The Negotiating Team for the Local’s Housing Division sat down with the Housing Authority for the first time on Oct. 20 to begin negotiating a new contract to replace the one that expired in April 2002.

After submitting the union’s demands, Local 237 President Carl Haynes told NYCHA General Manager Doug Apple that “Local 237 members are seeking a two-year contract with substantial percentage wage increases, a ‘no layoff’ clause, and the preservation of benefits.

“Regardless of Mayor Bloomberg’s tough talk and apparent disdain for city unions,” Haynes said, “our goal continues to be a fair and equitable contract that improves wages, benefits, retirement, security and dignity on the job for the hardworking people who make New York City the world’s best place to live, work and play. I certainly expect that anything we get will be retroactive to July 1, 2002, and that would exceed current and projected inflation rates for the contract period.”

Haynes, whose lobbying efforts on behalf of the Housing Authority helped secure increased federal funding for the agency, reminded Apple that NYC’s housing developments, as a group, remain one of the best in the nation because of the commitment and hard work of Housing Authority workers. He also reminded the general manager that Local 237 housing workers were there for the agency during and after 9/11 and during the blackout in August.

In addition to the standard contract demands, Haynes also submitted several “quality of life” items. Citing the recent deaths of two young Brooklyn children in a fire after their single mother was forced to leave them home alone while she went to work, Haynes said it was time for the Housing Authority to recognize that an increasing number of city employees are working parents, with many of them raising children by themselves. Haynes added that on-site childcare, a procedure to deal with documented childcare needs, and the resolving of family-related work problems, are quality-of-life issues and a necessity for many working New Yorkers.

The union also called for the establishment of an anti-harassment policy that would crack down on verbal abuse and intimidation of workers by supervisors.

The demands were put together by the members of the Negotiating Committee, which is composed of representatives of all Local 237’s Housing title groups, in conjunction with the union’s attorneys Basil Patterson and Barry Peek, from the law firm of Meyer Suozzi English and Klein, and financial analyst Allen Brawer, who has evaluated and analyzed the economic part of the package.