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PEP Archives | May 2002
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CONTRACTING OUT
City Engineers fight back
Local 375 members demonstrated two days in a row to keep the 2nd Avenue
subway design work in-house.
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By GREGORY N. HEIRES
Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 hit the streets in April to
protest the MTA's decision to contract out design work for the 2nd
Avenue Subway.
The local charges that the agency is wasting about $250 million in
the $600 million project by failing to keep the job in-house.
Nearly 500 Local 375 and DC 37 members demonstrated April 24 and 25
in front of MTA New York City Transit's capital projects headquarters
at 2 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.
The protesters expressed outrage over the waste of tax dollars at
a time when the city and state are struggling to plug big budget gaps.
"MTA Transit should use its own 1,200 civil service engineers
to do this job," Local 375 President Claude Fort said at the
noontime April 24 rally.
"The state and city are looking for savings," said DC 37
President Veronica Montgomery-Costa, who is also president of Board
of Education Employees Local 372. "Well, we are here to tell
them that we have over $250 million in savings if they allow us to
do this work."
In November, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority,
which oversees MTA New York City Transit, approved a $200 million
contract with DMJM+Harris ARUP (DHA) to do the preliminary design
work for the project.
Usually the firm chosen for the preliminary plans also wins the contract
for the final drawings, which means DMJM stands to earn a total of
$600 million for the project. The new train would provide service
from the 125th Street area to downtown Manhattan. The union estimates
that the whole design job could be done in-house for $350 million.
The protesters carried placards with such messages as "Derail
Privatization. Keep the Subway Design In-House," "Civil
Servants do it Better. Let Local 375 Design the Subway!" "Hey-Hey
MTA. How much money did you waste today?" and "2nd Avenue
Subway - For the People and By the People."
One speaker, former New York City Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, suggested
that the contracting-out scheme was an ideologically driven attack
on public employees. "When government itself says government
is the enemy, something is foul," he said. "If you have
qualified employees who can do this job, it's criminal to go elsewhere."
Other speakers who offered support included DC 37 Treasurer and Local
983 President Mark Rosenthal, Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez,
Local 375 Treasurer and Transit Chapter President Robert Mariano and
other leaders and rank- and-filers of Local 375, state Assembly candidates
and representatives of the Association of Staff Analysts, the Manhattan
Borough President's office, striking GHI workers represented by OPEIU
Local 153 and the New York City Central Labor Council.
"You can turn it around," said Transit Workers Union Local
100 President Roger Toussaint, urging Local 375 to keep the pressure
on. "Turn up the heat and take it to the streets!"