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Work With Unions, Mayor

To The Editor:

"Mayor Bloomberg threatens to lay off 7,000 city workers."

These were the headlines from a few days ago.

Wait just a New York minute!!! Stop right there, Mr. Mayor!

We don't respond well to threats, so please don't threaten us. We know that you, New York City, Governor Paterson, President Obama and the whole country are attempting to deal with the challenges of the worst economic meltdown in the last 80 years. But there are limits to how far you can push us. We cannot get through this crisis in a confrontational mindset.

Just three months ago, in January 2009, your proposed budget eliminated 9,000 city workers' jobs, 1,300 of them through direct layoffs. The municipal unions have agreed to give the city more than $200 million to help in this economic crisis. Mr. Mayor, it is not our role to bear the pain of a $1.6- billion projected budget gap for 2010. We did not create this crisis, and we certainly did not benefit during the boom years, as did all those shortsighted, self-oriented bankers and Wall Street brokers.

Another 7,000 jobs lost through layoffs is only $350 million in savings, but far more importantly it is another 7,000 families in the City of New York facing economic crisis and desperation. Your job, Mr. Mayor, is to prevent such things, not exacerbate them. How about laying some of the responsibility on the millionaires who got us into this mess in the first place and impose a New York City upper-income tax surcharge, and support a "Fair Share" millionaire's tax in Albany?

Increased city worker job loss equals fewer city services and a poorer quality of services that are left, not to mention the accompanying morale and retention problems of city workers, the loss of institutional knowledge, and an overall diminishing quality of life throughout the city.

Clearly there has to be a better way. The answer lies in working with the unions, not against them. It was the unions who bailed the city out of its last financial crisis back in the 1970s. We did it then and we can do it again. But if you really want our cooperation, don't attack us, Mr. Mayor. Sit down with us, talk with us, and let us work on this together. We can and we will get through this, but with a joint effort and understanding, not threats of layoffs.
FRANK G. THOMAS
Civil Service Chair, Local 375,
District Council 37