A state judge on Sept. 30 granted a preliminary injunction to the Municipal Labor Committee, a coalition of labor unions representing nearly 500,000 city workers, ordering the Bloomberg administration not to put its health benefits contract for city employees up for bids.

State Supreme Court Justice Melvin Schweitzer agreed with the unions’ claim that the administration did not have the right to unilaterally seek to impose changes to municipal employees’ health benefit plans without first negotiating with the MLC.

Justice Schweitzer called the city’s unilateral approach “not only ill-advised, but ... a breach of its contract with the MLC.”

In court, lawyers for the MLC cited an agreement in force since 1992 guaranteeing both the MLC and the city joint participation in “all aspects of the procurement process” regarding health benefits.

Ignoring that agreement, the Bloomberg administration — without the MLC’s knowledge or participation — worked with an outside vendor for more than six months to craft a Request for Proposals.

“They gave us a 1,000-page, highly technical document in June and told us we had two weeks to respond,” said UFT Welfare Fund Executive Director Arthur Pepper, who serves as co-chair of the MLC’s Subcommittee on Health. “That was the disrespect shown to the unions.”

In response, the MLC filed suit. “This isn’t Wisconsin. In New York, we don’t unilaterally abolish the negotiating rights of unions,” said MLC Chair Harry Nespoli, the president of the sanitation workers’ union, in the Aug. 9 press release announcing the MLC lawsuit. “We support the city’s efforts to reduce health care costs, but there is a right and wrong way to go about it.”