REPORT: July/August 2006

NYSNA joins NYC municipal bargaining coalition

by Rolando Tomas Infante

NYSNA has joined 19 other New York City public employee unions in a bargaining coalition that will negotiate on economic issues with the city.
Nancy Kaleda, senior associate director of NYSNA’s Economic & General Welfare program, was one of the labor leaders who spoke during a June 23 press conference to announce the new coalition.

The coalition covers a broad spectrum of employees, including nurses, teachers, sanitation workers, health service employees, supervisors, lawyers, professors, fire dispatchers, and building inspectors.

“Our decision to stand here united with our coalition partners mirrors the reasons why employees join unions in the first place,” she said. “They believe that the collective voice is stronger than the voice of the individual. NYSNA believes that the collective bargaining voice of the city’s greatest unions is stronger than the individual voice of any one union here.”

This coalition, which includes affiliates of both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, represents nearly half of the city’s unionized workers. Members have agreed to jointly bargain on economic issues – including wages and health benefits – for six months. The coalition will have five co-chairs and any proposed settlement must be approved by at least three of the co-chairs and a two-thirds majority of the member unions. Each individual union will then hold a separate ratification vote.

“Today marks a milestone for the municipal labor movement in New York,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers and a coalition co-chair. “This coalition – the most significant one to have emerged in decades – includes an incredible cross-section of workers from national and international unions like the Teamsters, SEIU and the AFL-CIO; and covers uniformed and civilian employees.”

This coalition mirrors the size of one formed in the wake of the city’s fiscal crisis in the 1970s that included civilian unions, along with uniformed firefighters and sanitation workers.

“Through this coalition, we are standing in solidarity with our colleagues in the Municipal Labor Committee to send the city administration a message that they are collectively dealing with all 180,000 of us,” said Joan Cumberbatch, president of NYSNA’s HHC Executive Council. “We’re speaking with one voice, working together for solutions to problems that affect us all. When New York City employees stand united, we all are stronger.”