More Predictions Of Doom If Municipal Unions Are Given Raises

It seems being a municipal union worker with an expired contract who expects to have a raise makes you a bad person.

In fact, the NY Times editorial board says you just might cause the apocalypse with that kind of attitude.

You know, Mayor Bloomberg, the self-described fiscal genius,was the guy who let every municipal union contract expire so that all of them now have to be negotiated at the same time.

Bloomberg did it on purpose - he despises government workers and union workers - and he didn't want to give out any raises or compensation increases.

In addition, he wanted to set up an environment, post-Bloomberg, where the next mayor would have a tougher time handing out raises because all the contracts are up at the same time.

In other words, this "apocalypse" was Bloomberg-created and Bloomberg-approved.

He knew exactly what he was doing when he let all the contracts expire at the same time.

Why is it that the editorial boards, full of very serious men and a token very serious woman or two, cannot acknowledge that this so-called fiscal crisis is not the fault of unionized workers?

Why can they not admit that we aren't looking to cause fiscal apocalypse?

Hell, as a teacher, I just want the 8% raise all the other unions got in the last pattern bargaining, plus  whatever the new pattern is going to be for the current negotiations.

Teachers haven't had raises since May 19, 2008.

By the time we get a new contract negotiated, that will be almost six years without a raise.

They keep saying how they want to attract good people to be teachers, to remain teachers.

Well, one way is to pay them and give them raises more than once a decade.

In the end, the money paid to New York City teachers often goes right back to the city in some way - in taxes, in Metro Cards, in rent, in spending on food, clothes and other items, on our children, etc.

It's not as if most of us are going to take the money and stash it in the Cayman Islands in a tax shelter (the way Mr. Bloomberg does with his some of his money, btw!)

So end some of the no-bid contracts Bloomberg signed with outside consultants located in Australia and elsewhere, end the contracts to Pearson, end the tax breaks to the real estate industry, end the corporate largesse and negotiate a fair contract with municipal workers.

It's the right thing to do.