DC 37 holds "Fightback Rally" to protest service cuts and layoffs

District Council 37, the city's largest municipal employee union with 125,000 members and 50,000 retirees, today held a "Fightback Rally" at City Hall Park to protest the Mayor's FY 2004 budget that calls for massive service cuts and layoffs. The event — attended by thousands of union members, community activists, union leaders, city and state officials — was the largest protest rally yet held following the Mayor's budget announcement April 15.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts led the rally declaring, "In presenting his budget plan, the Mayor stated that New York is a great city. If that is so, our members deserve much of the credit. It was the municipal unions that bailed the city out of its fiscal crisis in the 1970s and again in 1994. While the wealthiest New Yorkers were profiting from the go-go 1990s, the municipal workforce was falling further and further behind. Now we are in a battle to convince the Mayor to cut the waste, stop the layoffs, and stop trying to balance the budget on the backs of our members and of those who can least afford it.

"We are asking the public to call on the Mayor to maintain jobs and services by cutting the billions of dollars wasted each year on outside contractors and consultants. The public should also push Albany for an end to corporate tax loopholes and an income tax surcharge on the wealthy. Let those who can most afford it make the necessary financial sacrifice and not our members whose average salary is $29,000 a year and 85% of whom live in the city.

"For those who live here, the Mayor's budget along with Governor Pataki's alarming cuts to Medicaid and to education have only bad news. Seniors will lose hot meals. Clinics will close in areas where 25% of the children suffer from asthma. Our libraries, our cultural centers and our firehouses will close. Parks and open spaces will deteriorate. Those who assist our children in school will be gone. Staff at city agencies across the board will be reduced putting additional stress on an already overburdened city workforce. The Mayor knows that the economic recovery of the city depends on keeping services high. This can't be done when so many of our city's agencies, institutions, health care, and education are being systematically destroyed.

"We've tried to negotiate with the Mayor, but he has all but walked away from the responsible fiscal alternatives we have presented. DC 37 has shown conclusively that ending overpriced contracts and consultants while letting our workers do the job for less could save the city hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Make no mistake. This fight is not just about DC 37 members. This fight is about the quality of life for all New Yorkers. In order for the city's good years to return, we need a budget that does not work against the city workforce. The Mayor's proposals fly in the face of the public's needs and expectations. Our polling shows that the vast majority of New Yorkers want to maintain City services and don't want to see massive layoffs. New Yorkers support DC 37's solutions, and now the Mayor needs to hear our voices."

Gerald W. McEntee, AFSCME International President added, "Mayor Bloomberg seems to have forgotten who brought this city to its feet after September 11, 2001 when terrorists brought it to its knees. Back then, city workers were heroes. Politicians were taking pictures with them. Today, they are trying to cut our jobs and cut public services.

"It's time for the Mayor to make some calls. Call the private contractors and tell them their contracts have been cancelled. Call the tax evaders and tell them their time is up. Call the companies that aren't even based in New York State but take the city's money and tell them to bring our tax dollars home. Then call this city's millionaires, whose number has tripled in the last decade, and tell them their taxes are going up. This is the time to send a message that says public employees have value. Public services matter. And we will keep fighting until we win this battle!"

Other participants at the rally included Danny Donahue, President, CSEA; Dennis Hughes, President, NYS AFL-CIO; Council Speaker Gifford Miller; Councilmembers Joseph Addabbo, Gale Brewer, James Davis, Melinda Katz, Christine Quinn; Assemblymember Felix Ortiz; Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, among others.