It was a long and expensive fight with the city and the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which sought to replace 850 hospital police officers with cheaper labor provided by poorly-trained private security guards. But in the end, Local 237’s persistence and unity paid off. On Oct 15, Governor Pataki approved the union’s hospital police anti-privatization bill that said only trained peace officers can be employed to provide security in city hospitals.

“This is a major victory against privatization for Local 237 and municipal unions everywhere,” said Local 237 President Carl Haynes, recalling that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani had aggressively sought to turn New York City’s hospital system over to private companies throughout his eight years as mayor. “I had no doubt we would prevail, but I also had no illusions as to what it would take,” Haynes added.

“The city and HHC fought us every step of the way, but I had promised the 850 hospital police officers, who would have lost their jobs if Giuliani had his way, that this union would spare no expense to fight this privatization effort.

“Even when Giuliani held our contracts hostage, demanding that we give up our HPOs if we wanted our contracts, Local 237 did not back down. We remained strong and united and pushed our cause in the court system, at the City Council and in the State Legislature. We won in the courts and our friends at the City Council and in Albany stood in front, behind and around us all the way.”

The new law, which took over three years to win, began as a City Council bill on Oct. 25, 2000, when Local 237 sought a hearing on HHC’s privatization plans, and testified that private security guards could not provide the level of protection expected from trained and experienced HPOs. The bill became Local Law 16 the following year. HHC then sued the City Council, charging that the Council did not have jurisdiction over the agency and could not tell them what to do. The court agreed and Local 237 asked the State Legislature for a state version of Local Law 16.

“Now that we have a state law protecting the hospital police title,” said Patricia Stryker, Local 237’s political and legislative director, “our hospital police officers can rest assured that HHC can never again threaten to privatize their jobs. This is a sweet victory and well worth the fight.”