Public Employee Press

DC 37 battles destructive restructuring plan at HHC: Protest hits laundry privateers

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Members of Local 420 and supporters from DC 37 and dozens of locals rallied at Health and Hospitals Corp. headquarters Aug. 25 to protest HHC's plan to privatize its laundry operations and lay off 120 workers from Brooklyn Central Laundry.

As the angry unionists marched, union lawyers filed a suit against the plan in nearby New York State Supreme Court. The union charged that HHC, the city and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg were violating a 2005 city agreement to do the laundry work in-house and keep the Local 420 members on the job.

At the demonstration, Local 420 President Carmen Charles, DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray and several local leaders delivered the union's message loud and clear.
"We will keep rallying and marching and making our voices heard, because contracting out this work is wrong for our members and wrong for the city," said Charles.

"HHC has broken its promise and we're not going to accept that," said Gray, speaking on behalf of DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez, Local 924 President Kyle Simmons, Local 768 President Fitz Reid and other rank-and-file leaders addressed the rally and expressed their solidarity with the laundry workers.

Locals unite behind workers

"This is everyone's fight," said Social Service Employees Union Local 371 President Faye Moore, who was accompanied by a large contingent from her local, "and we've all got to stand up and fight together."

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani pushed to contract out the public hospital system's laundry work in 1998, and HHC's new restructuring/downsizing plan, ­announced in May by HHC President Alan D. Aviles, again targets BCL for privatization.
The legal action points out that HHC has failed to return to BCL the part of the laundry work contracted out to New Jersey-based Angelica Textile Services, breaking its commitment to the workers, the union and the East Flatbush community.

The suit also charges that HHC's current request for proposals, a step toward contracting out under the restructuring plan, clearly signals another attempt to lay off the longtime dedicated workers in violation of the 2005 agreement.

The Local 420 workers at the three-story facility clean 10 million pounds of laundry annually for HHC hospitals and morgues, getting the job done in 24 hours. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, they handled contaminated uniforms from Fire, Police and EMS workers and other responders at Ground Zero.

Local 420 has been campaigning all summer to save the laundry. The drive included a June 16 rally at BCL and June 17 testimony before the City Council Finance Committee. The militant protest Aug. 25 was organized by Local 420 with strong support from Roberts and the DC 37 Hospitals Division.

"Instead of contracting out and privatizing services, we recommend that management at HHC work closely with Local 420 and all unions to improve the efficiency and the quality of care that every New Yorker deserves," Charles told the City Council.