Razzle Dazzle

Roberts Gets This One Right

By RICHARD STEIER

Some of Lillian Roberts's union critics argued that the best aspect of the wage contract she reached with the city July 12 was that it exceeded their low expectations based on her previous deal 27 months ago.

It may be that the barrage of unkind things that were said about her in the wake of that deal affected DC 37's executive director, made her more determined to do better this time. The truth is, though, that her tentative pact would look pretty good no matter which union leader negotiated it.

After proclaiming herself "desperate" to get a contract and then proving it in April 2004 by taking a substandard wage deal that was paid for partly with concessions, Ms. Roberts this time resisted pressure from Mayor Bloomberg and secured decent pay raises with no givebacks attached.

Big Win on Residency

She also got a significant payment to DC 37's welfare fund that should at least stanch the bleeding through the conclusion of the 32-month deal in March 2008. And in a coup that should benefit other civilian employees as well, she persuaded Mr. Bloomberg to ease the residency requirements that for the past two decades have required all new DC 37 members to live within the five boroughs.

QUIETING HER CRITICS: The contract deal completed by District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts earned her some redemption after her previous wage pact was widely denounced by other labor leaders as having created an unfavorable bargaining pattern in 2004. Even New York Public Library Local 1930 President Lynn Taylor (right), who voted against last week's agreement with the Bloomberg administration, acknowledged the package has some tangible gains and 'it's very cleverly constructed.'

In the previous bargaining round, Ms. Roberts blundered at a time when, despite having been recently re-elected to a second term, she was worried that her political control of DC 37 was slipping away. This time, with another election just six months off, she got a contract she could run on, one that even some of her critics within the union said would do her no harm. It doesn't matter how much the improved deal is the result of her increased resolve, a decision to defer to the bargaining instincts of her capable chief negotiator, Dennis Sullivan, or a softening of Mayor Bloomberg's stance in the wake of her endorsement of his re-election last summer and a healthy budget surplus. Ms. Roberts came away with concrete gains for her members that are not devalued by givebacks.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten's allusion to the impact of the bargaining coalition she formed with 19 other union leaders was telling. "Obviously, the coalition played a role in enhancing DC 37's leverage," she said July 13 after details began leaking of a contract that was not formally announced until July 17 because Mayor Bloomberg was not around.

"That's a reach, even for her," retorted one person involved in the bargaining.

Whether a valid claim or just spin, in suggesting the coalition deserved credit for the terms, Ms. Weingarten was acknowledging that the deal was a worthwhile one, even as she argued that it shouldn't fence in the ambitions of her group.

"I think it was very innovative," the UFT leader said. "This waiver of the residency requirement is an acknowledgment of the high cost of living in New York City. But we're going to bargain for ourselves. Just as the city reached a deal with DC 37 that met both their needs, it's going to have to negotiate something with the members of the coalition that meets our needs."

Contract Better Than TWU's

This time around, Ms. Weingarten and her colleagues in the coalition won't have their task complicated by Ms. Roberts's pact. She resisted the Mayor's demand for a reduced pension tier for future workers, and got a 9.42 percent pay raise that, considering the 32-month duration of the DC 37 pact, compares favorably with the 11.1 percent hike over 37 months that Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint won last December.

And unlike Mr. Toussaint's deal, which has been in limbo since his members rejected it in January, the value of the DC 37 raises is not diluted by givebacks like the Local 100 clause requiring that members pay 1.5 percent of their earnings toward their health insurance premiums.

One critic of Ms. Roberts's management style was not ready to concede her reelection based on the wage deal. "Her politics improved, no question about it," said this official, who spoke conditioned on anonymity. "She needed a contract. But this was less a home run than it was the dodging of a bullet."

Charles Ensley, the president of Social Service Employees Local 371 who narrowly missed unseating Ms. Roberts in the last DC 37 election in January 2004, had pressed her to gain raises of at least 4 percent a year and declared afterwards that any raise below that number "puts us further behind inflation, which is now running at 4.8 percent in New York City."

Among the Roberts allies who voted against the deal was Civil Service Technical Guild President Claude Fort; a possible challenger to his re-election this fall, Mitch Feder, said in an e-mail after the deal was reached, "We wanted 4/4/4% minimum, like the other professional unions averaged."

3.15% Hike a Given

But the first-year increase of 3.15 percent has been carved in stone since the UFT and several uniformed unions took that as the basic hike for the same period under contracts reached during the past nine months. The two subsequent raises of 2 percent and 4 percent are better than they look because the first hike covers just a six-month period. For the deal's 32-month duration, the hikes are the equivalent of 3.5 percent a year.

Lynn Taylor, the president of New York Public Library Local 1930 and one of those who voted against bringing the deal back to DC 37's membership for ratification, noted that this falls short of the most-recent Bureau of Labor Statistics survey that indicated the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners rose by 4.2 percent over the past year.

The Mayor's Office of Management and Budget, however, has projected that the inflation rate will be just 2.9 percent this year and 2.5 percent in 2007.

Changeable Math

One veteran attorney who works with other city unions mused that the city's financial projections always seem to be far too conservative until the point when it locks up its first wage deal. There is more than a grain of truth to that, but if OMB's forecasts prove accurate, the DC 37 raises are going to look a lot better.

DC 37 was able to bring Mayor Bloomberg around to scrapping the residency requirement that has governed civilian employees for the last 20 years. It has been growing increasingly outdated as housing costs continued to climb along with the city's economy over the past decade and Staten Island, the borough which previously offered the most affordable housing in low-crime areas, became developed to a point near saturation.

When Mayor Ed Koch imposed the residency requirement for new workers 20 years ago, a large part of its intent was to increase opportunities for minority residents of the city. To some extent, however, it made taking city jobs problematic for those who couldn't afford rising rents or take on a mortgage. And those who were hit hardest by the more-recent housing crunch were most likely to be members of DC 37, since uniformed workers already had the right to live in six suburban counties and Teachers are permitted to live outside the state.

Hurt Its 'Beneficiaries'

Designed to help cultivate a municipal staff that reflected the growing population of minorities in the city, the residency law was instead inhibiting that portion of the work force most likely to be made up of people of color.

And so Ms. Roberts gave present and future members greater control over where they live, plugged a hole in her welfare fund at least until the contract expires, got decent wage hikes and fended off the Mayor's bid for reduced pensions for new employees.

"It's a helluva lot better than I expected it to be," said one past critic of Ms. Roberts's bargaining. "The fact that she didn't give in on the pension was huge."

'They'll Be Thrilled'

That sentiment was echoed by Ms. Taylor, who predicted that, notwithstanding her own vote against the pact, it would be embraced by both the Librarians she represents and the entire DC 37 rank and file. The 4-percent raise in the deal's final 13 months will please members, she said, as will the fact that, with the earlier hikes both in effect by the time the ratification vote is likely to be completed, they can soon look forward to a 5.15-percent raise and a good-sized check reflecting the retroactive first-year hike.

"I think people are going to be thrilled," she said.

Until now, Ms. Roberts's political strength has rested far less on her mediocre record in office than on her alliances with the leaders of the two biggest locals in DC 37 and the edge that gives her in gaining a majority of the votes of the delegates who elect the union's top officers. But unlike the last contract, which was overwhelmingly approved in no small measure because union members were convinced rejecting it would not lead to improvements, this deal is one they figure to ratify without holding their noses.

'Won't Hurt Her'

Ms. Taylor, who is likely to support Mr. Ensley if he runs against Ms. Roberts again for executive director, wasn't ready to concede that the deal made Ms. Roberts's chances of re-election significantly stronger.

"I think it probably neutralizes," she said, meaning that the deal would dissipate much of the bad feeling within the union over the previous DC 37 contract. "I think for Lillian the most important things were the no givebacks and that for the poorest-paid workers, that 5.15 percent [in raises payable by Aug. 1] is going to look good. This is better than I would have expected."

Beat TWU Terms

She wasn't the only one. And it's unfair to say that the positive reaction to the deal is primarily due to the low expectations others had. On wages, it stacks up well against the deal Mr. Toussaint was forced to strike to get, and where the Local 100 deal opened the door for all city workers to have to pay a share of their health-care costs, the only far-reaching provision of the DC 37 pact beyond wages is the one relaxing the residency requirement.

All in all, it's a pretty strong showing for the union many considered the weak link in the municipal chain.

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