1199 SEIU Monthly Executive Council Meeting Remarks By Mayor de Blasio, as Prepared For Delivery

September 19, 2014

Thank you George. I always appreciate your counsel, especially on health care matters, and you were an important member of our transition team. I also want to thank Secretary-Treasurer Maria Castaneda, an SEIU member for nearly 30 years who began as an organizer, worked her way to the top, and oversees a $135 million budget. I want to thank the entire Executive Council. And I want to acknowledge the leaders in my administration with us: Laura Santucci, my Chief of Staff, and Emma Wolfe, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

I’m thrilled to be here. SEIU 1199 was founded in New York in 1932, the same year then-Congressman La Guardia sponsored landmark labor legislation, the Norris-La Guardia Act, making it illegal for employers to prevent employees from forming unions.

In the eight decades since, SEIU has grown to the largest local union in world, with nearly 400,000 members in five states and Washington, D.C. We’ve had a long and close relationship—we started an incredible journey to City Hall together, and in the past nine months, we’ve made significant progress towards our goal of building a fairer, more equitable City.

In the progressive spirit of La Guardia, we pledged to end an era of divisive labor relations. When I took office, all of this City’s over 150 labor contracts had expired. It was unfair to employees—and we’ve made incredible progress through a relationship based on respect and dialogue.

We set an ambitious goal of signing 50 percent of contracts by the year’s end—and in eight months, we settled contracts with 62 percent of the City’s workforce—including 1199 SEIU in June. And we have more on the way; contracts that respect workers rights, while being fiscally prudent.

In the same vein, we applaud 1199 on their recent agreement with the League of Voluntary Hospitals, which gives workers the benefits they deserve while strengthening the health care system. This is proof that we can be progressive and fiscally responsible.

But contracts are only one part of the progressive City we are building. Earlier this month, over 50,000 4-year olds began pre-K for first time in New York’s history. We more than doubled seats from 20,000. And next year, we will have over 70,000 seats for our universal pre-K system.

We are building a strong foundation and supporting kids every step of the way. We nearly doubled spaces for middle-school after school programs. Our  pre-K and middle school programs are putting kids on the right track and keeping them there—and helping combat inequality.

We are also working for the rights of immigrants: we’ve established the largest Municipal ID Card program in nation, giving all New Yorkers ID they can use to access services, which begins January 1, 2015. Yesterday, we announced the card’s additional benefits, including a special one-year free membership at 33 top New York cultural institutions, which enables all New Yorkers to fully participate in our City.

A large part of our campaign was our pledge to strengthen the bonds between NYPD and community, and change the culture of policing, working closely with Commissioner Bratton—who fully understands NYPD is at its most effective when it has the trust and respect of the community. The NYPD must “respect and protect” our citizens—and you can already see changes.  We’ve put an end to the unconstitutional over-use of stop and frisk, with an almost 80 percent drop in the 2nd quarter of the year compared to the same period last year. In the 2nd quarter of 2013 there were nearly 60,000 stops; this year, we are down to a little over 13,000 stops.

We’ve also been meeting with local community and spiritual leaders. In August, we held a roundtable with Cardinal Dolan and Reverend Sharpton. And while doing all of this, crime continues to fall. Crime is down nearly 4 percent from last year; robberies are down 1,746 – or 13.5 percent – compared to same time last year; and we’ve had the safest August since CompStat began recording crime data in 1994.

In nine short months, we’ve come a long way. And we would not be here without your help. Thank you for your support—and I look forward to continuing our work to build One City, where we can all rise together.