We deserve fair Unit Contracts that keep pace with our evolving job demands

Every day, Local 768’s nearly 4,000 members demonstrate professionalism, dedication, and resilience in public service roles that cover over 50 different titles and disciplines. Our work is essential to maintaining vital public services within NYC Health + Hospitals, NYC Department of Health, and numerous other city agencies. However, our compensation, benefits, and working conditions have not kept pace with the rising cost of living, increased workloads, and evolving job demands.

We respectfully demand that our new Social Services and Health Services Unit contracts include:

• Added pay for added skills
  • Licensure Differential
  • Longevity Differentials (augment / add where missing)
• Acknowledge the risks we face
  • Correctional Setting Assignment Differential
  • Grant-funded position Assignment Differential
• Support us staying
  • Transferring within our agencies as our lives change
  • Location premium for living in 5 boroughs
  • Ease residency requirements for Mayoral agencies
• Improving the work/life balance
  • Workload limits to improve care and reduce burnout
  • Expanded and strengthened hybrid work options
  • Options for alternate work schedules/compressed schedules (i.e. 4 day work week with longer hours each day)
• Equal pay for equal work
  • All employees in the same title and level receive the same base pay
  • Pay us before outsourcing to temp agencies or affiliates

We believe that investing in Local 768 workers is an investment in the quality and reliability of public services. Fair contracts are not only justified—they are necessary. We urge our agency leadership to negotiate in good faith and reach an agreement that honors the contributions of every member.

Click here to download our flyer!

Frequently asked questions

What are our specific demands? 

How do these bargaining priorities (outlined above) actually fit into the contract? You can review those specific proposals here:

• Social Services Unit Contract (click here) proposals, applicable to:
  • Social Workers
  • Community Service Aide
  • Inspector (Consumer & Worker Protection)
  • Early Childhood Education Consultants
  • Mental Health Standards and Services Consultant
  • Market Agent
  • Sanitation Compliance Agent
  • Mental Health Workers
• Health Services Unit Contract (click here) proposals, applicable to:
  
  • Public Health Advisors
  • Public Health Sanitarians
  • Respiratory Therapists
  • Medical Record Specialists
  • Dental Assistants and Hygienists
  • Licensed Creative Arts Therapists
  • Health Care Program Planner or Analyst
  • Physician Assistants
  • Physical & Occupational Therapists & Assistants
  • Medicolegal Investigator (OCME)
  • Nutritionists
  • Rehabilitation Counselors
  • Utilization Review Analysts & Coordinators
  • Audiologists, Speech Pathologists & Clinicians
  • Environmental Health Technicians
  • Mental Health Assistants

How does this relate to my base wages?

The Unit Contracts do not determine the general increases to our base wages, also called "regular wages" on many of our pay stubs. Those general increases are determined by our Economic Contract. Our current Economic Contract was ratified in March 2023, and covers the period of time from May 26, 2021 to November 6, 2026. Our last general wage increase was 3.25% in May of 2025, and there are no additional general wage increases scheduled under the current contract, so your next increase in base wages will be determined by DC37's negotiations with Mayor Mamdani for our next Economic Contract.  

To review, there are three main contracts that apply to each of us (all available here):

• Citywide Contract: Addresses general working conditions and other non-wage matters such as holidays, time and leave accruals, eligibility for health insurance coverage and personnel practices. While it doesn't detail your base wage, it does detail how you earn overtime, shift differentials and holiday pay.
• Economic Contract: Determines the overall general wage increases for the majority of DC 37 members. It also includes a specific amount of money available for Unit Bargaining
• Unit Contracts: Wages, differentials and working conditions for designated groups of workers called “bargaining units”. Each unit contract defines items unique to the titles in the unit

Why is there a limit on the amount of money available for these negotiations?

DC37's Citywide Contract hasn't changed much over the past 20 years, but the Economic Contract is the primary focus of negotiations every few years. Our current Economic Contract was ratified in March 2023, and covers the period of time from May 26, 2021 to November 6, 2026. In addition to the annual raises to base pay (mostly 3% each year), this agreement also sets aside money for Unit Bargaining, found in Section 7:

Additional Compensation Funds

Effective May 26, 2023, or the applicable date of the Successor Separate Unit Agreement, each bargaining unit shall have available funds not to exceed 0.50% to purchase recurring benefits, mutually agreed to by the parties. The funds shall be based on the December 31, 2020 payroll, including spinoffs and pensions.

Like most DC37 members, all of our members in Local 768 are assigned to Bargaining Units based on your title:

Once the Economic Contracts are ratified, DC37's negotiators begin planning a process for Unit Bargaining. Each unit will bargain separately, including the Local Presidents representing members within that unit and sometimes a Bargaining Committee of members from that Local as well.

The amount of money was defined by the Economic Contract: "Each bargaining unit shall have available ... 0.50% ... based on the December 31, 2020 payroll". In other words, 0.50% of the amount of money that the City paid out to all of the members within a given Bargaining Unit. The actual dollar-amount will therefore depend on both the number of workers in a Bargaining Unit and their total pay. Here is how that breaks down for the three Bargaining Units that Local 768 members are in:

What is Local 768's Unit bargaining process and strategy?

Local 768 has been preparing for Unit Bargaining over the past several years, starting with a training program in the Summer of 2023 (see an outline here), our first Bargaining Unit meetings in August 2023, where we began soliciting bargaining demands and then establishing our Bargaining Committees in early 2024. Throughout 2024 we conducted extensive surveying of our membership, with over 1,300 members submitting their thoughts and priorities. From there, our Bargaining Committees developed specific, practical and realistic proposals on how to accomplish our members' priorities through changes to our unit contracts.

In addition to the economic demands that clearly cost the City money (see examples from prior rounds of bargaining below), non-economic demands can also be discussed. However, the City is often not required to bargain over non-economic demands, but it can if their leaders wish to do so, or are pressured to do so. Unfortunately the people representing the City in formal negotiations are not people we really have access to; they are bureaucrats in the NYC Office of Labor Relations ur task is to make them want to take our demands seriously. 

Our strategy is simple: We say to every manager who will listen,

We know that you don't directly negotiate the contract, but you can support us by telling the executives above you that our demands are fair, reasonable and will help us provide quality service to New Yorkers across the city. 

Even though the money available in the Unit Bargaining process is limited & we may not win all our demands, we believe that together we can convince the City to seriously negotiate both the economic and the non-economic changes to our unit contracts that are important to us. 

Prior rounds of unit bargaining: What was the result?

The Economic Contract covering the period from 2017 - 2021 included an Additional Compensation Fund of 0.2% to be allocated through Unit Bargaining, which was finalized in Apr 2021. Here are the highlights that applied to Local 768 members:

• Health Services 2021 Additional Compensation Fund Agreement
  • Increased the amount of 1st year Recurring Increment Payments (RIP) for the entire bargaining unit to $554 / yr (up from $480) after completing 1 yr
  • Increased Uniform Allowance for Dental Asst/Dental Hygienist to $500 (up from $282)
  • Add Creative Arts Therapist Occupational Group’s Assignment Differential for DOC/Correctional Health ($2,439 / yr)
  • Add Admin Public Health Sanitarian to RIP
  • Add Admin Public health Sanitarian to APHS3 Longevity Differential
• Social Services 2021 Additional Compensation Fund Agreement
  • Increase the amount of the 10-year Recurring Increment Payment (RIP) for entire bargaining unit to $603 / yr (up from $521) after completing 10 yrs
  • Increase the employer contribution to the DC37 Annuity Plan to $794 / yr (up from $724) for all bargaining unit members
• Blue Collar 2020 Additional Compensation Fund Agreement
  • Created new Recurring Increment Payment of $167 for all non-supervisory titles after completing 5 yrs
  • Created new Recurring Increment Payment of $297 for all supervisory titles after completing 5 yrs

Economic Contract covered the period from 2010 - 2017 included an Additional Compensation Fund of 0.52% to be allocated through Unit Bargaining, which were finalized in Aug 2017. Here are the highlights that applied to Local 768 members:

• Health Services 2017 Additional Compensation Fund
  • Creating Assignment Differential of $600 / yr for Public Health Sanitarians and Associate Public Health Sanitarians who are regularly assigned field work and must carry and store work equipment
  • Added Creative Arts Therapists to the list of titles eligible for Recurring Increment Payments (Additional $480 after completing 1 yr, then $154 for each year thereafter up to 20 yrs)
  • A general wage increase of 0.3022%
• Social Services 2017 Additional Compensation Fund
  • Increase the employer contribution to the DC37 Annuity Plan to $724 / yr (up from $684) for all bargaining unit members
  • Created a Recurring Increment Payment of $500 for all bargaining unit members after completing 10 years of service
• Blue Collar 2017 Additional Compensation Fund
  • Added additional Recurring Increment Payments of $794 for all non-supervisory titles ($424 for supervisory titles) after completing 15 yrs of service

The Local 768 Election Committee oversaw the elections for the following officers of four Chapters over the last few months:

• Dental hygienists & assistants: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT): Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Medical Record Specialists: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Public Health Advisors and Assistants: Vice-Chairperson (Runoff)

For each chapter*, nominations were solicited and all nominees were verified as eligible candidates and provided with an opportunity to decline the nomination if they so chose.

* Except for PHA, which held a runoff election and had already nominated candidates

The Local 768 Election Committee oversaw the elections for the following officers of four Chapters over the two few months:

• Social Work Chapter: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Public Health Sanitarians: Run-off election for Vice-Chairperson
• Public Health Advisors and Assistants: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• DCWP Inspectors: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary

For each chapter, nominations were solicited and all nominees were verified as eligible candidates and provided with an opportunity to decline the nomination if they so chose.

The Local 768 Election Committee oversaw the election of our delegates to the 2024 AFSCME Convention. We used an election vendor, ElectionBuddy, for this election.

After nominees were verified as eligible candidates and provided with an opportunity to decline the nomination if they so chose, the election began on June 19th, 2024 and concluded on July 11th, 2024. Per AFSCME constitutional requirements, all eligible voters were sent notice (via USPS mail, as well as email and text message where that information was available) of how to vote online, or if they chose, how to request a paper ballot. Each voter was asked to vote for up to 7 candidates. For delegate elections, the 7 candidates with the most votes are deemed elected. In this election, those are:

• Ryan McGuire
• Tishana King
• Lisa Blackett
• Charlton Smith
• Anthony Scruggs
• Tracey White
• Dorcas Bethel

Nominations are open for leadership of the following Chapters to be formed:

• Dental Assistants & Hygienists
• Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT)
• Medical Record Specialists

Nominations will now be accepted through February 25. After nominations, we will schedule an election to be held online and by mail as soon as possible if more than one nominee is confirmed for any of the positions listed below.

Use this form to submit nominations for the leadership positions of Chapters. Our constitution requires that each chapter that is established has chapter leaders elected by the members of that chapter

• Chair: Primary leader, responsible for scheduling and chairing meetings
• Vice-Chair: Assists the Chair as needed
• Secretary: Responsible for taking minutes of meetings, maintaining records and assisting in communications

To learn more about the roles and responsibilities for these positions, please visit our About->Chapters page here.

The Leadership of Local 768, would like to thank each and everyone of you who has participated not only in the General Membership meetings, but more importantly the title meetings for Medical Records Specialist. Your participation has brought to the forefront the issues most concerning to you in your job as a Medical Record Specialist.

Due to all of your efforts Local 768 is pushing for fair treatment of Medical Records Specialist, including telecommuting for all, a voice in policy, ending quotas, and streamlining use of outside vendors.  Will you sign the petition to H+H?

In Solidarity,

Linda Ruiz
Delegate

Belinda McMullen
Executive Board Member

Carmen De León
President

Local 768, DC37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO