Public Employee Press

Union offers resources for laid-off School Aides

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

With a preliminary hearing scheduled for January on the union lawsuit aimed at reversing the November layoffs of 530 School Aides, DC 37 and Local 372 held a half-day information session Dec. 2 for the fired members.

Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo and representatives from the DC 37 Schools Division, Education Fund and Health and Security Plan and the state Labor Dept. met with members throughout the afternoon to answer questions, provide information and resources and offer support. A representative from the city Fire Dept. arrived to seek new recruits.

“The union is going to continue to fight and do whatever it takes to get these jobs back,” said Crespo during a question-and-answer session with the members. “It is very important that you stay in contact with your Rep during this process, especially if you get called back to work,” he advised.

Christmas scaled back

Union experts answered the laid-off workers’ questions on health insurance, pensions and upcoming civil service tests they might qualify for and distributed the Layoff Resources Guide published by the DC 37 Health & Security Plan.

Numerous members took advantage of the resumé writing workshop that was offered to help them get back into the job market.

“I appreciate the effort that the union is going through to help get our jobs back,” said School Aide Norma Rosario, who participated in the workshop. Rosario’s layoff means a scaled back Christmas holiday for her family. “I have three grandchildren, but unfortunately I won’t be able to buy gifts for them this year,” she said.

Another Local 372 member at the Dec. 2 session, Sheanica Davis, said she needs help in finding work because her layoff from the Mosaic Preparatory Academy in East Harlem hit her family with a heavy financial burden that she will have to handle alone. Her husband, who usually works as a boiler mechanic, was severely injured on the job. “He’s recovering from spinal fusion surgery right now. He can’t lift anything heavier than a phone book,” said Davis, whose two children attend the school where she worked.

DC 37 and Local 372 waged a tough legal battle to prevent the layoffs and now seek to force the DOE to bring the 530 School Aides back to work.

The union fought to protect members’ jobs and managed to reduce the layoffs substantially from the more than 2,000 that had been projected early last year. The lawsuit kept the workers on the payroll for four extra weeks after the DOE’s initial target date of Oct. 16.