By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

Many members of District Council 37 spend their entire working lives providing vital services for New Yorkers — health care, education, roads, clean water, public housing, school support services, protecting children, financing government. Our jobs make New York work, yet war has been declared on city workers, and we are defending our civil service careers from an administration that favors private contractors over public services.

We have begun a massive fightback campaign to alert the public to what City Hall is doing with their money, and our message is getting out. More and more New Yorkers are realizing that the colossal waste in the city’s $9 billion of contracting out is responsible for weakening city services and throwing people out of work.

As voters learn that the city hands over $9 billion of tax money to the business sector every year with little oversight, they understand that the mayor’s pleas of poverty are exaggerated. Our strength grows with every taxpayer who finds out that the Health Dept. is paying a private agency $56 an hour to supply school nurses instead of hiring city nurses who do a better job for $38 an hour.

Our message is getting out

People are seeing our subway ads, hearing our radio ads and reading the fliers our activists are distributing all over the five boroughs. I am getting phone calls from new supporters every day, and many of them are using our Web site, www.dc37.net, to send tough messages to the mayor.

In May, more than 150 members and staff came out on a Sunday to hand out union fliers in many communities. Others leafleted subway stops during weekday rush hours. And now we have mobilized a powerful new force in our campaign to combat contracting out, protect public services and save jobs — the union’s army of shop stewards and political volunteers (see 'Mobilize').

I want to personally thank each of the 700 grassroots activists who rallied at the union June 11 and pledged to dedicate their time and effort to send this drive into high gear. It was inspiring to hear them rise one after another to proclaim their pride as public service workers and offer creative suggestions on how we can intensify this campaign against contracting out.

New groups of activists have joined the fight against contracting out. It was exciting to see so many young unionists from our Next Wave new leadership program at the rally. I was also thrilled to see the high spirits of the organized Job Training Participants. They are fighting to replace overpriced outside contractors and be hired into real city jobs when they finish their training, instead of being dumped back on welfare in the administration’s cruel treadmill to nowhere.

Seeing the activists leave the rally all fired up and carrying bundles of fliers to distribute in their churches and communities told me we are on the right track and rolling ahead.

2009 Labor Day Parade will honor DC 37 members

Many a mayor has taken on District Council 37. They’re all gone now, and we are here celebrating our 65th anniversary this year. As we fight to defend our civil service careers, the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council has decided to show solidarity with our members and honor our 65 years of dedication to public service by putting DC 37 at the front of the Labor Day Parade, September 12, and naming me as Grand Marshal.

Saturday, September 12, will be our day, and I hope you will be marching proudly shoulder-to-shoulder with me up Fifth Avenue in the forefront of New York City’s mighty labor movement.