Local 375 rallies to stop the layoffs at the School Construction Authority and the Department of Education
Other DC 37 locals join in denouncing the lay-offs

Hundreds of City engineers, architects, and project managers protested the lay-offs of hundreds of jobs at the School Construction Authority (SCA) and the Department of Education's Division of School Facilities during a rally at the School Construction Authority Headquarters in Long Island City, Queens today.

Members of Local 375 Civil Service Technical Guild, DC 37, AFSCME called for stopping the lay-offs of architects, engineers and project managers. Instead, union officials said the SCA and Board of Education should end the practice of contracting out work to private firms that can be done in-house more cost effectively and efficiently by their professional technical staff.

Claude Fort, President of Local 375, said, "These lay-offs have got to stop. Our professional staff have proven their worth. Our members cleaned up Ground Zero quicker than anyone expected. We also got the 1/9 subways lines back in operation in record time. When schools are built by our professionals, as opposed to outside consultants, we save the tax payers on average of $9 million per school. That is the equivalent of an extra 225 seats when we do the work. We have repeatedly proven that we can save the city millions of dollars on school construction projects." (See White Papers.)

Currently outside consultants do 70% of all the design work at the SCA resulting in millions of dollars in cost overruns due to inferior designs, which then results in many costly unwarranted change orders.

"We call on SCA officials to comply with the requirement for 40% of the work to be done in-house as called for by law," said President Fort. "We continue to call for legislation mandating an even greater percentage of the work to remain in-house for any new agency.

If Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein are serious about cost savings and reform at SCA, they should stop the layoffs and the contracting out. Keep the professionals who know how to do the job better than anyone—the members of Local 375."