Public Employee Press

Union pushes for contract talks

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

District Council 37's Bargaining Committee will meet June 3 to kick off 2014 negotiations on a new economic agreement for 100,000 members.

The committee - DC 37's local presidents and four top officers - will consider the bargaining climate in the light of the recently settled teachers' contract and the $3.4 billion health-care savings agreement between the city and the municipal employee unions. The committee will revisit the demands that have been on the table since the failed contract talks under the previous mayor and weigh strategy for negotiations with the de Blasio administration.

"We are ready to go," DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. "The teachers' contract has established a floor for us to move ahead with negotiations, and the savings in the Municipal Labor Committee agreement will help fund a new economic contract."

DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Evelyn Seinfeld has notified the city that DC 37 will be ready to start bargaining after the June 3 meeting. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's refusal to negotiate contracts with city workers' unions unless they would agree to huge payments by members for health coverage left about 300,000 municipal employees in over 150 unions working under expired contracts with no raises for many years and left Mayor de Blasio with a multi-billion-dollar budget gap to fill.

De Blasio settles with teachers

De Blasio wanted to settle with the United Federation of Teachers first because they were further behind than most other city unions and never received the two 4 percent pay increases that most DC 37 members and others got in 2008 and 2009.

Settling outstanding contracts and the health-care savings will bring budgetary stability to the city and address the pocketbook needs of hundreds of thousands of municipal employees who haven't had a raise for four or more years because of Bloomberg's fiscally irresponsible labor policy.

As the UFT negotiations heated up, union health-care technicians searched for potential savings. On May 2, the day after the UFT pact, the Municipal Labor Committee, which bargains on health-care issues for city unions, reached an agreement with the de Blasio administration.

"What's most important about the health-care agreement is that we preserved our existing coverage without adding to members' out-of-pocket costs," said DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido. "Through at least 2018 members will not have to contribute toward premiums." The agreement calls for $3.4 billion in savings from fiscal year 2015 through fiscal year 2018. Working with health-care technicians of the MLC unions, Senior Health Planning Director Willie Chang of the DC 37 Health and Security Plan is spearheading a study to identify health-care savings areas.

The city and unions have not yet agreed on specifics, but possible savings could come from establishing a wellness program and a network of clinics, guaranteeing projected rate increases in health insurance premiums, and terminating the family coverage of employees who cannot document dependents. If the unions and city cannot agree on changes, an arbitrator will resolve the dispute.

"As always, our proposals and settlement will reflect the unique and diverse needs of our members," Seinfeld said.

"There are specific needs of our members that I aim to address now that the pathway to a new contract has opened up," Roberts said. That includes finding additional money for members covered by a joint city-union Salary Review Committee that studied funding to upgrade certain titles represented by DC 37.

"We are happy to have a framework for negotiations," Seinfeld said. "But we are at the beginning of the process, and there are a lot of issues to address. We look forward to working out the specifics once we are at the bargaining table."

The economic agreement that will be negotiated will affect members at mayoral agencies, the Health and Hospitals Corp., the Housing Authority, cultural institutions and libraries. Not directly covered will be employees of state agencies, the Emergency Medical Service, the City University, the School Construction Authority, New York Law School, the Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Fire Protection Inspectors and Associate FPIs, Maintainer titles at the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and workers in prevailing-rate titles.