BUFFALO, N.Y. — The City of Tonawanda, The Town of Cheektowaga, and North Tonawanda are among the local municipalities not observing Juneteenth, which is a federal holiday.
North Tonawanda mayor Austin Tylec hopes to diversify the city in the future. As for Juneteenth not being recognized, he said "our attorneys told us a lot of time in the past, unions would agree to even swap out different holidays. So if they didn't want to take election day, but wanted a birthday or what have you. So it comes to the unions and what they would like to see for holidays."
He said, "I would really like the unions to step up and recognize this holiday as something we want to be a part of."
Last year Juneteenth became a federally observed holiday.
The City of Tonawanda's mayor said the holiday has to be negotiated with labor unions to make amendments to the current agreement. The Erie County democratic party chairman blasted all towns that failed to work out this situation before now.
In Cheektowaga, the town supervisor was not available to speak or do an interview.
Councilman Brian Pilarski issued a statement about his stand on the holiday:
"Government and municipalities like New York State, Erie County, City of Buffalo, and many others such as School Districts have made Juneteenth a paid holiday for employees. I think the Town of Cheektowaga should have also followed suit and observed Juneteenth. The Town of Cheektowaga has some serious work to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It is important to me to live and work in a community that prioritizes diversity and inclusion. I’m not buying that this is something we should have negotiated with our unions during the last contract negotiations. We had since June 2021 when President Biden declared Juneteenth a Federal Holiday to take action. We could have and should have had negotiated a MOU swapping out another paid holiday (Presidents Day, Indigenous Peoples' Day, etc. (pick 1 of the 14)). The Town of Cheektowaga is becoming more diverse every day with a growing African American and Muslim population and we need to do better in recognizing that and diversifying our workforce. So far we are failing."