Will File Grievance
HA Keeps Union Rep From Council Hearing

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

New York City Housing Authority officials denied a District Council 37 local chapter president release time in June after he sought permission to testify at a City Council hearing on union business.

MITCHELL FEDER: HA disregarded law.

Mitchell Feder, the chapter president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375's HA division, intended to testify at a June 26 housing subcommittee hearing, but HA's Office of Labor Relations blocked the approval. Mr. Feder was going to call at the hearing for an independent audit of the efficiency of the HA's software system. He had never been denied release time for non-election-related union business in the six years he has been chapter president.

'More Pressure Now'

"I think it has to do with the public problems of NYCHA's deficit," said Mr. Feder. "There is more scrutiny on management and more pressure right now."

HA officials announced in May a series of job and service cuts to close an estimated $225-million budget hole. Mr. Feder believes that the HA's software systems, which reputedly cost about $72 million, are inefficient and wasting money.

David Marcinek, the Deputy Director of Labor Relations for the HA who gives final approval on leaves, referred all questions to the agency's public relations department.

"I can't comment on that," he said. "There's a process for dispute resolution that [Mr. Feder] well understands, and I'm not going to be debating with him in the newspaper."

"Mr. Feder was not entitled to an EO 75 release," said HA spokesman Howard Marder, referring to Mayor's Executive Order 75, which entitles union representatives to reasonable leaves of absence for union-related business.

The HA's Human Resources Manual reads, however, "Absence with pay shall be granted for labor-management activities of employee representatives, duly designated by certified bargaining organizations (unions) operating under the Mayor's Executive Order No. 75, dated March 22, 1973, acting on matters related to the employees in their respective unions."

Mr. Feder says he has requested release time under EO 75 in the past, and it has been granted. Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd, who represents 8,000 workers in the HA, also said his members have been granted paid and unpaid leaves under EO 75 for union-related business.

Gave Week's Notice

Mr. Feder told his supervisor a week in advance that he would need to leave for a few hours on June 26. The request was forwarded to Mr. Marcinek at about 9 a.m. on the day of the hearing, which was set to begin at 10 a.m. The chapter president said he waited more than two hours for a response and when none was forthcoming, signed himself out on sick leave, saying that the stress of the experience made him ill. He rushed to the City Council hearing, but got there just as it was ending.

Mr. Feder said he would have been willing to take his own personal time to attend the hearing, but that there was no valid reason that his official request for a leave should have been denied. He has yet to receive a response on that week's leave request or another one made the following week for a chapter meeting in The Bronx.

Mr. Feder estimated that he or his local applied for release time for him once every two months. He is planning to file an unfair labor practice complaint with the Office of Collective Bargaining.

"They are suddenly playing hardball on these things," he said, "but however they want to play it, they still have to obey the law."