Public Employee Press

Budget hearings highlight union priorities, workers' needs

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

As the annual budget dance came to an end, union leaders continued to lobby the City Council's Finance Committee to provide adequate funding to expand city services and make amendments to Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposed $82.1 billion budget.

The new budget must be approved before the 2017 fiscal year begins on July 1.

At the top of the union's list of priorities was the inclusion of an additional $65 million for operating expenses for the city's three library systems. The library's budget reductions date from the administration of Mayor Bill
de Blassio's predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.

The union also lobbied for the allocation of $7 million for the troubled Cultural Institutions Retirement System, which covers 20,000 employees. Forty percent of the plan participants, mostly DC 37 members, work for cultural institutions and 60 percent work at day-care centers.

At the City Council's Finance Committee budget hearing on May 24, Local 372 Political Director Jacquelin Febrillet urged the Council to include an additional $3 million to hire more Substance Abuse and Prevention and Intervention Specialists for city schools.

"The increased deaths of students in Staten Island due to drug and substance abuse prove that more SAPIS counselors are urgently needed," Febrillet said. The local is also calling for School Crossing Guard jobs to be turned into full-time positions.

Local 1549 2nd Vice President Ralph Palladino called for the City Council to support the mayor's plan for additional funding for the NYC Health + Hospitals system and for its support for hiring 200 Police Administrative Aides. "There are still roughly 500 positions that should be filled by Police Administrative Aides and are still being occupied by uniformed personnel," Palladino said at the hearing.

During the hearing, union presidents called for more funds at the Dept. of Parks and Recreation to allow the pool and beach season to be extended by a week and to ensure that 50 Gardeners and 200 City Park Workers aren't displaced from their jobs.