Lovaglio-Miller says city programs go unused and wages lag inflation
Lovaglio-Miller says the city focuses more on recruitment than retention, that many programs are unknown to employees, and that DC 37's 16.21% contract increases were outpaced by roughly 21% growth in metro-area prices.
But I do want to speak to retention in the city of New York.
District Council, oh, I apologize.
My name is Rose Lovaglio-Mell.
I'm the Associate Director of District Council 37 to the Executive Director, Henry Garrido.
District Council 37 represents more than 90,000 municipal workers in the city of New York, which provide the essential services to the
constituents in New York on a day-to-day basis.
What we've noticed in the retention of city employees is that the city does a lot in recruitment areas, not as much in retention areas.
And I know the city came up here and testified about all these different programs that they have.
Some of them I've heard for the first time sitting here today.
So, of course, that leads me to think about how are the employees in these agencies getting the information or are they getting the information?
And I think they're very good programs that they're talking about.
However, they're not necessarily being utilized.
I know they reach out to the HR departments of the agencies.
Who the HR departments are giving that information to leaves a lot to be desired or understood.
There are also many other things.
I know the city also testified to our contract, our 2021 to 2026 contract, which we thought was a good contract where we negotiated 16.21% increases for our members,
along with an equity panel, additional compensation fund, signing bonus, things of that magnitude.
However,
The prices in New York metropolitan area rose approximately 21% during that time, with rents going up, cost of food, utilities, and transportation.
So, you know, even though we may sit at the table to negotiate decent,
good wage increases, it doesn't always translate over a five-year period when inflation and cost of living increases larger than the actual wage increase that you receive.