Makes Case in Albany
DC 37 Lobbies On Job Leave, Pensions

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

District Council 37's annual Lobby Day was expected to include a downsized list of demands this week after the new state budget tilted more in the union's favor than in years past.

WANDA WILLIAMS: No longer playing defense.

As this newspaper appeared on stands May 8, hundreds of DC 37 members were scheduled to make the trek to Albany that morning to press legislators to provide paid family and medical leave, funding to cool overheated kitchens in city schools, and grant a pension re-opener that would allow members to retire after 25 years of service at age 55.

No More Pataki Worries

"We usually have a whole big agenda opposing everything [former] Governor Pataki cut, especially around health care," said DC 37 Political Action Director Wanda Williams. "That didn't happen this year, so we're concentrating on influencing legislators on other issues."

In 1995, legislation was enacted that allowed city workers to retire at 55 after 25 years of service during a three-month period. Union members visiting their district legislators were expected to ask for another shot at that same plan and request the opportunity to retire at 57 after 10 years of service as well.

Another talking point was Assemblywoman Susan John's family leave bill that would allow city and state workers to take up to 12 weeks per year, with compensation and maintaining their benefits, to care for newborns and newly adopted infants or immediate family members who become gravely ill. The measure is modeled after one passed in California in 2004 that grants six weeks for similar family needs.

Some union members were especially concerned about passage of the long-advocated air temperature control bill, which has been introduced in the Assembly and the Senate, and would provide money to renovate city school kitchens.

Heat, Spoilage Concerns

"Some of the schools are so antiquated," said Ms. Williams, "that people are forced to work in oppressively hot conditions over the summer. People have fallen ill from the heat, and there are food spoilage issues."

The city continues to oppose the measure, saying it would cost too much, but union members argued that the massive influx of state education money, combined with the city's $4.4 billion surplus, should alleviate that concern this year.

The union also wants to change how Off Track Betting income is allocated, by giving less money to the track and horse owners and more to the city.

Alongside other labor groups, DC 37 is supporting bills that would guarantee union representation rights granted to private-sector workers, known as Weingarten rights, that were stripped from public-sector workers by a court decision earlier this year. Union members also favor allowing the city to set its own rent guidelines, but like other advocates concede that the bill will likely be blocked as in the past by the Republican-controlled Senate.

"It is the belief that presumably things will be easier under the new Governor," said Ms. Williams. "But everything is part of a negotiation. We don't control it, but we are trying to influence it."