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CELEBRATING LABOR IN THE BIG APPLE
THOUSANDS OF CSA MEMBERS
RALLY FOR A NEW CONTRACT
AT CITY HALL
Thousands of CSA
members rallied near
City Hall last month
for an overwhelming show
of support by CSA members
as President Mark
Cannizzaro and his team
continue their efforts to
hash out a contract with
a recalcitrant city government.
Mr. Cannizzaro gave
a thunderous speech in
which he took the city to
task for offering many
platitudes about the great
job that school leaders
do, all the while holding
up a family leave policy
that would benefi t some
of CSA’s most vulnerable
members. “Platitudes are
nice, but it’s your support
here today that fuels us,”
he told the crowd.
He hammered home
the fact that the constant
micromanaging of principals,
combined with
chronic underfunding of
schools, ultimately leaves
students unsafe. He cited
some statistics from a recent
survey of our members
that CSA commissioned.
“Seventy percent
of you believe you are not
given the resources you
need to keep your students
safe,” he said. “Twenty
eight percent of those surveyed
are satisfi ed with
the direction the DOE is
taking.”
More than a dozen
elected offi cials also spoke
at the event, including
City Council Education
Chair Mark Treyger, Manhattan
Borough President
Gale Brewer, New York
City Comptroller Scott
Stringer and Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams.
Council Member
Treyger noted the casual
way the Mayor and Department
of education
breed programs and initiatives,
each one creating
new supervisory demands
on already bureaucratically
burdened school
leaders. He recited a litany
of “for-all” programs,
from Pre-K For All, to College
Access For All, to Algebra
for All, and after
each one, said, “There’s a
school leader for that.”
“You cannot have equity
and excellence for
all without a fair and just
contract for CSA members,”
he said. “You cannot
have a fair system if
consultants are making
more money than starting
assistant principals. As a
member of city council’s
budget negotiation team, I
know for a fact that there
are resources in the budget
right now to deliver a
fair and just contract and
the City Council does not
work for the Mayor of New
York. We work for you!”
Comptroller Stringer
also registered his disdain
for the notion that budgetary
constraints should
hold up a contract for CSA
members. “We’re going to
make sure this whole city
understands that without
you, we do not have a
future,” he said. “We can
afford this. I’ve got the
books! There’s a whole lot
of waste. Maybe we don’t
have to invest in the bureaucracy
— maybe we’ll
invest in the people who
invest in our kids. When
we invest in you, it’s a
multiplier for our economy
and our city and this
is the best deal in town.”
A host of labor leaders
addressed the crowd,
including CLC President
Vinny Alvarez, DC 372
VP Donald Nesbitt and
UFT VP LeRoy Barr and
Janella Hinds, UFT’s VP
for High Schools.
Schneps Media November 28, 2019 15