by truthsayer in City Finances, Politics, Workers' Rights
Posted on May 31, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Last Modified on June 11, 2010 at 9:49 am
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I am a loyal custodian for the City of Somerville for over 20 yrs., the mayor pulled his usual nasty tactics that he did, about 6yrs. ago when he was first elected mayor along with the school committee. We the loyal members of the National Conference of Fireman & Oilers backed first his sister Maria Curtatone back in the early 90s , then we backed Mr . Joseph Curtatone when he ran first for Alderman at Large then Mayor in 2003. Many of us donated time and money into his campaign,
it was not 6 months after his being elected as mayor did he come for our jobs with the help at that time with the school committee. I bet the conversation went like this give me the custodians or I will not fund something they had no alternative but to concede. Soon may 21, 2004 the custodians recieved a letter stating thatthey were fired as of june 30, 2004 , and that we could apply for ourjobs with the D.P.W. on 07/01/2004. This was illegal and the custodians were returned to their civil service job classification and duties at there school buildings.
This obviously hit a raw nerve, my assumption was most of the custodians were going to be let go and these jobs would be handed out as political plum jobs ,and a way to buy votes.The law has been broken by this administration over and over, I thought that the mayor took an oath of office to obey the constitution of the U.S. as well as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it appears to me that he only obeys laws that help him achive his goals like the retirees and their health insurence. When it comes down to chapter 150E law or chapter 31 we ignore the law because we do not want to compromise with who we are negotiating with.
We have reached the core part of my blog,on May 25,2010 my union received a letter that stated that as of the new fiscal year the school custodians would be privatized out .They name every excuse that they could possibly think of, but one cuts across the board that every other city in the Commonwealth is doing. The mayor mentions that he does not want to cut public safety or education but this mayor has packed the police and fire with all his friends , as it was proven a few months ago that the fire man on the secret list neither lived or voted in the City of Somerville, but their relatives did like I said buying votes.
I hope people can see our distress we live have children going to the same schools we clean and pay taxes and are a major part of many communities in this City of Somerville. Please help reach this mayor and let him know that we are just not janitors or a position , there is a face to everyone of us, thanks a whole lot. I forgot to mention that in 2004, the board of alderman and the school committee were charged by the ag. office for violating the open meetings law 5 times
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You can find lots of resources on how to fight privatization on this new resource center website: inthepublicinterest.org.
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I would hope that there are other organizations within Somerville that would support the custodians. Privatization is a legal way to bust unions. Working people everywhere should know what that means: lower wages, fewer benefits, and poor working conditions. Let’s not succumb to divide and conquer. Remember, we would not have weekends off (or the equivalent) without unions.
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