending by $262 million, lay off almost 6,000 employees and eliminate more than 4,000 positions in the year beginning July 1. The layoffs would hit 4,278 teachers and 1,471 other employees, including 812 workers in city libraries and cultural institutions.

Mobilizing for June 14 rally

The three library systems would take a $28.8 million hit, causing the loss of a day of service each week, the administration said. Cultural institutions would suffer a $12.9 million loss, including a destructive 44 percent cut to the New York Botanical Garden.

DC 37 leaders and activists will speak out against the cuts and layoffs June 6 at a City Council budget hearing.

In addition to mobilizing members for the June 14 rally, DC 37 locals are working on their own fightback actions, writing letters to City Council members and holding smaller protests. Members of Queens Library Guild Local 1321, for instance, will rally June 7 at the borough's central library in Jamaica. The union's two Lifeguard locals are lobbying intensely to scuttle the administration's plan to close municipal pools two weeks early this summer.

Joined by local union and community leaders, Roberts is denouncing the cuts on DC 37's TV and radio shows.

Hearings on revenue, contracting

A DC 37 hearing April 28 that showed how the city could avoid layoffs and service cuts by collecting $500 million in outstanding revenue without raising taxes (pages 10-11).

At a similar hearing in February on the city's $10 billion contracting-out budget, panelists pointed to the waste of millions of tax dollars that would be more efficiently spent by keeping work in house.

While the mayor blames part of his budget gap on a $600 million shortfall in hoped-for state funds, his proposed budget raises contracting-out spending by $600 million.

"The budget is a political document that expresses Bloomberg's priorities," Roberts said. "In reality, there is enough money to provide our members with a decent contact and a fair raise while ensuring that city residents get the services they deserve."

The proposed budget would eliminate 387 health and welfare jobs through layoffs and attrition, including 178 layoffs at the Administration for Children's Services and 102 at the Health Dept.

The Finance Dept. has already moved forward with more than 90 of the 129 layoffs targeted there. On the positive side, the budget funds 61 new revenue-producing positions.

Although layoffs of civilian workers are not expected at the Police Dept., the budget would eliminate 350 non-uniformed posts there.

The preliminary budget proposal called for cutting $91 million from day care funds. Although labor pressure (see pages 14-15) forced Bloomberg to restore $40 million, his latest budget would still eliminate subsidies for 7,000 children from low-income families, including families of many
DC 37 members.

The root of the fiscal pressure on the city lies in excessive spending on contracting out, the administration's failure to collect owed business taxes, its rejection of higher taxes on the wealthy, the loss of $2 billion of state aid for education and health care and the end of federal stimulus funding. Although earlier this year the mayor announced $2 billion in unexpected revenue, he targeted the funds for future budget gaps.

The union's campaign against contracting out and last year's arrests of consultants charged with an $80 million fraud in the troubled CityTime payroll project have put pressure on the administration to look for savings by eliminating wasteful contracts and keeping work in-house. Several City Council members, including Speaker Christine Quinn, have called for such savings.