NYC Council Staffers Urge Lawmakers to Ignore Contract Loophole, Respect Their Jobs
Association of Legislative Employees members fear re-elected City Council Members have an opportunity to start firing aides without reason due to a loophole in the union contract. Photo/Steve Wishnia
By Steve Wishnia
City Council staffers rallied outside City Hall Oct. 29, urging the lawmakers not to take advantage of a loophole in their union contract that lets re-elected incumbents fire their aides without any reason during the first 60 days of their second term.
The Association of Legislative Employees’ first contract, agreed to in April 2024, protects staffers from being fired without good cause after they’ve completed a nine-month probationary period, union vice-president Casey Lajszky explained to Work-Bites before the rally. But a clause in the agreement, she added, gives re-elected Councilmembers 60 days for “reorganization,” during which their aides are employed at-will, “even if they’ve passed their nine months.”
That puts most of the 500 workers the ALE represents at risk. About 375 of them are Councilmember aides, according to the union, and incumbents are running for 43 of the Council’s 51 seats in the Nov. 4 election. About 300 to 315 aides are work for those incumbents, of whom 22 are running unopposed, and only two have challengers considered competitive.
“Reorganization is not an excuse for retaliation,” ALE President Matt Malloy told the crowd of about 50 people, staffers and members of other unions, including the Organization of Staff Analysts (OSA), Legal Aid attorneys from United Auto Workers Local 2325, and Teamsters Local 804. “We call on every Councilmember to respect workers’ rights and honor due process in the new term.”
The Council, according to ALE, pushed to have the “reorganization” language in the contract, saying members might need to hire staff with different skills if they’ve been named a committee chair, for example. But the union worries that some workers may be put to the door if they’ve filed a grievance or discrimination complaint, been active in the union, questioned management policies, or been working long enough to have a high salary.
“Countless Councilmember aides remain employed today because of the grievance rights we fought for in this contract,” Lajszky told the crowd.
OSA chair Robert J. Croghan, in a statement read by member Bobby Lee, urged the Council to “treat with extreme care the 60-day ‘reorganization period’ during which Councilmembers can restructure their offices. There’s a well-known saying that ‘a new broom sweeps clean,’ but in this case, perhaps a new broom should instead sweep very carefully.”
Several other unions signed onto a letter saying that “the New York City Council has led the way by negotiating with their employees to establish fair and sustainable working conditions. Let’s not take a huge step backwards by abusing the terms of the contract.” They included the New York City Central Labor Council, UAW Region 9A, DC37 Local 3005, and the Laborers.
ALE members who work for the Council’s central staff, such as financial and policy analysts, data scientists, and Web developers, are exempt from the reorganization clause.
The union has not yet gotten a response from the Council, Malloy told Work-Bites after the rally, but they hope that “after we make a little bit of noise, Councilmembers will get the message.” They have a lot of demands on their time and attention, he noted, so “we’re ringing the bell.”
“Due process is an important issue. Councilmembers have advocated for due process with other unions,” Malloy said. “We hope they’ll do the same for their own staff.”