Jackie Lawrence of the Somerville Teachers Association extends an invitation to rally to support our fellow Somerville employees whose jobs are in peril.

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Support our Good, Hardworking People

Despite the offer by the School Custodians’ Union to accept nearly $800,000 in concessions, the Mayor’s office has relentlessly and heartlessly charged forward in giving notice that the custodians are in the line of fire of unprecedented punishing layoffs;   every single one of these good, hard-working people will receive a pink slip, a devastating maneuver designed to shower unthinkable hardships upon them. These layoffs will take place on July 1, 2010, and the custodians will be replaced by lower paid employees from a private company.

On another battlefront, the Somerville Municipal Employees Association is also facing layoffs through   the outsourcing or privatization of some of its divisions.   Many of these good hard-working people who are facing job loss have worked for the City of Somerville for over thirty years.

In a city that takes pride in touting itself as All American, very un-American things are surfacing on the political landscape – like turning a cold shoulder to good, hardworking people; like steamrolling the long-held tradition of respecting   the efforts of good, hard-working people; and like dispossessing good, hardworking people of their American dream of a home and a job and a family that walks in the sunshine of solidly earned security.

Let the City of Somerville know that you are in disagreement with a political body that callously treats good, hardworking people like debris, to be tossed aside and disregarded.   Support the good, hardworking people who are worthy of the high regard and dignity that their jobs bring them, and let the politicians know that thundering   the weapons of dismissal and abandonment against good, hardworking people has never been – and is not now – the right way of doing things.

Join in union with the good, hardworking people that the City of Somerville has raised its club against.

Participate in the Rally on Tuesday, June 22, at 6:00.   The Rally will begin in front of the SHS atrium (near the Library) and proceed to City Hall during the budget meeting of the Board of Aldermen.