Public Employee Press: PEP Talk
City, state may cut thousands of public workers in pandemic aftermath
DC 37 leaders push back
By MIKE LEE
While the clock ticks closer every day to a potential layoff of 22,000 New York City municipal workers, the GOP-controlled Senate in Washington, D.C. not only continues to block consideration of the House-passed HEROES Act but has now gone on vacation. This leaves in limbo the legislation that would provide emergency funding needed to prevent the layoffs and draconian cuts to city services.
The recently-passed 2021 City Budget already includes planned savings of $1.1 billion from the city’s municipal unions as a way to help close the budget deficit created by the loss of revenue during COVID-19. Without federal funding from the HEROES Act, and with the state refusing to allow him to borrow money, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio insists the city has no other way to close the budget hole than to reduce the public workforce.
“Throughout this pandemic, city employees, our frontline heroes, have put their lives on the line every day to provide essential services. The threat of 22,000 layoffs is no way to repay them for their heroic acts. Layoffs should be an absolute last resort, not a first.”
These layoffs will impact every city agency, and include all of New York City’s municipal unions, particularly DC 37, which is one of the largest public worker unions in the city.
District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido has been involved in intense negotiations with the de Blasio administration and with elected officials in Albany in an effort to stave off the thousands of promised layoffs. In working with leaders from other city unions, Garrido has been at the center of the fight to prevent the blows that may come as early as this month.
The latest demand from the city is another $1 billion in savings from labor, spread across all municipal unions under city contracts, based on their membership size. For DC 37, this means a loss of approximately several thousand. Garrido is adamant about stopping the job cuts that will wreak havoc on families’ personal lives and diminish vital city services for communities citywide.
“Throughout this pandemic, city employees, our frontline heroes, have put their lives on the line every day to provide essential services,” Garrido said. “The threat of 22,000 layoffs is no way to repay them for their heroic acts. Layoffs should be an absolute last resort, not a first.”
Garrido demanded that Washington take charge and pass economic relief legislation for states and cities suffering from the financial downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We need the federal government to step up and fund the frontlines, we need the state to step up and allow the city to borrow, and we need the city to protect essential workers,” he said.
Other DC 37 leaders also spoke out against the looming cuts.
“It is unconscionable that workers who have kept the city running are now being threatened with layoffs,” said SSEU Local 371 President Anthony Wells. “We will not bear the brunt of this city’s economic woes. We must fight back.”
“Recently, Mayor de Blasio threatened us with mass layoffs. This despite that everyone knows we’ve been chronically underpaid for years,” wrote Uniformed EMTs & Paramedics of the FDNY Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay, in an op-ed for the Daily News.
Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 Second Vice President Ralph Palladino was furious. At an August City Council hearing he said, “Calls by some for reducing any public services, furloughing, and layoff of workers, especially in public hospitals, is wrong!
“This is especially true given the likely slow rebuilding processes and likelihood that COVID-19 will be with us for a while. The flu season is right around the corner and we can expect our emergency rooms to be at full capacity,” Palladino said, adding that additional funds for the city budget must be met by those who are not paying their fair share.
“My members are the tip of the spear in New York City’s battle against COVID-19,” said Carmen Charles, president of NYC Public Healthcare Workers Union Local 420. “Thirteen Local 420 members have died from COVID-19, and dozens of others have been infected.”
Adding that her members have gone far above and beyond during the pandemic, she called for the passage of the HEROES Act. “The federal government has a moral obligation to provide these hardworking, selfless individuals with hazard pay. We call for the federal government to pass the HEROES Act that provides hazard pay to frontline workers,” Charles said.
Currently, negotiations and meetings are underway between the Municipal Labor Committee, which represents all unions under city contracts, and the city. Unions are steadfast in their demands for the city to find alternative means to close the budget deficit, including federal financing, bonding authority from the State, using the city’s vast cash reserves, and early retirement incentives.
In a letter sent to the Mayor on Aug. 24, the MLC wrote: “What is the purpose of a [cash] reserve if not to be able to use it in extraordinary circumstances? Certainly, losses caused by a global pandemic would fit that bill. We are available to meet with OLR and OMB to identify funds that are available to help carry the City through the next several months such that layoffs can be avoided.”
In the meantime, Garrido said he is in constant talks with labor leaders and city officials to find any means possible to save the jobs until Congress returns to Washington after Labor Day.
