City Again Says Union Raises Must Be Linked to Productivity
The office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday came out with its first contract proposal in negotiations with the city's largest municipal workers' union District Council 37 (DC 37), holding to its recently reiterated position of no raises that are not paid for by productivity increases (see WIT for Jan. 21, 2003). Although neither the mayor's office nor the leadership of the 125,000-member union would reveal details about the proposal, DC 37's executive director said that the union was preparing a counter-proposal and that the city should consider replacing over-priced contractors with in-house work before asking the union's hard-working membership to give more. The DC 37 contract proposal comes less than a week after the mayor's office first presented a detailed request to the Municipal Labor Council for $600 million in benefit concessions including higher health insurance premiums and co-payments, and reduced pensions.
See "City Again Says Union Raises Must Be Linked to Productivity", STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, February 5, 2003