Turns out a lot of people didn’t like the nasty and ill-informed op-ed in the New York Post last week.
The Post carried a half-page of angry letters today in response to the op-ed, by Robert Ward of the Business Council, who criticized the UFT’s day care organizing drive.
Today’s first letter is from Randi Weingarten, in which she points out Ward is wrong in implying that the providers would become state employees entitled to all civil-service benefits. The legislation clearly says they shall not be considered state employees for any purpose other than the Taylor Law, which gives them the right to bargain collectively and bars them from striking, she says.
Providers Bridget Carruth, Tammie Miller and Cheryl Epperson write movingly about the work they do and their need for a voice. “I need a union to protect me from people like him,” Epperson writes. A provider supporter, Pedro Morales, writes, “Ward has no idea of the sacrifices that are made by tens of thousands of women every day on behalf of our most precious commodity–our children.” Teacher Ron Isaac tells Ward and the Post readers that providers “are not seeking a giveaway. They are calling for common sense and American decency.”
But it looks like the campaign against provider rights is just getting warmed up. The Daily News ran an editorial today saying Governor Pataki would be justified in not signing the legislation that would allow providers to unionize. Apparently it was one thing to let providers negotiate collectively but quite another to give them employee rights.
Hmmm, two big-time editorials against this powerless group of women who look after little kids. You have to ask what interests are being threatened here.
2 Comments:
1 curious3
· Jun 6, 2006 at 2:15 pm
I would guess that less than 1% of the citizens of New York have a solid grasp of what is going on here. I wish our state government and the unions would debate these issues in a more public manner. I think this was a big part of the the concern expressed in the Daily News today.
2 redhog
· Jun 6, 2006 at 4:03 pm
The mindset of the Post and their ilk is that employees should always be in peril for their bread,–one paycheck away from destitution,–two from eviction. Maybe they would advocate poor people being given a government-issued fatal cyanide capsule to bite as soon as their existence became inconvenient or onerous to others or themselves. That being said, today’s page of letters is an intentional but welcome fluke. Every letter on that page supports us! The Post is shrewd. They preserve just enough coyness to keep the readership habituated. Reminds me of the trace of vanilla extract that my mother used in her chocolate chip pound cake. I kept coming for more and didn’t know the reason. The rare breath of fresh air from the Post is editorial vanilla extract.