New MLC Head Nespoli: Will Help Unions Bargain; Hopes to Resolve Impasses
By RICHARD STEIER
Harry Nespoli had no sooner been elevated to serve as chairman of the Municipal Labor Committee than he outlined a possible new task for the job: to assist other union leaders in moving their wage contract talks to conclusion.

HARRY NESPOLI: Sees an activist role.

"The thing that's always bothered me is how long municipal workers sometimes have to work without a contract," he said during a phone interview Sept. 18, a few hours after he was elected to succeed Randi Weingarten in the job. "There's money that could be in the members' pockets immediately, and right now is not the time for members to be without it."

Logistically Different

There are logistical obstacles to all the unions getting wage deals done before their old agreements expire, he acknowledged. Aside from the move by Ms. Weingarten, in her capacity as president of the United Federation of Teachers, to negotiate a new deal for her members two years ago that came 11 months before the old one was to expire, even when unions have reached on-time deals, they were usually less than a month before their old ones were due to end.

Those agreements tended to be pattern-setters for new rounds of bargaining, and as often as not, even when other unions moved quickly to get similar terms, their own contracts were likely to have lapsed by the time they reached new pacts, sometimes by a year or more.

Mr. Nespoli, who as president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association has a contract that runs into 2012, said he still thought he might be able to help expedite some discussions, though he emphasized that he would not get involved unless he was asked.

"Where I'm hoping to help out," he said, "is when somebody's at the table but they're going nowhere." He explained that these would not be situations in which there was a wide gulf between what the city was offering and a union was demanding, but rather cases where not much separated the two sides but they seemed unable to resolve their differences.

'Will Help Only If They Ask'

"I'll consider [playing a role] only if the unions say, 'Harry, we'd like to discuss a few ideas with you,''' Mr. Nespoli said.

Ms. Weingarten, whose added duties since she was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in July made it impossible to continue serving as the primary representative of the 100 municipal unions — which represent more than 350,000 employees — on matters including health benefits and pensions, will drop back into the co-chair's position that Mr. Nespoli previously held.

A new position of executive director of the MLC was created at last week's meeting, and District Council 37 Director of Research and Negotiations Dennis Sullivan will fill it on an interim basis for the next six months.

Where Ms. Weingarten as UFT president has sometimes had her relationship with the Bloomberg administration fluctuate dramatically, depending on the level of conflict with the Department of Education at any given time, Mr. Nespoli and the Mayor have rarely been at odds — at least publicly. And the new MLC leader said that while he expected tough bargaining on health benefits and stood ready to repel any city attempt to have new employees accept an inferior pension plan, one of his priorities is to work with Mr. Bloomberg "to make sure the city is delivering quality services to the taxpayer."

Says Fiscal Smarts Paying Off

He praised the Mayor's fiscal stewardship, saying that the contingency plans he had made when the city was reaping huge budget surpluses were paying off now when Wall Street is in turmoil and the resulting reductions in tax collections from the financial services agency will gouge big chunks out of the municipal budget. That made it possible, the new MLC leader noted, for City Hall to reach reasonable long-term contracts with several key unions last year and not swallow hard when granting similar terms over the past five weeks to the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and Teamsters Local 237.

Mr. Nespoli said of Mr. Bloomberg, "He did a terrific job of seeing this storm and making plans, which is why we're still in good shape. There's still money out there."

A 38-year veteran of the Sanitation Department, he has been active in the USA virtually since he began work, and has headed the 6,000-member union since 2001.

Asked about the higher profile he will have to take as the MLC's leader, Mr. Nespoli said, "It's a big jump, but I've been around a long time. Working under Randi gave me a real good foundation. It's not gonna be easy, but I accept the challenge."