In the second contract negotiating session since District Council 37 accepted a deal that eliminated holidays, vacation and reduced the salary of new hires by 15 percent, Local 237 President Carl Haynes and members of the union’s negotiating committee sat down with city negotiators at the union hall on Sept. 24 hoping to achieve a contract that allowed the union to substitute its own productivity savings so as to protect members’ holiday and leave benefits and the starting salary of future hires.

“I’ve said all along I’m not buying a pay increase by giving up even more money,” said Local 237 President Carl Haynes. “We have the right to price out the contract they are offering us, and we’ve said once we have those figures we wanted the right to be able to do something different to achieve the productivity costs the city is looking for.”

The city’s chief negotiator, however, was not in the mood to listen. After Haynes questioned him on the breakdown of the figures submitted to the union as being the cost of the DC 37 contract, Labor Relations Commissioner James Hanley released a barrage of angry words that raised eyebrows and stunned the audience. Hanley charged that Haynes’ assessment of the contract pricing was “full of misrepresentations, distortions and worse,” and went on to call Allen Brawer, the union’s numbers cruncher, a nasty name. A short time later, in a stunning outburst during the meeting, the commissioner declared that he was not interested in hearing what anyone in the “peanut gallery” had to say — referring to the members of the union’s negotiating committee in the audience. Moments later, Hanley shot up from his seat and headed for the door. This prompted the union’s attorney, Basil Paterson, to ask if he was leaving. Hanley said no, that he merely wanted to caucus with his team in the adjoining room.

Words that Demean

While the city caucused, Haynes and the negotiating committee discussed what had just happened and lashed out at the commissioner’s behavior. “What he is doing is using words to demean us,” said Jacqueline LaPene, a public health educator with the Department of Health. LaPene questioned how the city could change their stance on the issue from one meeting to the next.

Another committee member urged his colleagues not to get upset. “We’re going to get our money,” he said, “but let’s stand up for our dignity. I’m trying to get my wife a city job and if that happens she is going to get 15 percent less than anyone else. That’s not right. We have to fight for a better contract.”

Asked what prompted the outburst, President Haynes responded that he, like everyone else in the room, was shocked by the commissioner’s behavior. “I don’t believe we did anything wrong,” he said, “or said anything we shouldn’t have. I merely challenged the relevance of his calculations to Local 237. The commissioner agreed with us at the last session that Local 237 has a right to collective bargaining. But it appears he may have changed his mind.”

Commissioner Hanley apparently lost his cool after Haynes complained in his opening remarks that the numbers used to produce the DC 37-negotiated contract did not apply to Local 237’s citywide titles. Haynes told Hanley that the union had examined the city’s numbers for the cost of the contract givebacks and “we have chosen to step up and make our own decisions” about how to shape the package. “We want to do something different.”

Haynes explained that Local 237 is willing to negotiate within the financial framework of the DC 37-negotiated contract, but would not agree to the concessions that DC 37 and its affiliated unions settled for, which includes sacrificing the starting salary of new employees or the “unborn,” and giving up a floating holiday, vacation and annual leave days. He also pointed out that the DC 37 contract included the cost of the contract for their skilled trade titles, which is not applicable to Local 237. “Why should our citywide titles pay for the skilled trades?” Haynes asked Hanley. “Our skilled trades members have their own collective bargaining process, which is separate and apart from what is currently on the table, and the value of Local 237’s skilled trades contract is determined solely by the City Comptroller, not by the city.”

Fighting Words

Hanley did not address the skilled trades issue or the impact of the uniform differentials on Local 237’s contract, but he countered that giving up vacation days is “not something new,” and insisted that the DC 37 contract is the offer on the table.

Long after the city negotiators had left the building, Local 237 members were still seething over Hanley’s remarks. “Those people didn’t come here to negotiate, they came to bully,” said a visibly angry John Smith, a cook at Kings County Hospital’s Cookchill facility, referring to Commissioner Hanley and his entourage of staffers. Smith added that he didn’t like Hanley’s “countenance and behavior. It showed great disrespect for us. I applaud Mr. Haynes for taking a very clear stand on the issue. I think we’re on the right path and it’s a privilege to have a leader like Carl stand up for us.”

Charles Cotto, a school safety agent at Bronx Regional High School, blasted Mr. Hanley for “calling us the peanut gallery.” Cotto added: “For him to [do] that was uncalled for. Obviously we’re worth nothing in his eyes. You can see it’s going to be a battle all the way to the end.” Deborah Clouden, a supervisor of stock workers for the Department of Education and a member of the union’s negotiating committee, said she supported protecting the salary of the newborn. “We’d be on the losing end if we take this contract. I’m ready to fight.”

A Local 237 member for 30 years, Clouden said she remembers the old days. “It was a battle then,” she said, “but the union never gave up. I have children and grandchildren. You can’t survive in New York without money. I’m in favor of saving the newborn because we’re barely surviving as it is. How can new employees do with less than we’re getting now?”

Joe Ford, an education facility officer with the Department of Education, praised Haynes and lead negotiators — Attorneys Basil Paterson and Barry Peek of the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein — for “steering the course.” He added: “I was at the last session when Mr. Hanley stated that we wouldn’t be held to DC 37’s bargaining stance. Now he has changed his mind. Carl is doing an excellent job. We need that strong leadership to show that we are not going to back down.”

At a news conference following the bargaining session, Haynes told the media that Local 237 would continue the effort to bargain, but may have to seek arbitration if that fails.