1199 Employee Strike at AECOM Settled After Intense Negotiation

Impassioned Protests and Sizable Police Presence During Three Day Strike

On Tuesday, November 10, the employees belonging to the Local 1199 of the National Health and Human Service Employees Union went on strike at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM). The strike at the Bronx campus of Yeshiva University's medical school, which ended on Friday, November 13, was disruptive but devoid of violence.

The decision to halt services and head to the picket lines followed more than a month of working without a new contract and a long deadlock in negotiations. The three-day strike culminated with an agreement on a new thirty-seven month contract.

Eleven hundred employees at AECOM and its graduate divisions belong to the Local 1199 union. A diverse group of union members including Ph.D. psychologists, MSD social workers, research technicians, engineers, maintenance workers, counselors, and drug therapists joined their union in an effort to secure favorable terms for a new contract.

The previous contract expired on October 1 of this year. The major point of contention when negotiations for a new contract broke down, was the issue of wage increases. Representatives from 1199 demanded significant annual pay increases by percentage, thus creating a system in which the yearly increase would be calculated by using the previous year's total payment throughout the duration of the contract. AECOM labor officials were intent on offering a smaller percentage increase in the first and last years of the contract and only a lump sum cash bonus in the middle year.

During the less than three full days of the strike, union members picketed along Morris Park Avenue in front of the Belfer, Forcheimer, and Ullman buildings where most of the medical school classes and research laboratories are housed. A large police presence, including more than thirty officers, as well as barricades, served to maintain order and deter violence. The disruption to classes was minimal since the maximum number of protesters was estimated at less than one hundred persons at any single time. Observers characterized the picketing as relatively quiet with respect to the size of the union.

According to AECOM officials, all units of the school maintained basic operations throughout the short strike.

Following standard procedure in this type of situation, a representative from the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Pat Hart, was assigned to speak with both parties. This helped to allow the resumption of negotiations soon after the beginning of the strike. Policy at AECOM does not allow management representatives to deal with union members during regular work hours. Therefore, direct negotiations did not begin each day until the late evening. Gerald Bodner, Labor Counsel for the University, described these sessions, which proceeded well into the early morning hours, as "elongated" in his discussion with The Commentator.

An agreement was reached in the early morning hours of November 13. The new contract has a thirty-seven month duration that began retroactively on October 1, 1998 and runs until October 31, 2001.

A statement released by the AECOM Office of Labor Counsel on November 16 listed some preliminary details of the new contract. According to the statement, the settlement provides employees in their first year with a three percent increase in their base rates plus a lump sum bonus of $750; in their second year, a two percent increase in their base rates plus a lump sum bonus of $500. In the third and final year, employees will receive another two percent increase and a lump sum payment of $250.

The statement also suggests that the University prevailed on two important issues. First, the rights of the principal investigators (heads of research laboratories, especially in the Sue Golding Graduate Division) to determine who they hire for their grants will remain fully intact. In addition, the College received the suspension of pension contributions for fifteen months.

In terms of percentage, employees at Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women, who barely averted a strike and reached a new contract earlier in October, did better than their counterparts at AECOM. The total increase over the thirty-seven months at AECOM equals seven percent, while at the undergraduate schools the increase amounts to ten percent. The disparity is mostly due to the higher wages that had already been in place at the medical school.

Despite the failure to fully achieve the wage increase that was sought, officials from 1199 noted other points of success in the new contract. Frankel touted improvements in the pensions and health care plans, as well as increased allocations for the child care and tuition funds.

Sentiments between the two sides remains cool. Frankel told The Commentator, "You would like to think that the people you are dealing with would take you seriously…without having to threaten…but, the College doesn't work that way."

The University was unremitting in its policy not to reimburse striking workers for time lost due to participation in protests. The average loss of wages per employee was estimated at $300. Some AECOM students expressed support for the University's policy and wondered about the merits of this particular strike.

All employees were reportedly back at their jobs by noon on Friday.