Citywide and Housing members could be pocketing a 3.25 percent retroactive pay increase by the end of the summer if the new one-year-47-days extension to the current contract is ratified on May 16 when ballots are counted.

The package, which both the Citywide and Housing negotiating committees unanimously approved last month, covers the period from Aug. 7, 2005, to Sept. 22, 2006, for Citywide members, and the period from Nov. 7, 2005, to Dec. 23, 2006, for Housing Division members.


President Carl Haynes explains the contract package to Citywide and Housing Divisions negotiating committee members.

The agreement includes a wage increase of 3.25 percent retroactive to Aug. 7, 2005, and, effective Aug. 7, 2006, a $100 increase in the employer’s annual contribution to the union’s Welfare Fund for active employees and retirees, in exchange for extending the contract an additional 30 days beyond the 12 months and 17 days of the contract. border="0" alt="">

Local 237 President Carl Haynes said he has also secured a side letter of agreement that allows for the union to continue negotiating the possible one (1) percent productivity-based wage increase that is still pending from the current contract. Haynes said the union would continue to negotiate the one percent, which is worth about $300 to the average paycheck, but was not prepared to give up any union benefit for it.

Haynes said he was pleased with the pact, which he called a “win-win situation for members.” By extending the contracts, he added, “We avoid getting into another long and difficult contract battle with the administration, which could go on for years, considering the current climate for negotiating. There are several municipal unions that have yet to settle a contract, so the city administration is not prepared to engage in talks on any longterm contracts. Also, the deal brings our contract and raises in line with those unions that accepted 52-month contracts.”

The Citywide contract affects more than 12,000 Local 237 members who work at various city agencies, and the Housing contract affects more than 10,000 members who work for the New York City Housing Authority.

The union’s negotiators include 50 rank-and-file members, President Haynes, Secretary-Treasurer Gregory Floyd, Housing Division Director Edmund Kane, lead attorneys Basil Paterson and Barry Peek from the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein; and Allen Brawer of Policy Research Group.