Hope to Follow DC 37
Other Unions Seek Residency Break

By HOWARD MEGDAL

While other unions, particularly those within the city's municipal bargaining coalition, are loath to admit that District Council 37's agreement with the city announced last week will set a pattern on wages, their leaders are eager to embrace the tentative pact's provision for members to live outside of the city.

CARL HAYNES: Lauds residency breakthrough.

The terms, which still need to be ratified by the roughly 95,000 affected DC 37 members, would provide workers with a 9.42-percent raise over 32 months and permit them to live in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam counties. The residency change will require a modification of the 1986 Administrative Code amendment put into place by then-Mayor Edward I. Koch.

Push Failed in Albany

"Obviously the thinking of the Mayor is different now," Teamsters Local 237 President Carl Haynes said of Mayor Bloomberg in a July 19 phone interview. "I think [relaxing residency requirements] was a great piece. We had legislation in Albany to get that done, but it hadn't passed."

While Mr. Haynes said adding the six counties would not be "the cornerstone" of any deal the coalition made, "one of the components would be to abolish the residency law. It affects us for the same reason it affects DC 37 - we expect it within any final deal."

RICHARD WAGNER: City can't cry poverty.

Communications Workers of America Local 1183's President Emeritus C. Richard Wagner said that members of his union have even longer to travel to reach the DC 37 standard. Local 1183 members, who work for the city Board of Elections, must live within the district they work for, not merely within the city. Unlike DC 37, Local 1183 would need state approval of any deal with the Bloomberg administration to ease residency standards.

"I think anybody of moderate means has been looking at the skyrocketing situation in housing," Mr. Wagner said in a July 20 phone interview. "I think you have to convert the lack of ability to get out of the city to money to live in the city."

Coalition May Diverge

He praised the DC 37 terms for containing "none of the anchors of the previous deal," and said he expected the city would "propose [DC 37 terms] after the preliminary meetings. But the other thing which may totally negate that is the coalition which we are a part of may have a totally different view of this when they meet." The coalition is set to gather July 28, and Mr. Wagner said he expected the group to meet with the city within four-to-six weeks.

Mr. Haynes agreed with Mr. Wagner's assessment of the deal, calling it "miles better" than DC 37's previous contract negotiated in April 2004, which gave members just a six-percent raise over three years and saddled new hires with fewer leave days, lower differential pay and a 15-percent cut in salary for their first two years on the job.

But the Local 237 leader cautioned against seeing the allowance for living outside of the city as a panacea.

"Of course, when you start thinking about the housing costs in Nassau and Westchester Counties, there's not that much relief," he said. "But the further out you go, the better it will be."

Mr. Wagner said he was tired of the city's "hurry up and wait" approach to bargaining, and added that he believes excuses that would stop the city from addressing housing costs ring hollow.

"This year is particularly difficult to say we don't have the money, with a $5 billion surplus," he said. "And the lower-paid workers in the city are being driven down into poverty. And that's against the whole idea of society."