From the President’s Desk

^{Laying off Local 372 workers costs twice more than it saves.}

^{I have testified to the City Council that, while the DOE cuts the cost of salary plus fringe benefits, the New York taxpayers must assume the burden of the loss of the worker’s economic activity which includes income tax payments and vital support to local businesses. Since the job market is bare, the taxpayers must also pick up the tab for unemployment insurance, Food Stamps and Medicaid. We’ve calculated that the hidden costs of the layoff of one Local 372 worker earning an annual salary of $25,000 plus fringe benefits ultimately costs the City tax payers $50,611.}

^{MLC makes the Mayor an offer he should not refuse.}

^{My colleagues and I who serve on the Municipal Labor Committee are asking the Mayor for a 15% cut in outside contracts overall, from which $368 million would be retrieved — a more than reasonable offer. This budget action would prevent layoffs, restore vital services to 1.1 million students, save thousands of families from poverty, increase tax revenues and save taxpayers the costs of public assistance for laid off workers.}

^{Unvetted Charter “Specialists” subject students to physical abuse.}

^{The Mayor is putting our school children in harms way by replacing certified, vetted, competent, experienced Local 372 school support service workers with unknown, unvetted and untrained charter school contractors.}

^{WABC Eyewitness News reported on May 20, that, “Special Commissioner of Investigation Condon found that “students at Opportunity Charter School, located on West 113th Street in Morningside Heights, were thrown to the floor and even dragged around by their hair...by a team of behavioral management specialists.”}

^{In one incident, in the 2007/8 school year, a 15-year-old girl had her head pulled off her desk and dragged out of the classroom by her hair. A 14-year-old boy reportedly was thrown to the ground and pinned down after he refused to remove what the staff referred to as ‘gang beads’. Another case involves a 12-year-old boy who was put in a head lock. He ended up with a bloody nose and a black eye.”}

^{Local 372 SAPIS would have effectively counseled these students. These incidents of physical abuse by non-union charter school bouncers posing as “behavioral management specialists” must never happen again.}