Housing employees say they’ve been left out of the loop on privatization plan
Officials say they’re doing all they can to help as many as 200 find re-employment at the agency or get jobs with new private owners
Above: Employees, facing job losses as Baltimore privatizes some of its public housing, packed a March 12th hearing in City Hall.
As plans by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to convert 22 high-rise buildings to private owneership move forward this spring, members of a union representing maintenance workers say their questions about future employment are being ignored by the administration.
“It has not been open and we will fight them on this issue all the way,” said Glen S. Middleton Sr., executive director of AFSCME of Maryland, Council 67, which represents three unions of HABC workers that stand to be affected by the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, or RAD. “It’s about jobs.”
Housing officials say they have met with union officials and have publicly pledged to help maintenance and security workers at the RAD-designated public housing developments transition into new jobs as the city’s new public housing landscape unfolds.
“We have told. . . all of the other union leaders that we are looking at all options: reemployment within the agency, potential for employees to stay on with the new developers, early retirement and job training,” HABC spokeswoman, Cheron Porter, said in an email to The Brew.
At issue is the fate of as many as 200 HABC employees to be affected by the RAD conversions as the program gets underway.
The controversy began to simmer last fall after housing officials met with AFSCME representatives and disclosed plans to sell 22 public housing buildings to private developers as part of a pilot program by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help local housing authorities infuse cash into aging structures.
“They didn’t share much information with us at all until October and at that time, it [RAD] was signed, sealed and delivered,” Middleton said. “Now we are in negotiations and we will be discussing job security for all of the workers.”
Assisting or Stonewalling Employees?
Housing Commissioner and HABC Executive Director Paul Graziano has said over the past month – including during a March 12 hearing before the City Council – that the agency is working to assist its workers during the transition.
During a March 20 visit by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan at a high-rise slated for conversion, Graziano reiterated his commitment to do so. The need to place public housing units in private hands, Graziano has said, stems from federal budget cuts that have resulted in the need to spend millions each year just to keep the the buildings up to code.
The RAD program, Graziano said, offers an opportunity to repair and maintain some of the most decrepit high rises. Private developers selected by HABC would receive low-income tax credits in return for pumping a projected $331 million into the 22 developments.
During the March 12 hearing, members of the AFSCME Local 647 packed the City Council chamber wearing green T-shirts. A union official testified that the membership was “blindsided” by the RAD plan and feared they were being pushed out of their jobs.
Porter said Graziano had met with an AFSCME Local 647 official in mid-March “and directly told him about the agency’s intentions to look into all options regarding displaced employees.”
But Anthony Coates, president of Local 647, disputed that.
“They are going to the media saying they are trying to work things out and that he is sorry. Those are empty statements,” Coates said, referring to Graziano. “He’s bragging about how well he’s worked with the unions. But there is no transparency. They are being vague.”
“My members are nervous”
Kim Washington, a former deputy mayor who became chief of staff of the housing department in early 2013, has been involved in contract negotiations with Local 647 after the labor agreement expired last July. Workers are continuing to work under the existing language of the expired contract, Coates said.
Union officials say Housing Authority workers are worried as the city moves to privatize nearly half its public housing. (Photo by Fern Shen)
The ongoing tension between HABC and Local 647 has led to charges of union busting because negotiations seem to have stalled as the RAD program moved forward.
Washington declined to be interviewed about Coates’ allegations, the AFSCME negotiations or RAD.
Coates said that Graziano has “never had a conversation with me” regarding RAD or potential layoffs of workers under the program.
“My members are very nervous. They don’t know what is going on. I just want fairness to be on the table. We need leaders to show resolve with hard issues, to show that we’re working together.”