Thousands of School Support Workers and Union Activists rally against Department of Education lay-offs

Thousands of NYC school support workers and members of District Council 37 and NYC Board of Education Employees Local 372 and union activists rallied at City Hall park to stop the proposed layoffs of 2,600 school aides, family counselors, school crossing guards and other school support workers at the Department of Education (DOE) on Wednesday, June 17.

The protesters demanded that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council balance the budget by terminating wasteful private contracts and not school support services and staff. According to a recent DC 37's study "Massive Waste at a Time of Need", the city spends $9.2 billion out of a $60 billion budget on an unaccountable "shadow government" of private contractors and consultants for work that in many cases can be done by city workers more efficiently

"We feed the kids, we make sure they get off the school bus and we cross the street with them," said Montgomery-Costa, president of Local 372, who represents 26,000 school support employees at DOE. "We need to let the city know that without those services teachers can't be in the classroom teaching."

"All of the supports staff in the schools are just as important as the teachers, it takes all of us to get it done," said Lillian Roberts, Executive Director of DC 37. "We are here today to let him know that we want our jobs and we want to do our jobs as we have done in the past."

Adding their voices in support of the protesters were City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy and Executive Assistant to the President Lee Saunders, and other elected officials.

District Council 37 with 125,000 members and 50,000 retirees is the largest public employee union in New York City.