CWA 1180 - Press

Unions Show Strength in Numbers
June 28, 2006
The Daily News

By Lisa Colangelo

LAST WEEK, A LARGE group of unions—everyone from teachers and nurses to sanitation workers—rallied outside City Hall with a message for Mayor Bloomberg.

There is strength in numbers, they said. If the city wants to bargain, they have to bargain with all of them.

"Pensions, health care and economic security are under attack like never before," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. "We created this group to really mitigate some of the anti-worker trends that are happening in this country and this city."

Bloomberg has made it clear he is looking for pension changes for new workers. And since the mayor is in his second term, there is no need for any more political endorsements. Upcoming labor negotiations will be tough.

Weingarten, along with Harry Nespoli, head of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association, and Carl Haynes, president of Teamsters Local 237, will chair the coalition, which represents more than 175,000 workers.

But some major players are missing.

District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, has yet to sign on. Officials say they are in the middle of their own negotiations. The city has talked to them about changing pension benefits for new members, but both sides emphatically say it's just a proposal.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association also haven't joined.

"Coalition bargaining is fine for unions that have similar needs," said PBA President Patrick Lynch. "The Taylor Law calls for pay that is roughly equal to jobs of a similar nature, risk, training and education. The city has failed to comply with the letter and the spirit of the Taylor Law in that it is not paying police [officers] a salary that is comparable to other local police departments.

"Given that inequity and the worsening recruitment and retention problem, we believe that we have a unique set of circumstances that would not be well represented in coalition bargaining."

Of course, the city begs to differ with the PBA's view of things. But on his Friday radio show, Bloomberg dismissed the effort as a "small group of unions" and, oddly enough, seemed to agree with Lynch on at least some points.

"You know there's the old joke when it comes to clothing—one size fits all fits no one," Bloomberg said. "Each of these unions has very different needs; their members have different needs, do different jobs where work rules vary dramatically. Some are easy to find people for, some are very scarce and you really need to pay up and pay the market price to get them."

But one size fits all is exactly what some union leaders think the city is doing when it sets pattern bargaining. Last go-around, the DC 37 deal set the pattern for other unions. Some fear that could happen again with possible pension cuts.

But Weingarten made a special effort not to demonize DC 37, as other people have, for accepting a contract that provided raises many thought were too low.

"We too often put a huge responsibility on the first union that makes a contract to deal with everyone else's concerns," Weingarten said. "What this coalition is saying to the city of New York is we want to be in control of our own destiny."

Weingarten said the group has agreed to keep the coalition for at least six months while they try to work with the city.

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