AFSCME’s DC 37 Fights NY City Laundry Privatization
September 09, 2010
TAKING A STAND – Members of Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 (DC 37) take to the streets in August to bring attention to their fight to stop outsourcing of public hospital laundry services. (Photo credit: Clarence Elie-Rivera)
New York City’s largest public employee union, DC 37, is once again fighting to prevent the outsourcing of laundry services for most of the city’s public hospitals.
At stake are the jobs of approximately 150 Brooklyn Central Laundry (BCL) workers, including 70 represented by Municipal Hospital Employees Union Local 420 (DC 37).
The latest skirmish – in a battle that has lasted over a decade – will take place before the New York State Supreme Court. The union filed a lawsuit on Aug. 25 against the city and its Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which runs the BCL.
The fight is also being waged publicly. The day the lawsuit was filed, nearly 300 members of DC 37 and other unions rallied in front of HHC’s Manhattan headquarters to stop its privatization plans.
Oliver Gray, DC 37’s associate director, addressed the rally on behalf of Exec. Dir. Lillian Roberts, saying, “HHC has broken its promise to keep the laundry work in-house and we’re not going to accept that.”
The dispute has raged on and off since 1998, when HHC and the city – under the administration of Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani – first tried to privatize public hospital laundry services.
After a year-long fight that included candlelight vigils, marches, an arbitration and a lawsuit, HHC and DC 37 agreed work would continue at BCL – on condition that the public workers compete with a privateer. After a year, an independent panel would decide which proved the most cost-effective and efficient option.
The public employees won that contest and HHC agreed, in 2005, to return all laundry services in house. DC 37 says HHC has violated that agreement.
“I think we’ll win. We’ve been fighting this battle for 11 years and we’re still there,” declares Local 420 Pres. Carmen Charles. “We’ve proven, time and again, that our members can do this work cheaper” than a for-profit company.
Read more about Local 420’s battle here. The lawsuit can be read here.
