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The union representing architects, engineers, inspectors and other employees at the School Construction Authority says the agency won’t agree to provide their members with telework options or raises in line with the citywide pattern even though they’ve been granted to managers.
District Council 37 officers and members, as well as elected officials, rallied last Thursday outside of SCA’s headquarters in Long Island City to demand a fair contract. The agreement for about 350 workers represented by DC 37’s Local 1740 expired in August 2021, and the employees haven’t had raises since January 2020.
Charles Komlo, the local’s president since it formed in 2018, said that turnover at the SCA has remained high since even prior to the pandemic. He noted that the vacancy rate at the agency is currently about 15 percent, and that a significant number of his members — more than 120 — were recent hires who have been on the job since 2020 or later.
“There’s a revolving door. Why do people come and leave? Because they’re not getting paid their fair share; they’re being dumped on with excessive workloads,” he said during the rally. “Tell me anywhere in the country where an architect has 100 projects concurrently under their belt. This agency needs to have reform, and it needs a fair contract for those who are doing the work.”
'Shouldn't have to beg'
SCA is responsible for managing the construction of new schools and renovating the city's aging public schools. Vidhu Dhar, a senior construction assessment specialist who has worked at SCA for nearly 17 years, said that SCA workers “do everything” to make sure school buildings are safe and comfortable for students and staff.
“What should have been given to us a long, long time back, we have to beg for it. We should not have to beg for it,” she said.
Several elected officials, including City Council members Lincoln Restler, Julie Won and Justin Brannan, criticized the SCA for not providing its employees with fair raises for more than four years.
“We’re not supposed to be doing this outside of a place that’s technically connected with the city and the state; I’m used to doing this outside of big bad corporations. It’s time to do the right thing here because we’re sending the wrong message,” Brannan said.
A spokesperson for the SCA, Kevin Ortiz, said he was confident a deal with the union would be reached.
“We are dedicated to our employees and are fully committed to reaching a fair and equitable agreement that benefits both our employees and the SCA,” he said in a statement. “We remain optimistic that with continued effort and collaboration, we can achieve a mutually satisfactory agreement in a timely manner.”
Arbitration dispute
The union and SCA began negotiations in July 2023. Although the two sides have had 14 bargaining sessions, SCA is refusing to sign off on raises that follow the citywide pattern unless the union drops separate arbitration, Komlo alleged.
In 2019, the local approached SCA’s leadership about conducting a quality review of certain titles with high attrition rates. SCA officials told the union that they were going to do a salary review of all titles, and the local and SCA signed a side letter under their previous contract stating that they would collaborate throughout the entire review process, Komlo told The Chief. The union was also told that the funding for the study, and any salary increases resulting from the review, would come out of the agency’s budget, Komlo said.
The review was put on hold because of the pandemic, but was restarted in 2021, the union leader stated. In late 2022, SCA brought up the discussion of salary increases based on the findings of the study but the union had not seen the data, Komlo said.
“We asked for the data that backs up the salary changes and they said it was proprietary,” belonging to the company that conducted the salary analysis, Komlo noted. He contends that refusing to show the union the data went against their agreement to collaborate.
In February 2023, District Council 37 settled a tentative contract with the city that set the citywide pattern for future labor agreements with unions representing municipal workers.
“As soon as the citywide contract was tentatively agreed upon, they said they were taking the offer away, but that they looked forward to negotiating on the citywide pattern,” Komlo said. The local filed a grievance with the Public Employees Relations Board, which he said went into arbitration and adjourned in late June. The union is still awaiting a decision.
Although many of the demands in the contract have been negotiated, “the SCA negotiator said they wouldn’t sign off on the increases unless we drop the arbitration, which is extortion,” Komlo said. “We found it extremely concerning that they said if the arbitration does provide any award, they would reduce it from the citywide raises.”
Ortiz, the SCA spokesperson, pushed back on some of Komlo’s assertions. “We respectfully disagree with the characterization that Local 1740 has put forth and we look forward to the results of the arbitration,” he said.
Other DC 37 locals and DC 37’s executive director, Henry Garrido, also rallied to support Local 1740’s members’ push for a contract.
“Don’t tell me you respect the workers, show me,” Garrido said. “I want to see respect by offering a fair wage. I want to see respect by not treating us as second-class citizens, as every other city worker has a remote-work policy, and we haven’t been offered one.”
State Senator Jessica Ramos, who chairs that chamber’s Labor Committee, noted that the city public school system is mandated by law to reduce class sizes.
“And you know what that means? It means we need more schools to be built in New York City,” she said. “I trust this union to be the experts and the professionals to help us achieve that goal. But it’s not fair to ask you guys to go above and beyond when you haven’t seen a raise since before the pandemic. We want to see a fair contract for Local 1740. This is not just about you guys, but this is also about our kids.”
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