Story and Photos by JUSTINA RAMLAKHAN

District Council 37 made headline news in December 2023 after taking the difficult steps of suing the City over proposed budget cuts that jeopardized the Job Training Participant (JTP) Program.

The JTP program began as a temporary employment solution to help welfare recipients transition back into the workforce. Those accepted into the program work four days a week at either the Parks Department, Sanitation Department, or within the Human Resources Administration.

JTP job responsibilities vary depending on the agency. For example, JTPs in Parks perform daily operations from custodial maintenance and clerical work to customer service, including seasonal responsibilities like snow or leaf removal.

JTP workers are hired by the City as full-time equivalent staff. Participants who are referred to the six-month program meet with a career coach, receive job training, and have access to continuing education courses like security training, driver’s education, OSHA certification, and preparation to pass the GED.

While they do not receive a pension or health insurance, they qualify for Medicaid while enrolled in the program.

Fatima Batchelor, a mother of six from the Bronx, recently returned to the JTP program with an assignment at the Parks Department Workforce Development Hiring Center in Queens.

“This is my second time doing the program, the first was 17 years ago,” Batchelor said. “I like the benefits that the program offers. I’ve worked other kinds of jobs but the opportunities you find here are hard to come by and help me support my family. When I finish my six months here, I want to be hired as a City Seasonal Aide.”

It’s common for JTPs to return to the program more than once. The program offers an opportunity to increase participants’ skill sets so they may be hired by the City in more permanent positions upon program completion. One day per week is allotted to training, career, or educational advancement through meetings with a career counselor.

DC 37 won representation rights for JTP participants in a 2004 decision by the Board of Certification of the Office of Collective Bargaining. In 2005, the union welcomed the new members with a 50-cent pay raise to $8 per hour. Since then, the hourly pay has increased to $18 through the citywide contract DC 37 negotiated in March 2023.

JTPs remain the lowest-paid members of the union, and retain their welfare benefits throughout their employment in the program as a requirement of participation.

Suing the City

The JTP Program was one of several on the chopping block in Mayor Adams’ November 2023 budget cut announcement. The Adams administration cited an influx of migrants seeking refuge in New York and a lack of federal aid to support the increased utilization of services in its Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) reductions.

Following the release of the November 2023 financial plan, City agencies were instructed to submit savings plans for the Fiscal Year 2025 Preliminary Budget, reducing FY 2023 spending by 3% and FYs 2024, 2025, and 2026 by 4.75%. The cuts aimed to close a $7.1 billion deficit projected by the administration.

DC 37, which represents the vast majority of the city workforce, filed a lawsuit against the City to fight the elimination of the JTP Program under Local Law 63 of the City Charter.

The litigation was a result of the City’s utilization and overreliance on contract services in lieu of filling vacant staff positions across agencies under the guise of responding to the migrant crisis. The suit, which was filed in New York County Supreme Court on Dec. 12, 2023, claimed that the scope of work previously conducted by JTP participants would then be completed by privately contracted workers.

The basis of the complaint stated that the City did not conduct the necessary assessment required by law before taking steps to pass a budget that would result in job loss for City servants.

“We understand this administration is facing unprecedented obstacles with the influx of migrants arriving to New York, but City workers should not be the scapegoat for this crisis, nor the target of these reactionary budget reductions,” said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido. “New Yorkers are already suffering from the gaps in service caused by the 20,000+ vacancies that existed before the latest round of PEG cuts. Replacing JTP workers with contracts is not only costly and short-sighted, it’s an illegal disservice to the working class people who occupy those jobs.”

The provision cited under Local Law 63 relates to the procedure governing agency service contracts, establishing a protocol the City must abide by when contracting out. One step is to assess whether procuring private services would lead to a reduction in City-funded positions.

By taking the fight to court, DC 37 accused the Adams administration of not following proper procedure in planning to cut about 2,300 JTP positions represented by the union and replacing them with privately-contracted workers.

The lawsuit also articulated that since JTP workers are public assistance recipients required to work to receive their benefits, job loss would also result in the loss of their benefits.

Walking Back Cuts

On Jan. 11, Mayor Adams announced that the broad budget cuts were no longer necessary due to savings gleaned from a planned 20% reduction in migrant crisis services and better-than-expected tax revenue collections.

The announcement brought relief to the agencies employing JTPs that had experienced a four-month pause in hiring and orienting new JTP workers. The program resumed in February 2024.

“This is the first time we’ve knuckled up with the City outside of contract negotiations,” said Robin Roach, DC 37 General Counsel. “This was the best possible outcome for us. It’s important that we protect opportunities for low-income people to acclimate into the workforce and fight for safeguards to improve their working experience.”

When asked if she knew that the program was at risk of being terminated, Batchelor said she was unaware that the path she chose for herself could have disappeared.

“I’m glad the program was saved,” Batchelor said as she resumed her work. “It’s given me and a lot of other workers an opportunity to turn our lives around.”