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                  Get to know your Business Agent today!  Find out how the union makes a difference on the job. |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 24, 2004 Contact: Moronke Oshin 212-924-2000 ext. 501 212-741-8189 TEAMSTERS LOCAL 237 INSISTS DC-37-NEGOTIATED CONTRACT "IS NOT FOR US." Says Any Offer Must Allow Union to Add Its Own "Nuances" Without Penalty New York City -- The members of Local 237's citywide negotiating committee said they would continue to stand firm for their own contract, following some angry exchanges between the union and city negotiators at the union's Manhattan offices today. "Local 237 has a right to collective bargaining. We also have a right to price out a contract," Local 237 President Carl Haynes told City Labor Relations Commissioner James Hanley at the bargaining session. Haynes added that having examined the City's numbers for the cost of the contract givebacks, "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 "newborn" 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." 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. 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?" "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." Haynes and his lead negotiators, Attorneys Basil Paterson and Barry Peek of the law firm Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, PC, said they would continue the effort to bargain, but may have to seek arbitration if that fails. The union's citywide contract affects 11,000 workers in New York City agencies, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the Board of Education. They have been without a contract since April 1, 2002. Local 237 represents a total of 24,000 municipal workers in New York City and Long Island, and is the largest Local in the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. |
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