Dozens hammer 'undemocratic' bargaining process in protest outside DC 37 HQ

District Council 37 members and local leaders who say that union leadership has shut them out of ongoing negotiations with the city rallied just steps away from DC 37’s lower Manhattan headquarters Monday at the same time bargaining took place for four locals. The president of one of those four unions representing around 1,300 workers in the Department of Health and Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said the ten demands brought by her members were completely ignored by the leadership of the other three locals and the DC 37 staff bargainer. 

“We put forward serious proposals to address understaffing and privatization and if we don’t have a seat at the table, we commit to yelling in the street," Meghan Peterson, who won Local 3005’s top job last year, told the crowd of around 60 union members.  

DC 37’s citywide economic agreement covering over 90,000 of its members expires later this year, but in addition to that agreement, the union also negotiates smaller, largely non-economic unit contracts covering individual locals. The contract for the Engineering and Scientific Unit covers Local 375 – the biggest of the four at over 5,000 members – Local 3005, Local 3778 and Local 3599. 

But demands voiced by Local 3005 on improving workplace safety, locking-in telework, preventing outsourcing to private contractors and fixing understaffing have been scoffed at or deemed impossible by DC 37’s staff bargainer and the presidents of the other three locals who prefer to roll-over the previous union contract largely unchanged, local leadership said. Unable to make membership's demands heard through official channels, the union took to the street.

“They have sent a clear message to us: we don’t care about improving the working conditions of 3005 members,” said Cristina Rodriguez-Hart, a Local 3005 member. “DC 37 is not fighting for us at a time when we need them too. Somewhere along the line, DC 37 stopped fighting for better unit contracts.” 

DC 37 leadership has said it plans to enshrine remote work into the citywide agreement, but Rodriguez-Hart said members don't want to wait for that agreement which "is not designed to meet the title-specific needs of our members."

She demanded that the union put the ten proposals forward, "stop being scared of the Office of Labor Relations" and "stop promoting an undemocratic process."

 A spokesperson for DC 37 did not respond to a request for comment.

Leadership and members of Local 3005 and members of Local 375 of District Council 37 outside of DC 37 HQ after their rally.

Harper Freeman/ The Chief

Local 375 members also frustrated 

The rally was attended by rank-and-file members of Local 375, who say they too been unfairly locked out of negotiations for the Engineering and Scientific Unit contract. The chairs of five union chapters sent a letter July 8 calling for Local 375 president Mike Troman to hold a special meeting in order to update members on the progress of bargaining. 

The chapter presidents have yet to hear back from Troman, said Josh Barnett, president of Chapter 25, encompassing employees at New York City Housing Authority.  

“It’s like it's a spectator sport,” Barnett said. “We really haven't heard much of anything about what's on the table, what we're bargaining, what's being negotiated and what the timeline is. We've had to rely on Local 3005 to get transparency.” 

Barnett said a key issue for Local 375 members, especially for those at NYCHA who, Barnett said “constantly ask me what the status is with the contract,” is enshrining remote work into the contract. Currently, city employees access remote work through a pilot program first reached with the city two years ago and because the program is not in the city’s collective bargaining agreement, unions cannot file grievances if members’ right to remote work is revoked by management.  

Remote work has had an especially troubled history at NYCHA. It was one of the last agencies to reach an individual agreement with city unions to allow employees to work from home. 

Remote work is also a key issue for Local 3005 members, who are pushing to enshrine the protections in their unit contract

Barnett and several other chapter presidents who have clashed with Troman for years most recently butted heads with the longtime Local 375 president over elections as delegates to next month’s American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention that insurgents won over candidates pushed by Troman. Troman-aligned candidates filed a protest with the Local’s election committee arguing that insurgent candidates utilized official union logos in a blog that pushed their candidacy. 

The election committee ruled that the votes should be redone, but the local’s delegate body overruled that decision, leading the losing candidates to bring a protest to an AFSCME judicial panel which sided last week with the insurgents. 

Troman did not respond to comment requests.

Meghan Peterson, the president of Local 3005 representing around 1,300 workers in the Department of Health and Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Harper Freeman/ The Chief

Since Peterson and her Rank-and-File Voices slate won elections for Local 3005 leadership last year, local leadership has repeatedly challenged DC 37’s establishment and has been active in aiding reform movements at other locals.

The protest outside of DC 37's office was their most confrontational move yet.

“Union leadership has informed us that they intend to move forward no matter what and regardless of whether or not our local signs off on negotiations or not,” said Peterson. “But Local 3005 will keep fighting.”