Public Employee Press

Residency bill:
Pressure mounts on City Council

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

In a fight for a right denied, their continued presence is undeniable. On any given Tuesday, DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and hundreds of activists in union-green T-shirts may mobilize at City Hall to press the City Council to pass Intro. 452.

The bill would free 45,000 city employees to live in six counties, Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Orange, Rockland and Westchester, surrounding the city and keep their jobs.

On Dec. 18, the council’s last session before its holiday recess, members lobbied lawmakers in the corridors, cornered them on the steps and filled the upper balcony to keep the pressure on to lift the city’s outdated residency requirement.

As PEP went to press, the union’sPolitical Action Dept. was planning another day of action at City Hall to lobby local lawmakers on Intro. 452, and Roberts was scheduled to meet with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on the issue.

Over the last five months, Roberts and union leaders and local presidents have been relentless in the push for parity with thousands of other city workers on the residency issue.

Members have mailed hundreds of letters and postcards and placed thousands of phone calls to local lawmakers, and DC 37 has held four demonstrations. They want Council Speaker Christine Quinn to call a vote on the bill.

“The city of New York agreed to lift the residency requirement in our last contract,” said Roberts. Now the union needs the City Council to do what’s democratic and right: Honor the citywide pact, call a vote and pass Intro. 452.

DC 37 has steadily gained support from other labor unions, community organizations and members of the City Council, where a growing majority now backs Intro. 452, said DC37 Political Action Director Wanda Williams.

Intro. 452 would provide the 45,000DC 37 members covered by the residency rules opportunities to live in surrounding communities by giving DC 37 employees parity with Teachers, Police Officers and Corrections and Sanitation workers.

Under the proposed legislation, DC 37 members would have the right to live in six surrounding counties and to create a better life for themselves and their families without jeopardizing their livelihoods and the jobs they love.

Lifting the residency requirement would not lead to an influx of people from outside the city taking city jobs or a mass exodus of city workers to the suburbs, Roberts said.