March 18, 2013
NEW YORK, NY—– The City of New York must continue pension payments for public day care employees or some of nation’s most established cultural institutions may go bankrupt. The City claims that it has overpaid the Cultural Institutions Retirement System (CIRS) and will no longer pay into the retirement system for unionized day care employees.
The union representing public day care employees says the City is wrong and that if the City withdraws its funding, institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York City Aquarium and the Natura lHistory Museum will be liable for some $200 million in ERISA liabilities. Unionized day care employees comprise a majority of the employees in the plan. DC 37 AFSCME has 1,200 members in CIRS.
“The Bloomberg Administration’s rush to implement its Early Learn scheme did not foresee the disasters it would create in the communities of need or to the large cultural institutions. It did not want to be publicly exposed,” said Raglan George, Jr., the Executive Director of District Council 1707 and the man behind the One-Man March to Save New York City Child Care.
“Early Learn is a terrible and uninspired program that has harmed children who are underserviced, parents and day care and Head Start employees,” said George.
Who: Raglan George, Jr., Executive Director of DC 1707 continues his One-Man March for NYC Childcare
What: George calls for the City to continue funding day care employees’ pension to avoid bankrupting the city’s cultural institutions
When: Monday, March 18 from 11 AM to 1 PM
Where: Broadway side of City Hall
