Endorsement of billionaire mayor splits union

On July 13 the Executive Board of District Council 37, AFSCME, voted to endorse the re-election of Wall Street’s candidate for New York City mayor, billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg. The endorsement was accomplished by the narrowest of margins: 13 Executive Board members voted yes, 12 voted no.

The closeness of the vote reflects the misgivings among the DC 37 leadership over the wisdom of this endorsement, which doesn’t reflect the thinking of the membership of DC 37.

No meetings of the members were held to discuss the pros and cons of an endorsement. No prior meetings of the 56 local union executive boards of the unions that are members of DC 37 were held, nor any public indication given that such an endor sement was even being contemplated!

The endorsement came as a complete surprise, even to the most involved union members and the elected members of constituent union executive boards, for whom DC 37 supposedly speaks.

The day after the press conference, I received “distress calls” from delegates and members who were shocked and bewildered by the endorsement. Other executive board members of my union have told me of similar “distress calls” they received. This indicates that there will be serious resistance coming from the union membership on following the DC 37 leadership down this dangerous path.

It is ironic and telling about the political direction of AFSCME that it would have its “flagship” council endorse a Republican Party mayor in a city where the workers overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic Party. The disappointment resulting from the wasting of more than $100 million of precious union funds on the Kerry presidential campaign has left the current union leaderships floundering around for some way to rescue the situation.

Two things are obvious from this endorsement: (1) the NYC Democratic Party is viewed by the labor leadership as too weak and, therefore, an endorsement of a candidate from that party would bear no fruit, and (2) there must have been secret promises of “goodies” in exchange for the endorsement, emanating from Mayor Bloomberg in relation to upcoming contract negotiations. These “goodies” for DC 37, in the unlikely event that they even materialize, will not offset what will be lost by this endorsement.

Billionaire Bloomberg is a direct representative of Wall Street in the class war against the workers and the poor. Wall Street wants to split the NYC union movement and Bloomberg will use this endorse ment to further fracture the unity of the city unions.

The previous DC 37 contract agreement—where it accepted a very small raise in salary for incumbents, while substantially cutting salaries for new hires and forcing DC 37 members to pay substantially more for drug co-pays—caused a split in the NYC union movement because of its small raise and givebacks, which set a pattern for all the city unions.

It created great bitterness among city unions towards the leadership of DC 37. This ill-advised endorsement of Bloomberg will only further scandalize DC 37 as the union that is being used as a political wedge against the rest of the city unions and will further isolate DC 37 from the rest of the NYC labor movement.

How can workers take seriously the claims of the DC 37 leadership that it desires “labor unity” while this leadership breaks unity with other city unions by “making friends” with labor’s arch enemy at City Hall and Wall Street! City workers want and need real unity—unity of labor with the community!

While it is understandable that individual union leaders, looking at the current difficult political “landscape,” made what was in their minds a “practical” decision to “get what they can” in what appears to be an untenable situation, it must be said that the leadership of DC 37 has acted, in this case, as if it were not an integral part of the community.

The membership of DC 37 is overwhelmingly women and people of color, reflecting the composition of the working class and oppressed neighborhoods that are under attack from the Bloomberg admini stration. This endorsement can only aid Mayor Bloomberg and Wall Street’s continuing attack on these communities. This will aid Wall Street’s attack on DC 37’s own membership who are an integral part of those very same communities.

It is this short-sighted “get what you can now” and to hell with the consequences “somewhere down the road” attitude that must be reversed if the labor movement is to survive and grow. The labor movement is an integral part of the community and the oppressed. When it ignores that fact, as they did in this case, it damages its own base, the only base from which it can grow.

Mike Gimbel
New York

The writer is an executive board member of Local 375, DC 37, AFSCME.