District Council 37 Members Reject Weak Contracts and Stagnant Leadership
Members of District Council 37 rally across the street from union headquarters on Sept. 5 Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
What’s wrong with this picture?
Members of the largest and arguably most powerful public sector union in the City of New York can no longer afford to live in the city they serve—but the strongest opposition they face getting a contract they can live with this fall isn’t coming from the Office of Labor Relations [OLR].
It’s coming from their own union leadership.
District Council 37 Local 3005 and other members of their bargaining unit have spent the last two years attempting to advance 10 contract proposals through the union only to be met by what union delegate Cristina Rodriguez-Hart calls a “really undemocratic and frustrating experience.”
“[Leadership] is very invested in a good relationship with OLR and not making OLR upset and making sure OLR is agreeable to the things they bring forward,” she told Work-Bites at a Sept. 5 rally held outside DC37’s headquarters on Barclays Street. “They have a cozier relationship with OLR than they do with their own locals.”
While OLR sat on their 10 contract proposals, Local 3005 members who work at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as well as the Office of Chief Medical Examiner say DC37 leadership caucused and advanced proposals from other locals but deliberately put their demands on the back burner.
Leadership ultimately rejected Local 3005’s 10 proposals via email without any discussion.
DC 37 Local 3005 President Meghan Peterson [l] stands with coalition members demanding a democratic vote on their contract proposals including a $30 minimum wage for city workers.
“The DC37 negotiator basically led a very undemocratic process with the blessing of [Executive Director] Henry Garrido—and even gave himself a vote on deciding proposals, which is inappropriate. He’s a staff person, he shouldn’t have a vote,” Rodriguez-Hart added.
Local 3005 President Meghan Peterson calls that “problematic.”
“As someone who is elected to be the president of my local, I have taken an oath that I will forcefully fight for better working standards and contracts. I should be held to that as an elected official—unelected staff don't take that oath,” she told Work-Bites this past weekend. “I think that there is been a big emphasis on not wanting us to get anything that could be better than what we had before because the expectations for other locals then might be set too high.”
But some of the contract proposals Local 3005 and coalition members are advancing are things that Mayor Zohran Mamdani has already advocated himself.
“The mayor ran on free buses—we’re here to say put it in our union contracts,” Local 375 member Adrian Singleton told Work-Bites. “The mayor ran in support of a $30 minimum wage for all New Yorkers by 2030—we’re here to say put it in our union contract this year. Some of Zohran’s agenda is stuff we want as well. We see that our fight is related to that fight.”
Singleton further said that union members calling on DC37 leadership to back their contract proposals understand that New York State Governor Kathy Hochul holds the purse strings.
“This is a campaign that is aimed at her as well,” he said. “[The governor] needs to tax the rich and fund public service and civil servants.”
Union members like Singleton insist they simply can’t afford another DC37 contract with 3 percent annual raises.
Let Us Vote: DC 37 members begin to assemble across the street from union headquarters at 125 Barclays Street in Manhattan.
The roughly 37-percent wage increases DC37 contracts have secured for members since 2009, lag far behind New York City’s skyrocketing rents and overall cost of living during the same time period.
“This is part of why our agencies are understaffed—because you can’t afford to live in New York City on a civil servant’s salary,” Singleton added. “This not only impacts us as civil servants because we deserve to be able to live in the city we serve—it also impacts the public because agencies can’t retain staff.”
Anna Maria Ramirez is a shop steward with Local 436 and has spent a decade working for the City of New as a public health nurse—but on Saturday she said that her colleagues are struggling to make ends meet and some have resorted to taking second and third jobs.
“Low wages and poor workplace conditions have resulted in understaffing, high caseloads, and high turnover rates,” she said. “For years, rank-and-file members have pushed our local union leaders to fight for pay parity and for better workplace conditions. Our local union leaders typically respond by saying that change takes time, and that we should accept meager wage increases that never keep up with the cost of living.”
The coalition of DC 37 locals sent a letter to Executive Director Henry Garrido in August [see below] demanding a membership vote on collective bargaining unit contracts as prescribed by both the union’s constitution and AFSCME Bill of Rights.
DC 37 held a Labor Day party this weekend while members rallied outside for a stronger contract and a democratized union.
So far, Garrido, who has been at the head of DC37 since 2014 and commands a six-figure salary, has not responded to the letter. The contract campaign by the locals has since started a drive to gather 30,000 signatures on a petition to further push union leadership into action.
“I think being in a leadership position for a long time is inherently moderating,” Peterson said. “If you have a close relationship with the Office of Labor Relations—if you have interest in being seen as a partner rather than an antagonist to the city—I think inherently you're just going to moderate yourself over time.”
And that, according to Peterson and this weekend’s protesters, is exactly what rank and file union members do not want.
“I think what we're seeing across the city, not only in my local, but in locals across DC 37 is a rejection of stagnation, a rejection of taking concessions and saying better isn't possible,” she said. “We're here to fight, and we're ready regardless of who leadership is. Leadership is not the union. DC 37 members are the union. They can try to get in our way, but at the end of the day, someone who has not worked as a civil servant in decades doesn't understand the unique conditions that we're facing.”
DC37 did not respond to requests for comment before this story went to press.
