"Letting our members do the jobs they are trained for is the most economical way to deliver quality public services."

By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME

Our members in jobs across the city are saying it: We can do the work!

The plan for saving $600 million that we issued May 2 on the steps of City Hall rests on that simple concept: Letting our members do the jobs they are trained for is the most economical way to provide the quality government services New Yorkers deserve.

With the city facing an estimated $5 billion budget gap, the mayor asked for our recommendations on cutting government spending. We reached out to members in every agency. They keep the city running, and they know better than anyone where money is being wasted and how savings can be achieved. From the suggestions of rank-and-file city employees, a DC 37 task force put together a comprehensive "white paper" that detailed dozens of areas for cutting costs without cutting jobs or services.

Our 43-page report is titled "We Can Do the Work: How the City Can Save Over $600 Million Without Cutting Services." The largest savings our members identified are based on two fundamental principles:

Behind contracting out government work lies a myth about the efficiency of the private sector. In jobs from engineering to social services, our members have found that the truth is the opposite: The profit motive adds to the cost and leads to slipshod work that has to be inspected carefully by municipal employees and all-too-often must be redone.

The truth is that contracting out is just the latest form of political patronage. The new mayor is not yet tied into this corrupt system. We are asking him to take a fresh look at the excessive cost of using consultants and outside contractors. The truth is that public services are too important to be trusted to the private sector. We say cut the waste. We can do the work - better and for less money.

Assigning civilian work to the uniformed forces is another expensive mistake. Thousands of uniformed officers are now doing civilian jobs - from clerical work to accounting to counseling students about drugs. Because of the dangers they face, the police are paid much more on the average than non-uniformed workers. We are not trained to carry firearms, but the police are not trained for our jobs - and the facts show they cannot perform them well.

Civilianization means putting the armed officers back into public safety work, and saving millions of dollars by using DC 37 members for the non-law enforcement tasks. These are our jobs. We can do the work.

By taking this position, we mean no disrespect toward our uniformed forces. As Local 1549 Chapter Chair Alvin Carter says on page 5, we applaud them when they are on patrol protecting the public. But when they are doing our jobs for double the pay, frankly, the waste offends our dignity.

On pages 4-8 of this special edition of the Public Employee Press, union members and elected leaders tell of the waste they have found and describe some of our recommendations. You can see the full study on the DC 37 Web site or write in for a copy (see page 7).

Taking back our jobs and saving money
A few people have said we are looking to take other peoples' jobs. Wrong. We are looking to take back our own jobs - and save the city millions of dollars in the process. We will be monitoring the situation carefully, of course, because we want these ideas acted on. We know services and jobs are at stake.

But we also know this will not be a one-shot war. We at DC 37 are committed to wage this struggle for as many years and as many budgets as it takes. Contracting out has grown for decades. We will not stop until we reverse this trend, help the city brighten its fiscal future, and bring back public work for public workers - because we can do the work.