Municipal labor leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief July 12, when District Council 37 and New York City signed off on a 32-month contract that does not demand major concessions from union members and ends the residency requirement for city workers.

“This is a considerably better contract than the one the city had offered DC 37 back in June when it proposed reducing pension benefits for newly hired workers,” said Local 237 President Carl Haynes. “We’re glad to see there are no givebacks in this contract. The lifting of the residency requirement will benefit all city workers who can no longer afford to live in New York City on their meager salary. We had legislation in Albany that if passed would have done the same thing.”

The DC 37 contract settlement followed closely behind the creation, June 23, of a Municipal Labor Bargaining Coalition made up of the leaders of over 16 municipal unions and co-chaired by Haynes, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, Teamsters Local 831.

The coalition, which together represents over 170,000 uniformed and civilian members from national and international unions, agreed to jointly bargain economic issues — including, but not limited to wages and health benefits — for six months. Any proposed settlement must be approved by the co-chairs and a two-thirds majority of the unions in the coalition. Each union would then hold separate ratification votes.

“Considering the fractious and divisive nature of recent and current negotiations between the city and various unions, the time is right to coalesce and devise a bargaining strategy to protect the interests of all New York City workers,” Haynes said.

DC 37 is not a member of the newly-formed coalition, which also includes SEIU Local 1199, CWA Locals 1180, 1182 and 1183, the PSC, CSBA, SEIU Locals 300, 246, 444, and the NYS Nurses Association, among others.

“Obviously, the coalition played a role in the background by enhancing DC 37’s leverage, Weingarten told reporters following the announcement of DC 37’s new contract deal. “The rumors from before are far different from what they were able to negotiate. That’s a good thing. They were able to move the city substantially.”

The city has bargained with coalitions in the past, although there has not been one as large or as diverse in more than 20 years. The civilian unions, along with firefighters and sanitation workers banded together in 1978 to bargain with the city in the aftermath of the fiscal crisis. In 1980, there were two coalitions, one for police, firefighters and corrections officers, and a civilian coalition led by the UFT, DC 37 and Teamsters Local 237. That coalition ended in 1985.


The DC 37 Agreement

The DC 37 agreement, which comes with wage increases totaling 9.42 percent, provides raises of 3.15 percent retroactive to July 1, 2005, in the first year, a 2 percent compounded increase on Aug. 1, 2006, and a 4 percent compounded raise on Feb. 1, 2007.

The future increases have been delayed a month in order to generate cash for the union’s welfare fund. A total of $166.67 per member will be paid to the funds on Nov. 1, 2006. In addition, a rate increase of $100 per member on a recurring basis will be paid to the welfare funds beginning July 1, 2006. This was funded by adding an additional month and two days to the end of a 30-month contract. The other additional month will generate on the last day of the contract .34-of-a-percentage- point equity money to be used for non-salary purposes.

In addition to the wage increases, the city agreed on language to amend the Administrative Code to allow city workers to live in Nassau, Westchester, Suffolk, Orange, Rockland or Putnam Counties. The city will continue discussions on expanding the allowable places to live to include New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Workers who choose to live outside the city will have to continue to pay the New York City residency tax.