Abstract
As the son of a New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief, and the grandson of a subway conductor, both proud members of their respective unions, I personally can vouch for the effect unions have on members of the New York City civil service and their families. But working for the city in the twenty-first century is much different than working for the city in the middle of the twentieth century. Richard Steier demonstrates these difficulties well in his book, Enough Blame to Go Around, which documents the trials of multiple locals in the first years of this new century.
This book comprises Steier’s columns written for The Chief, the civil service newspaper published for city workers. It speaks volumes for the size and sophistication of the New York City civil service that a newspaper, devoted solely to civil service issues, could survive in these deadly times for newspapers.
Written during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, these columns chronicle a continuing fight to limit union rights and employee pay and benefits by those two administrations. They also demonstrate the support these mayors received from the two city tabloids, the New York Post and The Daily News. It is not surprising that the Post favored the GOP mayors over city workers, but The News, seemingly on the side of the “working man,” also highlighted the benefits received by city workers not available to the general working public. As many of the city union leaders noted with frustration, these attacks focused on the level of health care benefits, pensions, and other benefits received by city workers, not on why private-sector workers no longer received them.
While documenting the assault on employee rights by management, Steier does not turn a blind eye to the greediness and at times ineptitude of union leaders. He zeroes in on District Council 37, the city’s largest union, representing many of the lowest paid city workers, for particular scrutiny. The looting of the union treasury by a number of leaders—for Super Bowl tickets, nights in strip clubs, first class travel, and the like—boggles the mind and is only possible when there is no effective check on leadership or viable opposition to their policies. Steier also documents the failure of the 2005 transit workers strike, largely caused by the overreach and poor planning of the union president.
The use of newspaper columns brings an immediacy to the writing not possible if this were instead a historical reminiscence. Taken in isolation, however, the individual columns often leave the reader uncertain of the final outcomes. While at times there are afterwords, or the same issues addressed in future columns, a number of the stories leave the reader wondering what finally happened.
For the union leader, a number of lessons are apparent from the successes and failures of the many unions in the New York City civil service. First, and most obvious, union leaders must be custodians of their members’ funds and use them solely for the good of their members. In many of the instances that Steier writes about, it is clear the union leaders did not meet those standards. Second, unions, particularly in the public sector, do not exist in a vacuum but must also seek support from the media and political allies.
The New York City public sector is the largest municipal workforce and as such, can provide both positive and negative lessons for union leaders. Steier’s volume provides many of the lessons on both sides of the ledger and should be required reading for all union leaders, particularly those dealing with public sector employees.