Jane Morgenstern Dies; Veteran Union, City Aide

Jane Morgenstern, who began her career in city government as a Caseworker in the old Welfare Department, moved over to management and rose to become an Assistant Labor Relations Commissioner but never lost her affinity for working people, died May 23 of a combination of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to her husband of 40 years, Al Viani. She was 77 years old.

Ms. Morgenstern spent roughly a decade beginning in 1985 as Chief Review Officer of the Grievance Unit of the old Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations, mediating disputes between city agencies and their employees that had reached the Step 3 level. During a 1987 interview, in talking about the unit’s work, including cases in which she said the issue could be as trivial as whether an employee deserved to be paid for just an hour or two of work—”which should be resolved at the local level but isn’t” because of personality clashes—she offered something of a governing philosophy and a self-description.