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To the editor:
The Municipal Labor Committee has functioned under a shroud of secrecy and unaccountability since its inception. Meeting minutes are not made public. Their rules and regulations are elusive. The Office of Collective Bargaining ignores inquiries. The New York State Committee on Open Government was forthcoming — except amendments weren’t available.
But the most troubling nondisclosure is who serves on their committees (and their respective affiliations, e.g., Evaluation, Technical, and Tripartite). Their power is formidable, as they assess and make recommendations on lucrative contract awards.. For example, CVS Health declared in a press release that the Aetna Medicare Advantage contract “is valued at more than $15 billion over the initial five years and four months term of the agreement.”
When I made a Freedom of Information request from the Office of Labor Relations, it declined, claiming that such transparency would “impair present or imminent contract awards...collective bargaining negotiations” and “constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
It seems implausible that knowing what agency or business a committee member belongs to would have such dire consequences.
The public would benefit by being able to judge whether the decision-makers have the proper background and skills, and are not influenced by politics.
The phantom members do sign conflict of interest/nondisclosure forms which characterizes them generically as an “evaluator” or a “professional advisor/consultant.”
At Michael Mulgrew’s recent presentation to the UFT on impending health benefit changes for active employees, he mentioned “transparency” several times, in the context of demanding that the insurance company finalists disclose costs and data.
But by being a chair of the MLC, he has surely ceded the moral high ground on this issue.
Harry Weiner
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MARIANNE.PIZZITOLA
Great points Harry. Not only is it a secret org, the MLC nor OLR will NOT answer who is in it, on the Steering and Tripartite committees or any other committee. They do not share their minutes, or their financials but you can find them on Guidestar or IRS.Gov (Although the IRS site is not showing their 2022 yet) Here is their 2021 https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2022/132/595/2022-132595453-202311309349304401-9O.pdf They are incorporated as a 501C5, and their mission as written, "TO FACILITATE THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROCESS WITH THE CITY OF NEW YORK" Note THEY DO NOT have a bargaining certificate in the City of NY, they cannot legally "bargain" but how do they get their power? An unwritten rule, by simply being a member of the organization, and casting a vote when held on a subject matter, that union CONVEYS their bargaining power TO the MLC. And they don't even realize that. Sadly, there is conflict all over this committee in that the MLC lawyer, Alan Klinger of Steptoe is also the lawyer for every member of the Executive Board, DC37, UFT, Sanitation, CWA Local 1180 and Teamsters Local 237.. and then some others too. He is also the Labor Chair as we are told, but no one will confirm that either. Why isn't that position held by a union leader who is a stakeholder?
We hired an expert parliamentarian to listen to several meetings and he found the MLC does not follow its bylaws or Robert's Rules as required. They also keep secret What unions are in the MLC, their membership which governs the weighted vote in the MLC. When a vote is held, they should say, DC37 120,022 Members, how do you vote, UFT 119,995 Members How do you vote? Why? Transparency so its on the record how many members they declare, they are paying dues to the MLC for, and the weighted vote is 1 vote for every 250 members. That makes a big difference, to know what that number is. When Harry Greenberg calls the votes, he NEVER says that, and even when asked directly for those figures, they have NEVER been revealed to our knowledge. Some unions say they do not want to speak in the meetings because they don't want to have to explain their votes! And thus, union leaders promote democracy dying in darkness. Decisions they make affect EVERY SINGLE Union worker city wide. Yes Harry, the MLC needs more transparency!
Thursday, January 11 Report this