Does The Buffalo School District Really Think Teachers Will Go For This?

From the Buffalo News:

After years of failed attempts to negotiate a new contract with the Buffalo Teachers Federation, the School Board is now taking its latest offer directly to teachers.

The move underscores a lack of faith that negotiations are headed toward any kind of resolution, and suggests the district could be close to pulling the plug on talks with an outside mediator. That would put the district in uncharted waters, and some have already suggested the issue will likely wind up in court.

In a letter emailed to teachers Thursday, the board attempts to make the case for contractual changes it is seeking. The most significant include:

• Increasing the school day from six hours and 50 minutes to seven hours and 30 minutes.

• Increasing the number of work days from 186 to 189 each year.

• Requiring teachers to pay 12 percent of their health insurance premium, as opposed to paying nothing now.

• Allowing principals to transfer and assign teachers based on educational needs, not seniority.

• A 10 percent salary increase for teachers, plus an additional 1 percent each of the next three years.

“Without the changes the District has proposed, a system of failure will simply be perpetuated, and the consequences of continuous failure could be devastating,” the board’s letter states.

The decision to take its offer directly to teachers is the latest turn in a lengthy and contentious negotiation process to revamp a contract that expired more than a decade ago. Attorney Terry O’Neil, who is negotiating for the district, said board members do not believe union leaders are accurately relaying their offers to teachers and wanted to present the information themselves.

“We went to the teachers and said ‘Here are the options, just so you know,’ ” he said.

These are the "options"?

Longer school day, longer school year, loss of seniority rights and paying 12% of health care?

Dunno about all the teachers teachers in Buffalo, but my response to a "Fuck You!" proposal like this would be "Fuck you too!"

The 1% "increase (10% + 1% for each additional year over the next three) is more than eaten away by the health care costs and the extra time/work.

This is what the district went around the union to offer to teachers?

Uh, thanks, but no thanks.

Seems many teachers in Buffalo feel the same:

Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore said his office had been fielding calls all day from teachers angry about the board’s letter.

“The letter outraged the teachers,” Rumore said. “It was like rubbing salt into an open wound.”

Buffalo teachers are working under the longest expired contract in history.

The district, backed by the powers that be, are offering a "Fuck you!" contract in order to continue the logjam in negotiations, giving them the excuse to take the mess to court and try and circumvent the Triborough Agreement:

Some have already suggested the case could end up in court and test the Taylor Law, the state statute that sets rules for municipalities when bargaining with civil service and teacher unions. Many argue that the law and its accompanying Triborough Amendment – which allows for expired contract terms to remain in effect until a new deal is reached – have long given these unions a clear edge in negotiations.

“This is a perfect illustration of how the combination of the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendment can create problems,” O’Neil said. “We’ll have to assess where we’re headed and whether we’re headed for litigation.”

So this battle in Buffalo is something to watch statewide, not only for how the contract negotiations play out but also to see if there is a weakening of the Triborough Agreement that maintains expired contracts in effect until a new contract deal is agreed upon.

I wouldn't be too surprised if that isn't the ultimate goal of the powers that be here - to weaken Triborough while maintaining the punitive Taylor Law that punishes municipal unions for striking.

Pete Donahue: LIRR Unions Ready To Strike

Pete Donahue's Daily News column in full:

Hey, Gov, when would you like a Long Island Rail Road strike? In the spring or summer? How about the fall when voters are going to the polls?

Unless Cuomo’s MTA demonstrates more flexibility and urgency in its dealings with a coalition of LIRR unions, and gets off its high horse a little bit, railroad commuters will endure the first strike since the governor's father was in office. There may be a difference of opinion on this, but it doesn't appear to me that union leaders are bluffing. They say they are prepared and ready to go. I believe them.

This strike, meanwhile, could get ugly — fast — when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tries to force its bus drivers, who are represented by TWU Local 100, to pick up stranded commuters.

“We’re not doing any scab work,” J.P. Patafio, a Local 100 vice president, said.

All but one of the MTA's approximately 60 unions are working without contracts, and have been for years. That includes the still-militant Local 100 and seven LIRR unions that have banded together for contract negotiations.

After more than three years of failing to negotiate a deal, transit and LIRR union officials made their case before a neutral panel of federal mediators late last year. There were hearings that focused on MTA finances, the wages of workers at other railroads, the cost of living in the New York City area and other pertinent issues.

It appeared the dispute was at the end of the line.

But when the neutral mediators recommended modest raises — concluding the MTA could afford them without raising fares even higher than planned — transit officials essentially stomped their feet like a little kid and screamed, 'No.'

The arbitrators handed up their proposal on Dec. 21. Days later, Joel Parker, a top LIRR union official, called the MTA and asked for a meeting to resume last-ditch talks. The MTA's labor relations director said she'd get back to him. Six weeks have gone by and the MTA still hasn't called back to set up a meeting, Parker said Friday.

The law allows the LRR to legally strike after an exhaustive process that culminates with federal approval to walk, which could come as early as March.

Transit officials want to freeze workers’ pay for three years unless the unions agree to pay for them through increased productivity and reduced benefits. Not 10% or 50% or 75%. Workers have to pay for 100% of any raises, transit officials insist.

Once again, we're led to believe that the workers are the biggest problem and not the big shots running the place. The MTA stuck to this line last week even after the announcement that the East Side Access project would cost more and take longer than originally planned. About $6.5 billion more and 14 years longer. This was at least the fourth time in a decade the MTA has inflated the final price and pushed back the completion date.

Flip through the roster of audits and investigations by the MTA inspector general's office and you'll find plenty of examples of lax management resulting in excessive overtime, workers sitting idle for entire shifts and contractors that did shoddy work for one MTA division getting hired by another MTA division.

Undoubtedly, there are work rules that should be changed, but the MTA can do a much better job managing with the rules already in place. 

The MTA is handling negotiations like this because they know Governor Cuomo is backing them up.

Screw the unionized workers, make them pay for 100% of their "raises" (in which case, it wouldn't be a raise, would it?) - that's Cuomo's line with the unions.

It will be interesting to see what happens if the LIRR unions are granted the right to strike.

Given that the MTA just stopped negotiating, that could very well happen.

Then the LIRR unions can pick the most damaging time to strike for Andrew Cuomo - like right around Election Day - and get the news out there that the reason workers are striking is because the MTA refuses to agree to what the federal panel of mediators came down with last year and the governor is backing the MTA up with this intransigence.

It would be great if none of this came to pass and everything got resolved - but given the circumstances in this dispute, that is starting to look less and less likely.

Fast Food Worker Strike Update

It is good to see this happening:

Fast food workers across the city went on strike Thursday forcing three restaurants to close entirely due to lack of staff.

Roughly 400 workers at 70 McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Domino's restaurants rallied for better wages and benefits.

"I'm here because enough is enough," said Alterique Hall, 24, from Harlem, a supervisor at McDonald's on 51st and Broadway.

The workers want $15 an hour pay and union memberships.

"The corporations (must be) aware of what's really going on," said McDonald's cashier Linda Archer, 60 of the Bronx, who joined 150 protesters at a Wendy's on W. 34th St. "They're making huge profits. Give us a little respect."

Mayoral hopefuls Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and City Controller John Liu joined the campaign for higher wages Thursday and some customers said they’d swear off fast food.

"The cost of living is going up but salaries are not," said carpenter Bernice Tobias. "I support them."

Workers at KFC, McDonald's, Burger King and Domino's banding together, taking part in job actions and working for better job protections and wages.

And Liu and de Blasio joined them

It would be good for those of you who support workers' rights and believe every worker is entitled to a liveable wage to notice which mayoral candidates were not at the protest.

Fast Food Strike

From The Guardian:

Hundreds of fast food industry workers in New York were due to go on strike on Thursday in the largest such action to ever hit the notoriously low-wage industry.

Organisers behind the protest predict that some 400 workers will walk out or stay away from their jobs across the city in a move aimed at impacting at least 70 restaurants from big chains like McDonalds, Wendy's and Burger King.

The workers are calling for wages of $15 an hour and the right to organise without the threat of retaliation or intimidation. It follows a previous protest in New York last November when 200 workers went on strike.

Jonathan Westin, director of the Fast Food Forward Campaign, said that there was a dire need to raise wages in the fast food industry where many workers put in long hours on minimum wages and thus remained in poverty. There are some 50,000 fast food workers in New York who, organisers say, earn between $10,000 and $18,000 a year – making it difficult to get by in a city known for its sky-high rents and high prices. "They can't pay rent. That is exactly the opposite the chief executives of the companies they work for who earn huge profits," he said.

Westin said this second strike was aimed at building on the momentum of the first protest, which had previously been the largest action to hit the industry. That protest added to an already intense media debate over the rise of a low-wage economy in America as the country's economy struggles to recover.

What's worse, many employers of minimum wage employees are cutting hours to below 30 a week so that they do not have to provide health care.

I have talked to workers at supermarkets who say they are working two jobs now because they can no longer get full-time work at their primary place of employment.

We live in a feudal system with the lords of the manor stealing all the wealth and the chains of debt and high cost of living strangling us.

The Guardian article says fast food workers have been warned by their companies not to take part in the strike or they will be fired.

That workers are going to strike anyway shows just how bad things have gotten for them.

Emanuel Takes CTU To Court, But The Judge Won't Hear The Case Until Wed

Rahm was enraged when CTU delegates voted to extend the Chicago teachers strike through at least Tuesday, giving them time to read over the details of the new contract and discuss the particulars with union members.

So he took the CTU to court to force them back to work tomorrow.

But a judge has put a wrinkle in Rahm's suit:

Chicago Public School students appeared less likely to be heading back to school Tuesday after a Cook County judge declined Monday morning to take up immediately a lawsuit by Chicago Public Schools asking the judge to end the teachers strike.

In a brief hearing, Cook County Judge Peter Flynn told a city attorney he preferred to schedule a hearing on the matter for Wednesday, a city law department spokesman said. The spokesman could not immediately provide a reason for the delay.

Wednesday is, for now, the earliest possible time students could return if the teachers union House of Delegates votes to approve the tentative deal at its meeting Tuesday.

Chicago Public Schools balked at that timeframe, wanting to sent students back on Tuesday. It filed a lawsuit in Cook County court Monday morning, asking a judge to end the teachers strike because it is illegal and presents a “clear and present danger to public health and safety.”

The complaint is asking for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to halt the strike.

“All of these students now face the all too real prospect of prolonged hunger, increased risk of violence and disruption of critical special education services, and all because of decisions not of their making, in which they did not have a voice or a vote,” the complaint alleges.

Leaving aside the hypocrisy of Rahmbo taking the CTU to court because he says the strike is withholding critical services from students when his budget cuts and deliberate starvation diet for schools has been doing just that, it seems Rahm's ploy isn't going to work if a judge won't hear the case until after the CTU have another delegates meeting scheduled to make a final decision on whether to end the strike or not.

Nice try, Rahm, but like much of the your other ploys in this fight - from rigging the strike vote to 75% to publicly hammering teachers for months in order to drive down public support for them to bragging behind the scenes about how you're going to fuck these teachers right after the election by closing 100 schools, this strategy seems to have backfired.

Another Teachers Union Goes On Strike

From the Sun-Times:

Lake Forest High School teachers decided to strike after walking out of contract negotiations late Tuesday night.

The district’s 1,718 students from Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and Knollwood will have no classes Wednesday and there will be no sports practices or competitions until contract differences are resolved.

There are 150 teachers at the high school.

Lake Forest Education Association spokesman Chuck Gress said the union was “disappointed that the Board of Education did not respond to the LFEA’s last salary submission.”

The LFEA was prepared to negotiate a settlement but the school board “chose not to counter,” Gress said. He would not say what the union offered.

A small union, to be sure, and a slightly different rationale for the strike, but another sign that teachers are fed up wit the treatment they're receiving and are fighting back.

Hey, Rahm, Why Can't Chicago Kids Have The Kind Of Education Your Kids Get At The Lab School?

See here.

Rahm's kids go to a school without high stakes tests.

They go to a school with seven full time art teachers.

Their school has three different libraries.

In Chicago, kids take 18-25 days of standardized testing.

Many schools have no art or music teachers at all.

Many have no library.

Many have no air conditioning - not even the ones that are in session in July and August.

Why, Rahm, do your kids get the high quality education taught by teachers not under the VAM death watch while Chicago kids get the shaft?

The same, btw, can be asked of President Obama and his daughters.

Obama's kids get a high quality education at Sidwell Friends School while Obama promotes federal education policies that call for high stakes testing throughout the year in every grade in every subject so that many teachers can be fired.

Politicians of BOTH parties are dumbing down and narrowing down the educational opportunities for the vast majority of the children in this country while making sure their own kids get an elite education fit for the sons and daughters of kings.

Rahm says it's nobody's business where he sends his kids to school, that it's a private decision.

But that's jive.

When you enact policies meant to destroy the working and middle classes while ensuring your kids have every educational opportunity, it is no longer a private decision.

It is a political decision - one that must be pointed out.

Why do the Emanuel and Obama kids get the quality education while these two men enact policies that hurt the vast majority of American kids - but most especially those in the inner cities?

The Differences Between CTU And The UFT Are Striking

Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers Union have gone on strike today after negotiations between the union and the mayor broke down.

Apparently one of the major sticking points is using high stakes standardized test scores to evaluate teachers - or, as my friend NYC Educator calls it, "junk science."

Now there's an excellent reason to strike!

Of course, here in NYC not only does the United Federation of Teachers agree to the use of high stakes standardized test scores to evaluate teachers, they champion it and attack anybody who points out its "junk science".

So for those of you keeping score at home - CTU goes on strike to battle the use of high stakes standardized test scores in evaluations; the UFT agrees to high stakes standardized test scores as part of teacher evaluations and battles anybody who says that's a bad idea.

CTU - a union that actually works to protect members.

The UFT - a company union that works to protect the mayor and his interests.

Hooray!!!

This story leaves me feeling inspired today:

MIAMI — Thousands of students at the University of Puerto Rico who went on strike two months ago to oppose severe budget cuts declared victory on Thursday after reaching an agreement with administrators.

As part of a deal brokered by a court-appointed mediator, students would end their strike — one of the largest and longest such walkouts in Puerto Rican history — in exchange for a number of concessions. Most notably, the university’s Board of Regents has agreed to cancel a special fee that would have effectively doubled the cost to attend the university’s 11 public campuses.

The deal also includes a promise that there will be no sanctions against strike organizers, who clashed at times with the police at the main Río Piedras campus outside San Juan.

The accord must still be approved by a general assembly of university students, which is expected Monday. Christopher Powers, a literature professor at the Mayagüez campus, said it was “nearly a complete victory for the students,” noting that they failed to get a promise that there would be no large tuition increase next year. Professor Powers said planned cuts later this year to the salaries and benefits of professors could set off another round of conflict.

“The fact that a student movement was able to force the administration and the government to sit down at the negotiating table and concede to nearly all their demands is a very important precedent,” Professor Powers said. “It will serve as an inspiration.”

Every once in a while, the little people in this world gain a small (and usually temporary) victory over the large moneyed interests that run things.

That's what happened in Puerto Rico.