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Mayor's Unhealthy Plan

To The Editor:

Mayor Bloomberg's recent proposal that civil servants pay 10 percent of health-care costs in order to avoid layoffs is a non-starter with this union.

We agree with the Mayor that health-care costs are rising and need to be reined in, but we strongly disagree about the best means to do it. President Obama rode health-care reform to the White House, and a singlepayer plan, if enacted, would cut costs by more than the Mayor proposes. Now that Mayor Bloomberg is no longer a Republican, it should be easier for him to support the Conyers bill.

Second, the Mayor and other public officials know that good health care and pension benefits are the price the city pays for underpaying most publicsector workers. My members in particular—Engineers, Architects, Designers, Scientists, Construction Project Managers, and those in many other technical titles—make considerably less working for the city than they would earn in the private sector. The union's salary review proposal, which the city has had for a year and a half, documents significant underpayment.

CLAUDE FORT, P.E., President,
Local 375, District Council 37
The Civil Service Technical Guild