Led by DC 37, public service workers are asking the public to put pressure on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to stop spending money on companies that they feel put profit before services.
“Mayor Bloomberg, like too many short-sighted public officials, is increasingly ‘contracting out’ New York’s vital public services without regard to cost-effectiveness, quality or the impact on the people of our city,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts in a statement. “The result: the public pays more and gets lower quality of services while city residents are put at risk, public workers are laid off and corruption scandals make the news.”
Throughout the city, ads will appear on subways and in local newspapers during the month of March. Some of the newspapers running DC 37 ads include the New York Daily News, El Diario, City and State, am New York and the AmNews.
According to DC37, during his mayoral tenure, Bloomberg has contracted out close to $11 billion in city services to for-profit companies and reduced essential city services at the same time. DC 1707 Executive Director Raglan George said that the ads should remind New York residents that contracting outside of the city puts the community at risk and is taxing on the budget.
“When corporations run our city, profits come before people,” said George. “New York’s public service workers are fighting hard to preserve quality public services, protect our community and our kids and hold elected officials accountable to the public.”