Public Employee Press

Local 1455 takes over from private firms:
Contracting IN saves union jobs, city money

By DIANE S. WILLAMS

Saving members' jobs and the city's money, Traffic Employees Local 1455 and the Dept. of Transportation have initiated a pilot program in Queens to contract in street sign production and installation.

"Two years ago we began talking to DOT management and City Council member James Vacca about our ideas to save money by contracting in sign work," said Local 1455 President Mike DeMarco. "We showed them examples of waste and bad work by the private firms - poor signage inconsistent with what the city uses and signs installed pointing the wrong way and even upside down. Our members would find and report the mistakes and wait for official approval to do the projects over."

DOT and Vacca, who chairs the Transportation Committee, paid attention to DeMarco's ideas.

Local 1455 drew on the success of the gain-sharing incentive negotiated in 1994 by then-president Bill Fenty. When Local 1455's Traffic Device Maintainer members produced more than 10.5 signs a day, DOT paid them a bonus.

"The program was successful. The more work we produced, the more money we made and the more the city saved," DeMarco explained. "Over 18 years, TDMs saved the city millions."

"This local and DC 37 are fighting all attempts to privatize public services in New York City," DeMarco said. "Showing that we can do the job better at a significant cost savings made sense to DOT."

Using Section 11 of the economic agreement, DeMarco submitted the proposal for TDMs to produce and hang street regulation parking signs for alternate side of the street parking, no standing, no parking, and muni-meters in Queens Community Board 7 in Flushing. In mid-January, DOT gave the green light for the pilot program.

As more city agencies look for ways to tighten their budgets, DC 37 advocates more contracting in. The union's white papers exposed how private contractors waste taxpayers' money on massive budget overruns and fraud. "Contracting in saves the city money and saves union jobs by averting layoffs and downsizing," said DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido.

"With this signage project, we convinced the city to let us work block by block like contractors do," said DeMarco. "We proved we could do as many signs as a contractor, if not more."

In four months, TDMs installed more than 2,000 parking signs, averaging 23 signs a day.

Last year's muni-meter installation project, when completed, will take the city from 65,000 on-street single-space meters to 15,000 muni-meters, but it decreased the need for Maintainers and left the local facing job cuts. Contracting in the signage work averted 50 potential layoffs while saving money for the city.

Better work, more savings

"I give DOT and the city credit for working with us and continuing to work with us - they see the savings," DeMarco said. "TDMs do the job better, and it's more cost-effective to use public workers who know the job best. TDMs know the state and federal transportation regulations and city guidelines and follow them every day."

DeMarco is also proposing more contracting in at DOT, such as painting the lane stripes that improve safety on city streets, work that is now contracted out.

"If we could convince the agency to bring this work in-house, Local 1455 members could handle it and in the long run it would save lives and taxpayers' money," added DeMarco.

"Everyone wins with contracting in - the city, its employees and all New Yorkers," he said.