Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Wall Street Merger: DC37 School Aide Protest + #Occupy Wall St.

I hope you read my post the other day:

NYC Schools Use Child Labor to Replace School Aides

The NY Times talked about the impact of these layoffs of the lowest paid workers yesterday:
N.Y.C. Layoffs to Hit Poorest Schools Hardest :By FERNANDA SANTOS  - In a scattered pattern, some districts and Staten Island are skipped, but schools with many poor or struggling students are disproportionately affected.

All this while the DOE has let (and maybe encouraged) to let thieves steal them blind. See Patrick Sullivan's post at NYCParent Blog (click on title link to read it all).

Bloomberg Education Record Stained by More Corruption

Special Commissioner for Investigation Richard Condon has released a blockbuster report on the fraud perpetuated by favored DOE contractor FTA. (Report pdf is here.) The SCI points to fraud of at least $6.5 million. The worst part of this episode is that despite obvious warning signs, DOE pressed ahead with giving more business to the firm.
And this:
A new government probe has corroborated the disclosure of a major corruption
scandal within the New York City public school system. The Special
Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City Public School District
has confirmed that the firm Future Technology Associates has charged
taxpayers between $110 to $140 an hour for the wages of workers it was
actually paying ten times less. The workers were employed at dummy companies
based in India and Turkey. To date Future Technology Associates has received
$74 million in school system contracts. The scandal has led to the
resignation of one school official involved in the fraud and company owners
are expected to be indicted in the coming weeks. The report repeatedly cites
the work of Democracy Now! co-host and New York Daily News correspondent
Juan Gonzalez, whose exposure of the fraud kick-started the investigation
two years ago.

  http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/3/headlines#13


Then came this great news:

Occupy Wall Street protesters are set to join in this afternoon’s school aid layoffs protest. Daily News

There's another angry rally planned for lower Manhattan Tuesday - this one focused on hundreds of city workers scheduled to be laid off at the end of the week.
Labor leaders, frustrated Department of Education employees and their supporters will vent their rage outside City Hall from 4p.m. to 6 p.m.
And now it looks like some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters will be heading over to join the crowd.
While I'm not sure if the Wall Street "zombies" will make a guest appearance, here's what we do know: More than 700 people who work in school support-staff positions are losing their jobs.
That includes school aides and parent and community coordinators who, in general, are some of the lowest-paid people in the city educational system.
More than 75% of the workers being laid off make less than $20,000 per year and work 20 hours per week, according to District Council 37, which represents the employees.

Hey, Wall Street is being occupied. Mergers are part of the game.

Follow Occupy Wall Street at: http://occupywallst.org/

Afterburn - hot diggity
In Solidarity With Occupy Wall Street, Transport Union sues to block using bus drivers to help arrest Protesters

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