Thursday, May 8, 2014

De Blasio Says UFT Contract Agreement Sets Pattern For Rest Of Unions, NYC Budget

This sounds like a mayor who thinks he's a UFT rank-and-file that's going along with the contract proposal:

After reaching a preliminary deal with the United Federation of Teachers last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio presented his $73.9 billion executive budget on Thursday as a "real budget" based on a presumed pattern from the U.F.T. deal.

De Blasio's proposal allocated roughly $5.5 billion to settle labor contracts over five years.

...

De Blasio described the U.F.T. deal, which has been recommended by the union's leadership but not yet ratified as a template for negotiations with the other 151 municipal unions, though several uniform-union labor leaders have said they believe the wage increases are insufficient.

"If I've ever seen a pattern, this is a pattern," de Blasio said, later adding, "We feel very confident this pattern will hold throughout the process."

It will be interesting to see how confident they feel at City Hall (and 52 Broadway, for that matter) if the UFT rank-and-file vote the contract down.

There's a lot of anger out there over it and while I have seen some pretty bad contracts in my time as a teacher pass by fairly large margins, there are two differences this time around from, say, the odious '05 contract vote.

First, all the teachers on social media passing along negatives about the contract proposal means the UFT does not control the message around the issue the way they do the debate at the DA.

It's hard to tell definitely from the blogosphere and the twitterverse just how strong the opposition to the contract is, but from what I can see, there is a potent element of opposition out there.

Second, teachers have taken a lot of beatings over the last nine years since the '05 contract - from the media beatings to the Bloomberg budgets (layoff threats every May!) to the Bloomberg closures to the Common Core to the teacher evaluation changes.

This contract is quickly becoming the repository of every bit of frustration and anger teachers are feeling over all the issues I just named above and more.

I hear that talking to teachers at school, many of whom I would term "apolitical" when it comes to union issues in general who are quite skeptical of the contract and say they are voting no on it.

De Blasio may say this proposal sets the pattern for the other 151 unions, but he doesn't seem to realize how pissed off teachers are and how this contract could get voted down.

The UFT leadership realizes it, however, which is why they filibustered the Delegates Assembly yesterday and allowed no dissenting voices to raise questions about the contract details.

Underneath all the bluster Mulgrew showed at the DA yesterday, there was clearly fear that they don't quite have as much control over this contract vote as they want the rest of us to think they do.

10 comments:

  1. "But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there were of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.'"

    — Numbers, 13:31-33

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  2. The city has a 4 billion dollar surplus that they admit to right now. They have a hidden "contigency plan/ rainy day surplus" which they hide from unions. The total visible and hidden surplus is more than $10 billion. NY city has the ability to pay us with interest our back pay right now. NY city has the ability to settle all of the contracts right now. They are lying about the financial accounting entirely because of political reasons, not intrinsic economic reasons. If our union did not do its due diligence on examining NY cities financial accounting with an independent and critical eye, then our union is negligent and incompetent. I hold this truth to be self evident, that the UFT leadership is negligent and incompetent, and that it continje be negligent and incompetent as long as Mulgrew and the Unity caucus are in bed together.

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  3. What happens to the ATR administrators? What's going to be their freakin deal? And why are so many administrators from the Dominican Republic who speak broken English, being hired?

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  4. This is a terrible contract! When will Unity Caucus be voted out of office. We need a new sincere group of union leaders. I hope that someone from MORE will become president of the union someday.

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  5. 60% of 120K in 2021 when I retire. Is that 72K tax free? BoooYawwww!!!!!! Good thing I'm in one if the smart academy boutique schools that screens.

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  6. I noticed that...May 8, 2014 at 10:51 PM

    Anon 10:03 that's very thoughtless of you to say that. You give hard-working true union, professional people a bad name. You are a selfish, self-centered, a$$hole. I truly hope that you end up a situation where you lose your chances of getting a pension!

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    1. Hey hey now, you sound very angry. Just because your morale is low and you probably will be an ATR in September (since you couldn't figure out that your school was actually closing for the past 4 years), doesn't mean you should get all crazy. Take the buyout and find a better way to spend your weekdays.

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  7. If that is the case then teachers need to hear from workers from those other unions. They will offer opinions about this mess of a contract proposal.

    And, what do you think they will say about it?

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  8. I think it can be likely that this contract was voted down. Back in 2011, NO ONE thought that the state workers would vote down the contract that the PEF and Cuomo negotiated, even with Cuomo thrreatening 3500 pink slips lay offs. But they did and Cuomo gave out pink slips.

    When working conditions and workers rights are that oppressed and to top it off in a dismal working atmosphere, anything is possible at this point.

    Also, if the contract would be voted down, I do not see how a new contract can be worse. It can only be a bit better. Mayor De Blasio is using this teacher contract as his legacy to be union friendly as well as friendly to the teachers. If the contract gets voted down, I think he will try harder to find something that could work.

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  9. My district has the the same Union District Rep for the last 25+ years. Why isn't there a way to vote them out?? I believe that it is time for a change.

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