After Scandals, New Union Leaders Turn More Aggressive

The New York Times, March 22, 1999

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March 22, 1999, Monday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 1; Column 2; Metropolitan Desk

LENGTH: 1816 words

HEADLINE: After Scandals, New Union Leaders Turn More Aggressive

BYLINE: By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

BODY:
After a wave of corruption investigations swept away many of New York City's longtime labor leaders, a new cast of union leaders is starting to make the city's labor movement more vigorous -- and more combative -- than it has been in decades, labor experts and union officials say.

Having been on the defensive for months over corruption, unions are now planning a series of aggressive actions, like mounting a drive to organize 50,000 home health-care workers and demonstrating at Fifth Avenue department stores that use nonunion janitors.

And to increase labor's political clout, several unions have formed a new coalition with black and Hispanic politicians that aims to remake the state's Democratic Party and reshape government priorities.

"In the last year, there's been a real sea change," said Gregory Tarpanian, executive director of the Labor Research Association, a New York consulting group. "Unions are ready to play a much bigger role in the political life of the city."

This new aggressiveness, including a large labor rally scheduled for City Hall Park on May 12, is expected to strain the contract negotiations scheduled for next year for more than 250,000 city workers.

But while New York labor seeks to rebound, it will have to work to shed its reputation for being the city with the worst union corruption in the nation. Many of the city's unions have been placed into trusteeship after union leaders faced allegations of embezzling money or taking kickbacks, and labor's resurgence could be set back this spring because several former leaders of District Council 37, which represents 120,000 city workers, are expected to be indicted.

A big reason for labor's more militant stance is an infusion of new blood, including Denis Hughes, the new president of the two-million-member New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O. There are also new leaders at two of the city's largest unions, replacing disgraced officials who were pressured to retire and who did little to mobilize workers or exert political influence.

Stanley Hill, an ally of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, retired last month as executive director of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Earlier, he had been forced to take an unpaid leave because of extensive corruption at his union. And Gus Bevona, president of Service Employees Local 32B-32J, which represents 55,000 doormen and janitors, was pressured to step down because of his extravagant salary and spending.

After years in which many union leaders were more preoccupied with their perks than building their unions, the city's labor movement is now mobilizing on three fronts that Mr. Hill and Mr. Bevona largely ignored: political activity, recruitment and protest rallies.

On the political front, the city's three most powerful union officials -- Dennis Rivera, who heads a 150,000-member health care union; Lee Saunders, the trustee named to replace Mr. Hill, and Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers -- have allied themselves with black and Hispanic political leaders to form a group called the New Century Movement. This alliance has developed a 13-point program that calls for smaller classes in schools, more publicly financed child care, health insurance for uninsured adults and a program that moves workfare workers into permanent jobs. The alliance also opposes privatizing city-owned hospitals.

"If we coalesce around these issues with politicians and community organizations, we can be a force that will have to be dealt with," Mr. Saunders said. "The city and the state now have substantial surpluses, and they are talking about building stadiums and providing tax breaks to multibillion-dollar corporations. On the other hand, you're looking at a public hospital system that's being torn apart and the quality of health care is being diminished. I don't think it's right."

To achieve its goals, the coalition hopes to strengthen the State Democratic Party and make it focus on getting more government services. On March 30, hundreds of union members are to distribute leaflets outlining the coalition's objectives at 60 subway stops in New York City and at locations in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and other cities upstate. "The purpose of this movement," Mr. Rivera, president of 1199, the National Health and Human Service Employees Union, said, "is to fight for improvement in the lives of our members -- and of all working New Yorkers -- and to use our power not just at election time but all year round in public policy."

Mr. Rivera, whose union merged two years ago with the Service Employees International Union, said he hoped to advance the group's goals through a political action committee that aims to collect $1 million a month. The service employees union will ask its more than 300,000 members in New York State to contribute $5 a month.

"Compared to the laid-back labor leadership we saw, there seems to be a very aggressive, proactive type of leadership," said Representative Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat who is chairman of New York's Coalition of Black Elected Officials, which has joined the New Century Movement. "This new alliance is going to make a tremendous difference for the Democratic Party."

One result of labor's new aggressiveness is a tenser relationship with Mayor Giuliani. For example, Mr. Saunders has filed suit against the city, charging the Parks Department with violating state law by using workfare workers to do tasks once done by full-time employees. District Council 37 is also threatening to sue the city for hiring 8,000 per-diem employees, who Mr. Saunders said do the same work as union members without receiving pension and vacation benefits. Mr. Hill long took an accommodating approach toward workfare and per-diem employees.

"There's more tension now than there was between the labor movement and the Mayor," said Ms. Weingarten, the teachers' union leader who serves as chairwoman of the Municipal Labor Committee, which coordinates bargaining for the city's municipal unions. "The labor movement did a tremendous amount to put the city on firm economic footing in 1995, and the Mayor has a short memory about it."

The unions continue to have their critics, of course, among them rank-and-file members who say there has been too much corruption and too little democracy.

Bill Stern, contributing editor at The City Journal, which is published by the generally conservative Manhattan Institute, said labor's increased power could hurt the city's budget and its rebounding economy. He faulted public employee unions in particular, asserting that their members' benefits were too generous.

"When you have a large group of people in New York working for small business who receive practically no benefits, who work long hours to pay taxes to give these union members benefits like pensions and noncontributory health care, it's like a feudal system," he said.

The new cooperation among the city's unions comes after an era in which the movement was weakened by corruption, docile leadership and rivalries between leaders. Mr. Hill did not trust Mr. Rivera and usually refused to work with him, while Mr. Bevona was reclusive and shunned cooperation with other labor leaders -- one official called his local the "Albania of New York unions."

"There's a long history of fragmentation in the New York City labor movement," said Joshua Freeman, a Queens College labor historian. "The last time the city's labor movement really acted coherently together was in the late 50's to the late 60's in the heyday of Harry Van Arsdale." Mr. Van Arsdale, who died in 1986, was the president of the New York City Central Labor Council, the umbrella group of the city's unions.

On the organizing front, several city unions that long ignored recruiting new members are now pressing unionization drives. District Council 37 just conducted its first successful drive in more than a decade, recruiting 120 computer workers in the city welfare agency whose jobs had been contracted out to a private company.

The Mason Tenders District Council, long one of the city's most corrupt unions, has been cleaned up under Federal monitors and is now aggressively organizing after years of failing to recruit new members. The union has organized 2,000 asbestos workers, 1,500 demolition workers and 200 private carting workers.

Under Mr. Bevona, Local 32B-32J not only shunned organizing but also saw its members drop to 55,000, from 70,000, as buildings replaced unionized cleaning contractors with nonunion ones. Seeing the local's membership and power erode, Thomas Balanoff, the trustee named to run the local, said the union would seek to organize 4,000 nonunion janitors on Long Island and 10,000 in Newark and elsewhere in New Jersey.

Local 32B-32J will also try to pressure Citicorp and the Port Authority bus terminal to return to union cleaning contractors after hiring nonunion companies. The union plans a rally at the midtown bus terminal on April 14 and protests this spring at seven Citicorp branches.

With John J. Sweeney, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., urging unions to step up organizing efforts, New York unions known for organizing are heeding the call. For instance, 1199 will seek to organize 50,000 home care workers who help the elderly and disabled. If that effort succeeds, 1199's membership could grow to more than 200,000.

While Mr. Balanoff and Mr. Saunders seek to invigorate Local 32B-32J and District Council 37, they must work on strengthening the weakened structures left by Mr. Bevona, Mr. Hill and several district council officials expelled or forced to retire because of suspected voting fraud and embezzlement. Because of a startling lack of financial controls, Mr. Saunders is seeking to establish regular budget procedures, while Mr. Balanoff is trying to create an effective system of shop stewards.

To further political and organizing goals, the city's unions are urging members to take to the streets. Brian McLaughlin, president of the Central Labor Council, announced plans on Saturday for a Times Square rally on Sept. 1, which union officials predicted would be the city's largest labor demonstration in decades.

On a more modest level, Local 32B-32J wants to embarrass department stores by holding rallies this summer to protest their use of lower-paid nonunion janitors.

"This summer, we're going to rock-and-roll on Fifth Avenue because all these fancy stores, like F.A.O. Schwarz, are bringing in nonunion labor," Mr. Balanoff said.

To turn his local into a political force, Mr. Balanoff said he hoped to educate janitors and doormen alike about Medicaid cuts, Social Security and other issues. "We represent the city's doormen," he said, "and if we get them talking about political issues to everyone, imagine how powerful a political force we could be."

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GRAPHIC: Photo: Labor leaders got together for a breakfast meeting last week in Manhattan. From left were Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers' union; Lee Saunders, the trustee named to run District Council 37, and Dennis Rivera of the health care workers' union. (Angel Franco/The New York Times)