As City Hall prepares for a union budget fight, it released numbers that may add fuel to the fire: Nearly 80 percent of New Haven police and teachers union members live outside the city. For firefighters and school administrators, the figure is around 70 percent.
In an “Interoffice Memo” recently distributed to aldermen, administration staffer Elizabeth Benton presented a spreadsheet with a breakdown of union residency. The document lists 14 city unions and details what percentage of their members live in New Haven. Click here to see the full breakdown.
The numbers show that most union members live outside the city. City spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the document was prepared in response to a direct request from aldermen.
The document comes at a tense time in city-union relations. Faced with a projected $82.7 million long-term budget gap and intense pressure to avoid tax hikes, Mayor John DeStefano has been pushing for the privatization of cafeteria services and is also looking for health care and pension cutbacks in new labor contracts. Hundreds of union workers stormed city hall last month to protest such cuts. Click the play arrow above to watch footage from that event.
Asked about the memo’s data, one alderman said the numbers provide another argument for checking the power of unions. Union officials called the numbers an irrelevant distraction.
The spreadsheets shows that a majority of union members — 63.48 percent — drive home to the suburbs every night. The police union, with a rate of 78.6 percent out-of-town, has the highest rate. It’s closely followed by the teachers union, with 77.24 percent living out of town.
Cafeteria workers have the lowest percentage of out-of-town residents, with 30.22 percent residing out of New Haven. Second lowest are daycare workers at 35.14 percent.
West Rock Alderman Darnell Goldson has been working on discouraging workers from living out of town. He has proposed implementing fees and benefits to encourage city workers to move to New Haven. As part of that effort, Goldson compiled figures similar to the administration’s spreadsheet.
Goldson said Tuesday that the numbers might convince aldermen in upcoming budget deliberations to conclude, “These are not our constituents. … We represent the taxpayers of New Haven.”
Goldson said the unions should not be able to drive the budget discussion, especially if their members live out of town.
“I support unions,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone should have a job for life.”
He pointed to the rehiring of rookie cop Jason Bandy as evidence that unions are too powerful. Bandy was fired after allegedly calling in sick, getting drunk, urinating on the floor of a bar bathroom, refusing to leave, getting arrested, then getting re-arrested in East haven when his mother said he had threatened to kill himself. The police union worked out a deal with the city, allowing Bandy to return to the force on Jan. 1, 2011. It’s a testament to outsized union power that Bandy could be re-hired after such egregious misconduct, Goldson said.
Hill Alderman Jorge Perez was more circumspect in his interpretation of the spreadsheet.
“There’s nothing to interpret,” he said. “There’s no residency requirement. It’s not a crime to not live in New Haven.”
Perez called it inappropriate to say anything more while the city is in the middle of negotiations with unions. The executive branch is responsible for negotiations, he said. The Board of Aldermen just votes up or down on whatever deal is struck.
Five of the unions listed on the spreadsheet belong to AFSCME Council 4. That union’s spokesman, Larry Dorman, shared his thoughts on the matter during a Tuesday conference call. He was joined on the line by Cherlyn Poindexter (at left in photo), the head of AFSCME Local 3144, which represents nearly 500 city management workers.
Dorman and Poindexter said the residency data is a distraction from the real issue, which is the question of what is the best way to provide city services.
“Why has the mayor embarked on a campaign to diminish services?” Dorman said. “Absent laws on residency, people have a right to live where they do.”
Besides, Dorman said, more than half of AFSCME Council 4 members live in New Haven. The in-town rate for Locals 884 and 3144, custodians, day care workers, and school paraprofessionals is 52 percent.
Even if workers don’t live in town, they are purchase goods and services in New Haven, Dorman said. “We are very committed to this city.”
Poindexter said the city is “attacking” unions at every turn. “Now they’re attacking where people live.”
Poindexter said she lives in Hamden. She lived in New Haven for 30 of her 44 years, she said. “I’m in New Haven 90 percent of the time. I know nothing about Hamden. I know everything about New Haven.”
Poindexter and Dorman predicted the residency question won’t influence aldermanic budget-voters. “They would agree that what’s important is how we provide services,” Dorman said.
“We make every attempt to work with the city on cost-saving ideas,” Poindexter said. She said unions are willing to work on ideas like a implementing a hiring freeze. That’s the kind of thing aldermen should be looking into, she said.