CWA 1180 - HRA Watch

HRA Watch

East Harlem incident hospitalizes workers
Short staffing creates a safety hazard at HRA
February 2002

In January, an HRA client and a group of 14 people viciously attacked workers at the East Harlem Job Center, including 1180 member Ramon Lopez. The attack was just the latest violent incident resulting from chronic problems at the agency that have left workers exposed to danger. The union responded immediately, meeting with members at East Harlem, demanding a labor-management meeting, renewing its calls for increased staffing at the job centers, and pushing for action on a grievance filed last year in response to similar violent incidents.

The East Harlem incident was allowed to occur because there were no security guards on duty at the time. The union has stressed to HRA members that they must insist that there be security present at all times, including in the evening when they are working overtime; 1180 members have the right to refuse to work under unsafe conditions. Moreover, 1180 members universally agree that the privatized security personnel provided by HRA are far inferior to the peace officers that they replaced in HRA's short-sighted effort to save money several years ago. "Bring back the peace officers!" said East Harlem member Robert Rankins to loud "mm-hm's" at a shop meeting recently.

The underlying cause of the dangerous work conditions, however, is the lack of staff, which prevents workers from being able to do their jobs properly and in a timely fashion. "The problem is security, yes, but the problem stems from the fact that we're short-staffed," explain Sandra Heller, also from East Harlem. "Clients have to wait an inordinate amount of time. They are just sitting there for hours and hours. And you can't tell them to go get lunch if they're there because they don't have money to eat."

Thus staffing has become a health and safety issue, and the union is demanding negotiations on the issue. HRA staff has been cut in half since 1994. At a labor-management meeting on February 11, Local 1180 and Local 1549 representatives pressed the issues of security and staffing. Management promised that security would be present at all times when clients are present, and would be provided whenever workers work overtime. They made no commitments on the issue of bringing back the peace officers or on the larger staffing issue. Local 1180 also confronted management at the meeting about the grievance the union filed last summer on this very same issue. A step two hearing was held in July and to date no response has yet been received from the agency.

What is clear is that conditions at HRA won't change in response to labor-management meetings. They will change in response to massive pressure from HRA workers.

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