AFSCME 3090

City Council to Review Budget Ideas in 30 Days

February 4, 2010 - On Wednesday, thanks to strong action by members of Coalition unions, the City Council put on hold plans to make drastic and ill-advised cuts. Instead, they will take 30 days to discuss all options, including dozens of ideas submitted by City workers.

The next day, however, the Mayor issued a memo that he will eliminate 1,000 positions from the General Fund. But let us be clear what this means for us.

No one in Coalition units will face layoff in this fiscal year. This is absolutely guaranteed thanks to the Coalition agreement of last year. The only impact on members of Coalition unions from the Mayor’s actions today will be:

1. To open up hundreds of opportunities for people to transfer out of general fund positions and into positions on special funds or in proprietary departments, and
2. To speed up the ERIP process slightly.

These are two of the key actions we have been pushing the City to implement instead of moving forward with short-sighted cuts and layoffs. We will continue to push them to move farther on each – expediting retirements and maximizing opportunities in proprietary departments, both through transfer and contracting in of work that can be done by City employees.

Workers in units not covered by the Coalition agreement may face layoffs, though these will hopefully be minimized through transfers and other budget savings.

We encourage people to take advantage of transfer opportunities to move into special funded and proprietary department positions, where funding is more stable. Next year will be just as difficult as this year, and members who move out of general fund positions now will secure positions on other funds while making next year’s budget picture just a little bit better.

The budget battles are far from over. Please stay engaged as discussions continue in Council, and contribute any budget ideas through your union rep. Local 3090 will continue to keep you posted on the latest news from City Hall.