DC 37, CSEA, DC 1707 Demand Fair Share
AFSCME teams with other unions to tell Giuliani, Pataki: Don't ignore working families in your budgets.
New York
A chorus of demonstrators from New York City’s unions made it clear to anyone within shouting distance May 12 that they want Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki to use budget surpluses to increase wages for city workers and improve programs that help working families.
District Council 37, the Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local 1000, and Council 1707 were part of an estimated contingent of 60,000 New York City unionists who shut down 15 blocks of Broadway near city hall for the rally. They stressed that because of city workers’ productivity, administrators can now dig deep into city coffers and improve the lives of citizens.
The city currently boasts a reported $2 billion surplus, while the state weighs in with another $3 billion.
“No more zeros for New York City heroes,” declared AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee during the rally. “Again, out on the street. Again, shut out of the mayor’s office. Again, having to talk to the mayor through the thick glass of his office window instead of engaging in a meaningful dialogue,” he said in reference to the mayor’s office refusing to review the budget with unions for the first time in the last 25 years.
“You know what we would have told him if he had the decency to talk to the men and women who make this city proud. We would have told him exactly what we’re saying today: that it’s criminal to offer this city’s employees nothing — absolutely no wage increase — for their dedicated and loyal services,” added McEntee.
“Today is just the beginning. A sleeping giant has been awakened,” boomed Lee Saunders, DC 37 administrator and key speaker at the rally, before a raucous crowd.
“Today’s tremendous turnout shows that the union movement is alive and well in New York City,” Saunders told the crowd. “We’ve got to change the priorities of the city.”
The mass labor rally was coordinated by the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of 500 public- and private-sector unions representing 1.5 million members. Saunders, who also serves as a CLC vice president, said he approached CLC President Brian McLaughlin and told him it would be a great idea for all labor unions to come together on a common agenda and make a statement “because we strongly believe that the direction that Giuliani was taking the city was wrong.”
CSEA and Council 1707, led by IVPs Danny Donohue, president of CSEA, and Josephine LeBeau, executive director of Council 1707, helped make AFSCME the most visible part of the demonstration.
“In this time of economic prosperity in New York, we’ve got to talk about a fair share for working families,” said Donohue.
“Working together, labor can make a difference in this city,” added LeBeau.
By Jimmie Turner
