PEP June 2002: We deliver for kids

We deliver for kids

Their truck is fully loaded with nourishing meals for some of the1.1 million students in New York City's public schools. Jose Navarro, a Motor Vehicle Operator in Local 983, and John Shavuo and James Doran, Loaders and Handlers in Local 372, are proud of their important role in helping city children get an education.

With a total of nearly 100 years on the job, the three men deliver freshly refrigerated food and cart boxloads of paper goods and supplies aboard one of the 32 trucks operated by the Board of Education's Office of School Food and Nutrition Services.

But in recent years, the BOE has cut back its own delivery service in favor of contracting-out to privately owned trucking companies - with disastrous results.

"We see contractors make mistakes all the time. They delivery food in unrefrigerated trucks, or break down, or make deliveries to the wrong schools," Mr. Navarro said.

"The Board of Education is wasting $20 million on contractors who deliver food in non-refrigerated trucks. Cops are paid more than our members for drug counseling in the DARE program, which doesn't work."

— Veronica
Montogmery-Costa
DC 37 President

"We have to rescue them all the time. And the Board of Education pays twice for the same job because they pay the outside trucker who got it wrong, and then they pay us to pick up their mess. The bottom line is that the city relies on us to make sure the food is delivered properly."

This summer, nourishing meals will be prepared at satellite schools and delivered to breakfast and lunch programs throughout the city. But the union workers fear that "a lot of food will be delivered in unrefrigerated, privately-owned trucks."

On hot days, that could jeopardize the children's health.

The MVOs now number about 22, down from 36 when Mr. Navarro became a driver nine years ago. And in his 50 years on the job, Mr. Shavuo said he has seen the Loader and Handler work force drop to about 45, less than one-third its size when he began.

DC 37 and Locals 372 and 983 believe contracting-in deliveries by hiring more drivers and handlers would eliminate costly mistakes, prevent fraud, protect kids' health and save more than $20 million a year.

"All we need is the manpower," said Mr. Doran. "We could handle all the deliveries, no problem."

— Diane S. Williams