------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the March 6, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
NY DAYCARE WORKERS HOLD ONE-DAY STRIKE Some 7,000 workers at city-funded day care centers held a one-day strike in New York on Feb. 12. The workers are members of AFSCME District Council 1707. The daycare directors are represented by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. Under New York state's Taylor Law, many city employees aren't allowed to strike. But this strike was legal, since the daycare centers are privately run although city funded. Daycare teachers make $34,000 a year, $5,000 less than their counterparts in the school system. Other workers, like custodians and kitchen aides, make $20,000. New York's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, maintains that the city doesn't have the money to satisfy the unions' demands for a 4-percent annual raise over the five years of the contract, which expired in 2000. The unions called a demonstration on Broadway near City Hall. Along with the strikers, parents and members of other unions came out in support. "The time is now, Mr. Bloomberg," said District Council 1707 Executive Director Raglan George. "Give us our money now!" D.C. 1707 President Brenda Stokeley linked the workers' struggle for a decent contract to the struggle against a new war on Iraq. City Council member Charles Barron aimed his comments at Bloomberg: "Tax those who are billionaires, like you, mayor." Aicha Jackson, a teacher at the Joseph DiMarco Child Care Center in Long Island City, Queens, said: "We are professionals, not baby sitters. We set the foundation for children to go to school." City Council members Tracy Boyland and David Weprin, Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields, and Larry Holmes from the ANSWER coalition also expressed solidarity. --G. Dunkel - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
