Here's A Solution For The Teachers Contract Negotiations

Comment left on the NY Times story on contract negotiations:

Just declare all the teachers to be bankers and that they deserve bonuses regardless of performance. That seems acceptable for real bankers (hi there, Jamie Dimon), who are extracting money from society, so why not extend the model?

Guy has a point.

UFT/Unity Shill Comes By To Say "Take What The Union Gets And Like It!"

Here's a response from some anonymous Unity/UFT shill to my post this morning entitled "Message To UFT Leadership - Raises, Not Bonuses" that has to be seen to be believed:

Isn't funny that the very people that call the UFT a dues collecting agency, are the very purple that reap the benefits from the UFT negotiations team when it comes to our prescriptions, dental, hearing, and vision. Our retirement pensions and TDA also play into this, but they do nothing to contribute towards this! Why be party of UFT if you're not happy? You do have a choice even if you still have to pay an Agency Fee under the law. There just won't be all the great benefits that the rest of us get! So when you want to complain about bonuses vs retroactive, think about what is it exactly that you have done to help with negotiations? And yet you judge?There's a word mother called people like that!

Yeah, help out with the negotiations by keeping mum with any thoughts of your own and hail whatever crap the UFT leadership gets for you as scraping the skies it's so good even when it's far, far from that.

That's the Unity caucus hackery I know and love.

Everybody I talked to about this yesterday and today said bonuses replacing raises is unacceptable, no matter what gloss Mulgrew and Company put on it.

We have gone five years without a raise and have seen our quality of work decrease exponentially as the teacher evaluation system and Common Core have been implemented.

That's what I heard from people yesterday and today when I broached this subject.

But now that a Unity hack has come around to tell us all that we have to take whatever they feel like giving us and STFU, my faith in the rightness of the universe has been restored.

Unity will sell us out and tell us it's our problem if we don't like it.

And they're right - until we get rid of these destructive sell-outs, it is our problem.

Message To UFT Leadership - Raises, Not Bonuses

Reuters reported that the UFT is arguing retro raises for teachers can come in the form of bonuses that can be "booked" multiple years so as not to break the city's budget:

Dec 10 (Reuters) - The administration of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is lining up for one last showdown in its $3.5 billion dispute over retroactive pay raises with the city's public school teachers.

With just three weeks remaining before his team cedes power to Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, Bloomberg's administration will cite accounting rules at a closed-door state hearing on Wednesday as it tries to shut the door on any retroactive raises being paid out as bonuses in future years, according to people taking part in the hearings.

In the administration's view, the rules stipulate that any lump-sum payout must be booked in the year it is made, not spread out over years. The amount owed would be too big a hit for any one year and would break the city's balanced budget requirement, they say. The stance effectively closes down any attempt by the teachers for a settlement along those lines, at least with the Bloomberg administration.

...

 At an earlier hearing, the teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, which has been working without a contract since 2009, argued that under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, rules for municipal budget keeping do not require an arduous one-time cost.

An accounting expert for the United Federation of Teachers also cited a 1991 deal when the city deferred part of a teachers' wage increase, paying $47 million out in 1995 and 1996 -- with interest of 9 percent -- and thus setting a precedent for the practice of deferred payments.

"It's a very big bill attached to this retroactive pay raise, and (the Bloomberg administration is) specifically raising this as a deal breaker," said Barry Epstein, an accounting expert at Cendrowski Corporate Advisors, who testified on behalf of the union. "Essentially what they are saying is, we'd be happy to pay this to you except we can't do it because we have a balanced budget law and this will bust the budget."

"My answer to that is they are misinterpreting their accounting requirements," Epstein said.

The mayor's office and the Department of Education declined to comment. But other people familiar with the proceeding supported Epstein's characterization on the city's position.

The UFT, citing the confidentiality of the negotiations, declined to say if it would seek retroactive raises in the form of one-time bonuses, though it has argued that they are permissible under accounting rules.

I saw this story as I was running out of the house to work yesterday and didn't get the opportunity to do more than post it.

My feeling is, one-time bonuses in lieu of retroactive raises is a terrible concession.

A one-time $4,000 bonus is a fine thing, of course, unless it is replacing $4,000 added to your salary step.

Adding $4,000 to a salary step means a worker makes an extra $40,000 over the course of ten years, $80,000 over the course of twenty (even more when pensionable.)

Two commenters at Perdido Street School blog felt the same way.

First, Michael Fiorillo:

A bonus, which is preferable to nothing, is nevertheless inadequate, since it is not pensionable and over the years means less income for teachers.

It does serious harm to the retirement plans of those teachers looking to bail out of this toxic system in the near future, since they will essentially be robbed of the pension increase they would have seen, had we received a new contract with the four and four percent raises, that other municipal unions received.

Let's also recall that Weingrew were complicit in Bloomberg's illegal third term and re-election in 2009, which directly led to this.

Then again, since the current model for teaching is 3-5 years and out, this all correlates perfectly. The UFT, being the dues collection agency it fundamentally is, obviously doesn't care, since they get their skim (along with their double pensions) no matter what.

While I have no illusions that most UFT members will do anything but happily accept it, a bonus that substitutes for a pensionable salary increase lets Mulgrew off the hook for his miserable record as UFT leader, and sets a bad precedent. It also lets De Blasio off easily, masking the declining relative wages teachers have experienced amid the scapegoating and attacks on working conditions they've suffered.

A bonus, substituting for the wage increases we should have received, is further proof of the bankruptcy of the Weingrew regime.

And an anonymous commenter:

This is all about cheating UFT members and teachers. A bonus will cheat teachers by not increasing their salaries and pensionable earnings. It is not only inadequate, it is unfair. The UFT has been an unscrupulous participant in these dragged out negotiations. Weingrew and crew are much to eager to throw teachers under the bus in order to curry favor with the kleptocracy: Bloombucks, Gates, Koch Brothers, Obama Phony President, Murdoch, Zuckerman.

I asked a couple of people at work their feelings about getting a one-time bonus as opposed to a raise and when framed that way, people were opposed to the one-time bonus.

Of course the geniuses at the UFT will frame that kind of concession as one-time bonus vs. nothing, hoping to convince members that this is the best we can do.

I say it is not.

We need raises for the lost years from the pattern bargaining, not a one-time bonus.

Anything less than the 8% without concessions every other union got during the last pattern is unacceptable to me.

It's For The Good Of The Kids

The salary and benefit cuts, I mean:

BRIDGEWATER -- The 1,360-member Bridgewater Raritan Education Association voted to approve $1.4 million in concessions today, a move that will save 16-full time teaching positions and help soften the blow created by millions of dollars in state-aid cuts to the Bridgewater-Raritan School District.

The BREA did not specify how the give-backs will affect teachers' salaries for the coming school year, but said the teachers and maintenance union agreed to waive $403,000 for tuition reimbursement. Teachers will also pay 1.5 percent of their salaries toward the cost of health benefits next year.

BREA President Steve Beatty said the move was necessary to preserve the quality of education in the district, but blasted Gov. Chris Christie for criticizing the union last week when it appeared contract talks had stalled.

“Our members care about our students and our community,” said Beatty. “It’s unfortunate that the governor’s cuts are requiring the people who work in public schools to make even more concessions than they already have in order to preserve as best we can our excellent public schools.”

“We reject the governor’s attempts to deflect blame for his devastating cuts onto our members,” said Beatty. “He could restore districts' funding just by reinstating the tax on millionaires and dedicating those funds to our public schools.”

Governor Christie can't restore the millionaire's tax - that would hurt the kids, specifically the kids of millionaires as well their wealthy parents.

But teachers have to take salary and benefit cuts or be scapegoated as "hurting the kids..."

This story is from Jersey, but it's coming to a school near you in New York State too once the fall-out from Paterson's budget cuts and failure to pay the districts their state aid hits home.

You can be sure UFT members will be asked to pay for health benefits, take salary cuts or 0% "raises," okay the firing of the ATR's and make other concessions to the city and the state or be scapegoated as selfish, mean-spirited grinches who are "hurting the kids."

You'll note that all of this is happening to schools and school staffs even as Bloomberg hands out $700 million dollar no-bid contracts to crooks and bonuses to city managers while the City Council staff get 4% raises.

Not to mention the billion dollar bonuses Wall Street is handing out with either TARP money or money made from the 0% interest loans Uncle Ben Bernanke and President Accountability have made available through the Federal Reserve ATM machine for Too Big To Fail Institutions like Goldman and Chase.

But we have to give out all these bonuses and no-bid contracts and salary increases to politicians and their staffs while cutting school budgets, cutting school staff, and forcing the ones still around take salary and benefit cuts.

Otherwise the terrorists win. Or something like that.

And most importantly, it's for the good of the kids.