AFSCME Members Tell NYC: ‘Save Our Day Care’

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/publications/18135.cfm

April 24, 2008

Thousands of New York City day care workers represented by District Council 1707 are fighting to save their municipally operated centers from the Bloomberg administration’s budget ax.


‘WE CARE ABOUT DAY CARE’ – Queens day care workers (Local 205 members) tell the city’s General Welfare Committee that city-operated centers must be fully funded, not closed or downsized. Testifying on April 10 are (left to right): Doreen Dickens, shop steward at Andrew Landi Day Care Center; Joan Morgan, shop steward at Blanche Community Progress Day Care Center No. 2; and Kimberly Comes, shop steward at The Originals of Jamaica Day Care Center.

Photo Credit: Neal Tepel


In a rally at City Hall on April 16 – and at hearings before city officials earlier this month – workers demanded an 18-month moratorium on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to close under-utilized facilities. Since he took office in 2004, 17 of the roughly 350 child care centers have been closed, and many others downsized. By September, the mayor wants those that remain to receive funding based on each center’s enrollment – essentially a budget cut.

D.C. 1707 Exec. Dir. Raglan George Jr., also an International vice president, says that would be a “disastrous” mistake:

“Publicly funded day care centers provide critical services to low-income families in the city’s most economically vulnerable neighborhoods. A model for the country, they have served thousands of New Yorkers for more than 40 years. The plan to change efficient, fully-funded day care to a pay-per-child system will have devastating effects on communities.”

Local 205 of D.C. 1707 represents more than 6,500 day care providers employed by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), which has chosen to close facilities rather than help boost enrollment. Union members want the city to quickly develop and implement a plan to increase the number of children enrolled at the centers, which currently serve less than 20 percent of eligible kids between the ages of 2 to 5.

Joan Morgan, who works at the Blanche Community Progress Day Care Center #2 in Queens, testified against Bloomberg’s scheme at an April 10 hearing before the city’s General Welfare Committee. In an interview, Morgan, a Local 205 shop steward, says closing centers would cost workers their jobs, and hurt parents. She explains:

“We provide three meals a day and offer an excellent education and a place where children can develop their physical and mental growth. If parents lose these services, it will be a tremendous hurt. They will have to stop working to take care of their kids, who depend on us.”

To learn more, read these stories in the Daily News and the Queens Review. Also, check out this commentary by Daily News columnist Albor Ruiz. The April 10 rally at City Hall by members of Local 205 can be seen in this News 12 video: http://www.news12.com/NewCDA/articles/media_pop?region=BX&id=209915


‘SAVE OUR DAY CARE!’ – Parents and children join members of Local 205 (D.C. 1707) at a rally in front of City Hall on April 16. They urged lawmakers to adequately fund the city’s day care centers. Photo Credit: Anthony Rios.