Day-Care Unions Demand Accelerated Wage Talks; Deals Expired Last Year
By DAVID SIMS
Members of child-care unions in District Council 1707 demonstrated outside City Hall Sept. 17 to push for a new contract, angrily calling on Mayor Bloomberg to re-open negotiations with two of its locals.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow TURNING UP THE RHETORIC: District Council 1707 Executive Director Raglan George, surrounded by students from day-care centers where his members work, had some angry words for Mayor Bloomberg about the slow pace of contract negotiations.

Protesters from Day Care Employees Local 205 and Head Start Employees Local 95 cheered as DC 1707 Executive Director Raglan George Jr. declared, "We want to let Mr. Bloomberg know that we are angry and frustrated."

He added, "We are going to tear this city apart if he doesn't give us this contract."

A Health-Plan Squeeze Tactic?

The contracts of Locals 95 and 205 expired last year, and Head Start workers say that the city is holding back a 1.5-percent cost-of-living adjustment increase that was approved in their previous contract. Union officials maintain that the lack of negotiations is an effort by the city to force the two locals into accepting a state-sponsored health plan. Mr. George said that "the city has only given lip-service ... they have been stalling not just one contract but two to inflict an inadequate health care plan on our members."

"He's got to pay attention to us, we pay taxes," said Kim Medina, president of DC 1707. "How dare someone in City Hall who we backed say that we don't count ... shame on Mayor Bloomberg!" Referring to a possible referendum to amend the Term Limits Law that could allow him to run for a third term, she stated, "On Nov. 4, when you go to the voting [booth], make sure you say no to extending term limits, brothers and sisters, because he can't do anything for us anymore."

Other education unions came out in support of the demonstrators, emphasizing the importance of child-care as early education. "Children who attend day care are less likely to fail at school ... without city-funded day care, New York would grind to a halt," said Randi Herman, vice president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, which represents day-care supervisors as well as public school Principals.

'A Cradle-to-Grave Business'

"Education is a cradle-to-grave business," agreed Jim Pearlstein, chair of the Solidarity Committee of the Professional Staff Congress. "Unless you provide adequate public education up and down the line, the community is finished." Mr. Pearlstein added that the city's attempts to cut back on public day care were symptomatic of a wider problem, also evident in the cuts to the City University of New York's budget. "What has happened to 1707 is likely to happen to us, has been happening to us ... [it's] a concrete manifestation of a cultural and political shift," he said.

Frank Jimenez, Local 205 member and head chef at the John F. Kennedy Childcare Center in Canarsie, Brooklyn, said that the work done by day care employees was "the foundation of the children," and that "when the kids go to public school, they're ready for everything. We're not babysitters; we're teachers." He added, "We can't keep going like this without a contract ... they're trying to close us down."

DC 1707 is also concerned with the number of city-funded day care centers being shut down under the Bloomberg administration, with 17 centers closed or consolidated since the Mayor took office and 17 others downsized through class reductions. All in all, DC 1707 claims that 1,300 child care center slots have been eliminated since 2004.

"[Mayor Bloomberg is] systematically shutting down centers to save money," said Mr. George. "Meanwhile he's building stadiums and housing for the rich ... you see developments going up all over the city, but we can't afford to live in them." He concluded wryly, "Maybe we could try if he gave us the pay that he owes us."