NEW YORK (AP) -- New Yorkers struggling to care for elderly relatives during a strike by home health care workers were bracing for a walkout affecting those on the opposite side of the age spectrum -- kids.þþSome 50,000 working parents scrambled to make alternative arrangements ahead of a three-day strike beginning Wednesday by day care workers as labor politics heated up this week in New York City.þþOn Tuesday, thousands of members of the police, fire and teachers' unions rallied outside City Hall to demand pay raises, some carrying signs that read ``No Way to Treat Heroes.''þþThe noisy protest, which lasted a little more than an hour and disrupted evening traffic, stretched for several blocks on Broadway. Among the celebrities present were actors Alec Baldwin and Steve Buscemi, a former firefighter. There were no arrests.þþAlso Tuesday, hundreds of home health care workers continued their two-day-old strike with a protest march in Brooklyn. They are demanding raises from an average of about $7 to $10.þþMayor Michael Bloomberg's administration has no direct negotiating role in the health and child care union contracts, but the strikes and protests have affected disparate corners of the entire city.þþThe city announced that parents who use the 350 affected day care centers would be reimbursed for the cost of replacement child care. ``We will arrange for some alternate care for the children, including picking up the tab for it,'' Bloomberg said.þþFatima Golden, a bookkeeper at the Alonzo Daughtry day care center in the Brooklyn borough, said she earns about $28,000 a year, compared with as much as $40,000 that workers with similar skills earn in the private sector.þþParents at Educare Early Childhood Center in Manhattan on Tuesday were generally supportive of child care workers, despite the scheduling problems it will cause.þþ``This is a terrible thing,'' said Janet Rodriguez, whose three children use the day care center. ``It hurts me just as much as it hurts them. I'm actually going to take tomorrow off and hope for the best.''þþþþ
Source: NY Times
