PITTSFIELD FEDERATION OF SCHOOL EMPLOYEES
TAKE ACTION NOW
Pittsfield School Department officials recently notified more than fifty (50) members of our Cafeteria Unit that their positions will be eliminated for budgetary reasons effective Thursday, September 24, 2020. Justification for these cuts according to school administrators is that “the public will not stand for them continuing to pay employees for whom there is no work”. These are the same administrators who only last year convinced the School Committee and the City of Pittsfield to give them pay increases in excess of $10K. Shame on this administration.
These proposed cuts directly affect women and families who live on the margins of our community. Most work at least two (2), and in some cases three (3) jobs to support their families. These women earn hourly wages that hover at or below the state minimum wage, and many struggle to maintain the health insurance for their family. Most of these women are residents of Pittsfield, and many are single parents.
School administrators uses flowery words like “colleague’s” and “valuable co-workers” to heap false praise on these women. Day-in-and-day-out during the school year Pittsfield’s Cafeteria Workers produce thousands of meals for the children of our city - with little fanfare. In most cases the only real praise they receive comes in the form of a smile on the face of a child they work so hard to feed. These women are very good at what they do - and they know that what they do matters!
Most people don’t know that at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic school administration officials openly threatened to withhold the pay of these women unless they agreed to work in a hastily organized “Grab-and-Go” meal program. Our Cafeteria workers stepped-up and risked their own health and safety, and the health and safety of their families during this program. Administration officials sent these women to work in overcrowded poorly ventilated kitchens during the first two (2) weeks of the program, and with no personal protective equipment! Since the pandemic began these women have persevered every day, under difficult conditions, producing thousands of Grab-and-Go meals for Pittsfield’s neediest families.
Our Cafeteria Workers are heroes! These brave and caring women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. They deserve the praise of a grateful city for all that they have done to feed Pittsfield’s most vulnerable children. They do not deserve to have their positions cut - or as the administration has suggested - continue to work at a lower rate of pay - to satisfy some administrator’s line item in a spreadsheet. The school department and the City have the money to keep these women employed. The School District received more Chapter 70 funding (state aid) this year than last year, and that's in addition to $1.9 Million in COVID-19 assistance from the Federal Government. The City of Pittsfield currently has over $8 Million in their Stabilization (Raily Day) Fund.
The decision to cut these positions is a political decision – it isn’t based on a lack of money – it’s happening because the school department officials simply do not have the political will to ask the City for funding to maintain these positions until all of our students return to school! We are not done! It doesn't matter whether you’re a Bus Driver or Bus Monitor, a Cafeteria Worker, a Custodian, a Paraprofessional, or a Secretary these cuts are real and they will hurt these women and their families.
SUPPORT FOR OUR CAFETERIA WORKERS
Members of the Pittsfield School Committee and the Pittsfield City Council
Members of the Pittsfield School Committee and the Pittsfield City Council
ATTEND OUR RALLY
Rally to Support Pittsfield’s Cafeteria Workers
Tuesday – September 22 2020 @ 5:00 PM
Park Square
East Street @ South Street
ATTEND THE VIRTUAL SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING
If you can’t come to our rally – then call into the School Committee Meeting.
Tell the School Committee to ask the City for funding to keep our Cafeteria Workers working.
School Committee Meeting - Public Comment Section
Wednesday – September 23, 2020 @ 5:00 PM
Join the School Committee meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone
https://www.gotomeet.me/DeputySuperintendent/sept23scpublicparticipation
Join the School Committee Meeting using your phone
Dial: +1 (571) 317-3122
Access Code: 342-835-869
Sandi Amburn, President
Pittsfield Federation of School Employees
Debi Rooney, Chapter Chairperson
Cafeteria Unit
Stefania Koenig, Vice-Chapter Chairperson
Cafeteria Unit