Chronicle editorial: Croton-Harmon schools, stop the thuggery and give low-paid aides and lunch workers a living wage.

After our latest report on talks between Aides of Croton United and Croton-Harmon school officials, a lawyer for the district threatened action against ACU’s president. Where are the “progressives?”

Board members: Omar Mayyasi, Anamika Bhatnagar, Ana Teague, Joshua Diamond, Sarah Carrier (President), Amelia Sackman (Student Ex Officio),
Theo Oshiro, and Neal Haber (Vice-President).

On May 29, we reported that the negotiations between the union representing teacher’s aides and lunch workers in the three Croton-Harmon schools were not going well—at least not for these low-paid workers and their efforts to get a better contract. Earlier we wrote about the poor conditions under which these employees, whose work is so essential to the welfare of our children and the quality of their educations, are struggling to live and survive.

Shortly after our last report appeared, an attorney for the district sent a copy of the article to an official of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), with which the Aides of Croton United (ACU) is affiliated, along with an email complaining about some comments by ACU president Jean Avolio. Avolio had told us that she was advising her colleagues to seek other jobs, given how badly the negotiations were going.

But the attorney claimed that Avolio was acting illegally by advocating something similar to a work stoppage, and he told the NYSUT official that he would be talking with the district about it.

In our view, it’s bad enough that these vulnerable and struggling workers, compensated with less than poverty wages, have to sit at the negotiating table with school administrators making more than $200,000 per year and apparently having no understanding of, nor sympathy with, them and their lives. But when the president of their union tries to gain a little community support by talking to the news media, their highly paid lawyers twist her words and threaten legal action.

This kind of thuggery is made even worse by the fact that ultimately the contract the school workers will sign is not with the highly paid administrators they are facing at the table, but with the Board of Education. Nearly all, if not all, of the seven members of the Board are professed progressives of one stripe or another. In earlier times, progressives were known for their support and advocacy for the working class. But perhaps the term no longer has that meaning?

Joshua Diamond, for example, is well known for his left-leaning pronouncements on social media and his attacks on right-wing politicians.

Theo Oshiro, according to his official bio, “has worked as a non-profit leader for over 17 years, working to improve the lives of low-income and immigrant communities in New York State.”

Neil Haber “is an attorney specializing in the field of labor and employment law.”

Omar Mayyasi “has over 17 years of financial and change management experience in educational institutions, ensuring teachers and students have the resources they need to be successful.”

Ana Teague is one of the administrators of the Facebook group “The Croton Point,” a group generally very partial to liberal and progressive viewpoints.

All of the Board members have expressed strong support in recent months for developing viable Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies for the district. In various ways, all three of these principles are relevant to how an employer treats their employees. But perhaps the most important one in this context is Equity.

Equity is not the same thing as equality, and it does not mean that teachers’s aides or lunch workers should be paid the same as school administrators, or as much as experienced teachers. The standard dictionary definitions of the term invoke such meanings as fairness, justice, and impartiality. And in their way, the school workers are just as important—and on some days, maybe even more important—than administrators and teachers when it comes to looking out for our kids.

(They have also shown a lot of courage, which alone should be a good reason to support them.)

We call on the members of the Board of Education, who are ultimately responsible for the contract that will be signed between the ACU and the school district, to put aside all hypocrisy, disown bullying and intimidation tactics, and give the school workers a fair deal. After all, under the circumstances, who could blame them for starting to look for other jobs, which is their perfect right. And when the president of their union (who has shown the pluck and fearlessness one would hope of a true labor leader) suggests they do that, she is only looking out for their welfare and their best interests—concerns that the Board and district officials have yet to demonstrate.

And by the way, let’s not let Croton-Harmon parents and taxpayers off the hook either. Only about 600 of the 6979 eligible voters cast ballots in the recent school election, which included a number of budgetary items. That is a turnout of less than 10%. It’s a pathetic showing in a district that prides itself on quality education and preparing students for a bright future. (“What school can be.”)

Yet while more than 90% of Croton-Harmon parents skipped the election, there is still something very important they can do: Make their support of the school workers known, loud and clear, before the next round of negotiations on June 11.

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