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     Current Issue Highlights Highlights Archive             Get to know your Business Agent today!  Find out how the union makes a difference on the job. |
Newsline: May 2000 Haynes Outlines New Contract Objectives Efforts of Local 237 to open negotiations for a new contract were delayed Feb. 2 when City Labor Relations Director James Hanley, at whose offices the meetings were to be held, became ill. The new date for the beginning of bargaining sessions is March 1. Although President Carl Haynes agreed to meet at Hanley's office, it was under protest because the quarters were far too small to accommodate all the negotiators. "This is unprecedented in all my years of collective bargaining," said Haynes, who immediately ordered that an unfair labor practice suit be filed against the city by Local attorneys. In the past, Haynes pointed out, negotiations had normally been conducted in space rented in a city hotel, at one of the city's university's, or at some other site where adequate room could be had to accommodate all concerned. The Local suggested that negotiating sessions get underway at the State Office Building in Harlem, or at Local headquarters in Manhattan. The city balked at convening at either of these locations, both of which offered adequate space, and called instead for a meeting in the small offices of City Labor Relations Director James Hanley at 40 Rector St. The Local President announced the city's high-handed effort to intimidate the union at a meeting of about 100 members of negotiating committees from both the Citywide and Housing Divisions. The meeting in the Local's Manhattan headquarters was held the morning of the day negotiations were to have begun. It was called to discuss the list of contract demands which had been devised by the member committees over the past month for submission to the city. Haynes told the assembled members that contract negotiations in the past have always been held in locations where negotiators for all sides could be in attendance, and which offered smaller side facilities to permit private discussions to be conducted by all parties. "We offered to meet with city negotiators in the State Office Building in Harlem, but they wanted no part of that," said Haynes. "They also rejected our offer to hold negotiating sessions in Local headquarters, where there would be sufficient space to accommodate everyone." The city, instead, called for a meeting at the Labor Relations Commissioner's office which would hold only about 40 people, he asserted. "There is no way we are going to accept such a proposal," Haynes told the members. Haynes outlined for them some of the general demands which are to pressed by the Local for both Citywide and Housing Division members. Among these are:
The Local is also seeking increases in employer contributions to the Welfare Funds, increases in health insurance reimbursables, increased annual leaves and three personal leave days. |
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