December 5, 2014
By Marc Bussanich
New York, NY—As airport and fast food workers rallied outside City Hall after marching along Chambers Street on a national day of action calling for higher wages, the president of a public sector union said in the accompanying video that many of his members are also earning less than $15 an hour.
Shaun Francois was recently elected as the new president of District Council 37’s Local 372, which represents school crossing guards and cafeteria workers who work for the New York City Department of Education, among other titles. He joined Thursday’s march organized by airport and fast food workers to show solidarity with them.
“Even with the new contract that we just passed, they’re still not making $15 an hour. We need that [higher wage] because everything just keeps going up,” said Francois.
Local 372 represents over 20,000 New York City employees. It did sign off on a new labor contract recently with the de Blasio administration, but Francois said that many members are only making $10 or $11 an hour.
“My members need at least $15 an hour just to keep up with inflation.”
He had to quickly depart the video interview because he was summoned to speak on stage to the thousands of airport and fast food workers gathered outside City Hall.
@marcbuss marc@laborpress.org
