Will UFT Members Approve This Teachers Contract With So Much Delayed Compensation?

James Eterno at ICEUFT has all the details of the tentative UFT contract and you should go over to ICEUFT blog and get the scoop.

Yesterday I focused on two parts of the tentative agreement I find very troubling - the termination proceedings ATR's will face if they don't find permanent placement after two "trials" in schools and allowing the city to run 10% of NYCDOE schools outside of the contractual rules of the UFT contract.

Today I want to look at the money.

The news media is reporting that teachers are getting an 18% raise, including the 8% that was owed from the 2009/2010 pattern + full retroactive pay for the years since, but the reality is much more complicated than that.

Here's how James Eterno at ICEUFT blog describes the compensation schedule:

For the seven years from 2011 to 2018, where the UFT will set the pattern for raises that other city unions will now follow, we will be getting a total of 10% in raises for seven years plus a $1,000 signing bonus.  That works out to less than 1.5% per year.

Specifically, this is how the CFO crunched the numbers:

2009-2010 = 4% raise
2010-2011 = 4% raise
2011-2012 = 0% raise but we will get a $1,000 signing bonus if we ratify the contract.
Nov 2012- April 2013 = 0% raise
May 1, 2013 = 1% raise
May 1, 2014 = 1% raise
May 1, 2015 = 1% raise
May 1, 2016 = 1% raise
May 1, 2017 = 2.5% raise
May 1, 2018 = 3.0% raise
Total: 18% (compounded it will be a little more)

But there's a catch on when the 4% + 4% from the 2009/2010 pattern gets paid out - it doesn't get added to salary schedules now but gets gradually added in from 2015 on:

May 1, 2015 = 2%
May 1, 2016 = 2%
May 1, 2017 = 2%
May 1, 2018 = 2%

The news media is reporting that teachers are getting full retro for the 2009/2010 pattern, but that's a much more complicated story too.  Here's how that gets paid out:

October 1, 2015- 12.5% lump sum
October 1, 2016 - Nothing
October 1, 2017 - 12.5% lump sum
October 1, 2018 - 25% lump sum
October 1, 2019 - 25% lump sum
October 1, 2020 - 25% lump sum

My wife was over on the UFT Facebook page when the tentative contract agreement was first announced and noticed that a lot of comments were positive on the deal.

But as the night wore on and news started to spread that the 8% from the 2009/2010 pattern was going to be delayed for years and we were really only getting a 2% raise in the near future, some of the comments started turning negative.

People weren't too happy to hear that the 2009/2010 raises weren't going to be fully paid until 2018.

I think that's what's going to happen in general as people get the news of this contract.

At first, when they hear 18% raise and full retro, they're going to say "That sounds great!", but then as the understanding spreads that much of this compensation won't be in their pockets for years, there is going to be dismay and a little anger at the UFT leadership.

I've been around for three contract votes - 2002, 2005, 2007.

Not a one of those votes has ever been close and while I know from my older colleagues of a contract that was voted down during the Giuliani Years, I have a hard time seeing this one getting voted down.

In the end, I think this contract will be passed by the UFT membership, but I don't think there are going to be too many happy campers out there today as they learn that most of the money the media is reporting they're getting isn't actually going to arrive in their checks for years and the retro is so delayed that this 9 year contract will actually be expired by two years before its finally (and fully) paid out.

There is a reason the other union leaders are so pissed at the UFT leadership over this contract agreement.

Given the concessions the UFT agreed to - essentially throwing the ATR's under the bus, de-linking 10% of city schools from the contract, merit pay, unstated health care concessions - and given the piss-poor salary increases the leadership got, about 1.4% a year for 7 years (after the 8% from the old pattern), the UFT membership ought to be pissed at the UFT leadership too.

This is a terrible contract that was negotiated and while the UFT shills will tell you it scrapes the skies because they got you full retro, the reality is, they gave up a whole lot to get money that you're not going to see for years.