To the editor:
New Rochelle residents are likely unaware city officials are considering outsourcing city crossing guards’ jobs to an as-yet-determined private company. We need residents to step up and oppose this plan. Student safety shouldn’t create a profit margin.
My members, who currently do this work, are lifelong New Rochelle residents, retirees, parents and grandparents who’ve developed true bonds with the students and parents on their routes. Some have been there for decades! They are at their crossings in snow, sleet, extreme cold and the hottest of days. This work takes a special kind of dedication that should have leaders thanking these workers, not looking to eliminate their jobs.
No private company can maintain safe, reliable staffing with the low wages they’d be forced to offer in order to maintain their bottom line. That’s where the difference comes in. Our current crossing guards are loyal public servants. There’s no profit margin involved. I’m asking New Rochelle residents to join me in respectfully asking city leaders to dump this outsourcing proposal and strengthen our existing crossing guard program.
John Staino
President CSEA Westchester Local 860
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