FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Release #041-00
Thursday, February 3, 2000
Contact: Sunny Mindel/Curt Ritter (212) 788-2958
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) President Dr. Luis Marcos, and District Council 37 Administrator Lee Saunders today announced that the City has reached a tentative agreement with the District Council 37 that will enable HHC to use a private vendor to process half the Corporation's laundry services.
Under the demonstration program, the other half of the laundry services will continue to be processed by in-house union employees at the HHC facility in Brooklyn.
"Today's historic agreement represents a major step toward enabling the Corporation to maximize its efficiency," Mayor Giuliani said. "It will save money and improve services for HHC. At the same time, it introduces competition into the process while allowing the Union to compete in every sense of the word. And it further demonstrates the cooperative nature of our working relationships with the municipal unions."
Effective March 15, 2000 the laundry services at half of the City-run hospital facilities will be processed by a private vendor. The unions will work cooperatively with HHC to upgrade the equipment at Brooklyn Central Laundry and re-engineer the work processes to achieve more efficient operation. To accomplish this, HHC will spend $1.6 million - which has already been allocated by the City Council - for capital improvements at the Brooklyn facility this year. Once the capital improvements are completed the Union and HHC will run the managed competition project for a period of one year and will evaluate the results based upon agreed criteria.
The City and District Council 37 also concluded a separate redeployment agreement that will transfer the excess workers within HHC, and which will be implemented in two phases. Effective March 15, 2000, 51 employees will be transferred to vacant positions within HHC at no loss of salary or benefits. An additional 12 employees will be redeployed within HHC once the first contract for capital improvements is awarded.