The largest public-sector union in the city recently filed a lawsuit against Mayor Eric Adams and his administration due to impending budget cuts, as POLITICO can first report. This is the latest indication that the mayor’s political coalition is being harmed by the proposed spending reductions at a particularly trying point in Adams’ term.
DC 37, a prominent and early supporter of Adams in the 2021 mayoral primary, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, charging the mayor and his administration with inadequately reviewing a decision to eliminate thousands of union jobs as city officials attempt to bridge a $7 billion budget deficit.
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https://013ddbc9ddb1d19fe407daa58d0567ab.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html The union’s executive director, Henry Garrido, stated in an interview, “The approach to deal with this budget deficit has been short-sighted.” He added, “When you exclusively cut services to deal with a shortfall and you don’t pursue revenue collection options that you have … the public gets more upset at city workers because the garbage takes longer to be picked up, it takes longer to take care of their calls and it takes longer to deal with emergencies.” The labor union claims in its lawsuit that the city neglected to carry out the necessary cost-benefit analysis prior to recommending budget cuts that would eliminate 2,300 “job training participants” in the parks and sanitation departments; Garrido believes these positions will now be filled by non-union contractors.
According to Liz Garcia, a spokesman for the mayor, the city has been balancing the budget despite significant economic challenges without having to lay off employees or significantly interrupt services. She also mentioned that Adams had just finished negotiating new contracts with 90,000 DC 37 workers as well as the city’s unionized staff.
“We are confident that we took all appropriate steps in preparing the November Plan, and we will review the complaint.”
Due to COVID-19 vaccination requirements, DC 37 sued the government of former Mayor Bill de Blasio. However, this is the union’s first lawsuit against the Adams administration, highlighting the financial burden that the mayor’s supporters are bearing.
The general populace is in favor of Garrido. According to a recent Quinnipiac University survey, 83% of New Yorkers said they were worried about how the mayor’s proposed budget cuts will affect their day-to-day activities. In that study, the mayor’s job approval rating dropped to a record-low 28%.
Garrido has been raising objections about the city’s $110 billion budget cut, and this lawsuit is the latest example of that. During a City Council session on Monday, he attacked the cuts in a more general way, claiming that the mandate “is not only unfair [and] unjustified, it makes a mockery of the process that we have of the counterbalances in governments in the city of New York.”
Garrido said that removing DC 37 employees completely from some departments while leaving others in the local government unaffected is another insult to his supporters.
“The way [the Office of Management and Budget] is trying to get to a point of reducing the budget is wrong, and is disproportionately hurting some of our members more than other workers,” he remarked.
Still, he refrained from implying that he had completely lost interest in Adams because of the spending reduction.
According to Garrido, he will assist the mayor in his efforts to convince Albany authorities to provide asylum seekers more funds, and he will be meeting with the White House to talk about the matter.
“We’re still supporting [Adams],” Garrido stated. “I don’t think this is directed at him. He has been given a real raw deal with this migrant situation.”
