School Board workers demand: ’No layoffs!’

The local New York City government led by its mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, deepened its economic assault on all city workers and their unions when it announced proposed layoffs of upwards of 2,600 members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union Local 372.

WW photo: Monica Moorehead

An emergency rally of close to 2,000, mainly Local 372 members, was held on June 18 near City Hall to denounce the threat of these layoffs and to call for the repeal of a $9 billion budget for outside contracts. These contracts, involving a “shadow government” of an estimated 100,000 contractors and consultants, have paved the way for drastic cuts in vital social services and the elimination of thousands of city union jobs since 2005.

Local 372, one of the 56 unions under the District Council 37 umbrella, represents the Board of Education employees minus teachers. The union represents lunchroom workers, school aides, health aides and school neighborhood workers. Its members are also paraprofessionals, film inspection assistants, loaders and handlers, hall monitors, substance abuse prevention and intervention specialists, community coordinators, school crossing guards and more.

Militant chants of “No layoffs” could be heard throughout the rally. Under a large blue banner with the “Our jobs is kids” slogan, rally speakers included Veronica Montgomery-Costa, Local 372 president, who stated that “Mayor Bloomberg can’t solve the crisis on the backs of working people,” and William “Bill” Lucy, International Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME.