Public Employee Press

Budget saves 1,500 jobs; layoffs still loom

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The layoff picture for fiscal year 2010 brightened somewhat as the City Council and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg agreed on a $59.4 billion budget, which the council approved June 19, less than two weeks before the July 1 deadline

Precise figures on the total number of layoffs were unavailable as PEP went to press, though it was clear that lobbying by DC 37 and community groups had convinced the council to save about 1,500 members’ jobs. Still, in the worst-case scenario, DC 37 could face up to 4,000 layoffs in the year that starts July 1.

“We are working around the clock in negotiations with the city to find alternatives to layoffs and to do everything we can to protect our members’ jobs,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

The executive budget released by Mayor Bloomberg in May called for eliminating 13,541 positions, 9,782 of them through attrition.

DC 37 is pressing the city to avoid as many layoffs as possible and to follow contractual layoff procedures and protections, such as seniority rights. The union is urging the city to redirect funds from wasteful contracting out to saving jobs and public services.

Under an agreement with the Municipal Labor Committee, the city has postponed planned layoffs of at least 1,000 permanent, noncompetitive and labor class workers for 90 days (see City postpones 1,000 firings as Municipal Labor Committee accepts health-care savings). On June 26, the city let go about 280 provisionals.

“The delay lets us continue meeting with agencies to deal with the layoffs,” said DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Dennis Sullivan. “We are pressing the city to find employment opportunities for affected workers.”

Members of Local 372 demonstrated June 17 against cuts in the public schools, where up to 2,600 employees could be targeted for layoffs as principals set their budgets.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the budget restorations would help limit staff reductions at the Administration for Children’s Services, where tense discussions over the layoffs continued.

The budget agreement brought relief to workers in public libraries, where the mayor’s planned cuts would have caused over 900 layoffs and ended six-day service. Locals 374, 1321, 1482 and 1930 organized an aggressive fight-back campaign, and the budget restorations of $46.5 million will protect six-day service. The Queens and Brooklyn library systems indicated that with the restored funding they could avoid layoffs. New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc e-mailed staff that the funds would “maintain six-day service and preserve jobs.”

The budget restored $16 million for cultural institutions, as well as funding for child health clinics and Parks Dept. Playground Associates, and saved the jobs of about 100 Caseworkers and 50 health-care workers.

The union last month succeeded in fighting off the Police Dept. plan to lay off nearly 400 civilian workers (see 'NYPD cancels 400 civilian layoffs')