Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Raises In UFT Contract Delayed For Years

Perhaps you've been hearing in the news that teachers are receiving an 18% raise over the course of a nine year contract, with teachers receiving the 8% they are owed from the 2009/2010 pattern that every other city union got.

Well, guess what, folks - those raises from 2009/2010 are actually delayed for YEARS - not just the retro owed on those raises from 2009-2014, but also the changes to your salary steps.

Now perhaps you're like me and you figure, well, if they give out raises of 4% for 2009 and 4% for 2010, that money will be added to your salary step ladder right after the vote (or at least soon after) so that when you return to work in September, you will be making 8% more than you were when you left in June.

But silly you (and me!), the UFT and Bill de Blasio have a much more convoluted plan to finagle the step ladder and work those salary increases in over the course of the contract:

The proposed contract includes a total package of 18% in raises, including all retroactive pay, plus a $1,000 cash bonus.
For the current round, the annual percentages are:
1%-1% – ($1,000 cash)-1%-1.5%-2.5%-3%
Teachers can expect the $1,000 cash bonus as soon as the contract is ratified and a 2% increase later this year.  Other annual raises will be paid in May of each year.
The retroactive payments for the 4% and 4% that UFT members missed from the previous round—and the associated annual rate increases — will be phased in beginning in 2015 and ending in 2020.

The details are still a bit fuzzy at this moment, there's no new salary step ladder yet, but the basic gist is, you won't see 2009/2010 raises added to your step ladder until 2015-2020.

So those of you who thought, gee, this is a shit contract but at least I'll get the 8% for 2009-2010 and the 1% for 2013 and another 1% for 2014 so that I'm making 10% more, well, you're not even getting half of that for quite some time.

Details are still forthcoming and I'm sure the Unity shills will be out in full force to sell this garbage, but the truth is, not only did the UFT gut contractual protections for 10% of the city schools, throw the ATR's under the bus, and screw every other city union by setting a shitty pattern, they did it all for deferred raises that are so far down the pike that you can't even see the toll booth.

Truly a horrendous contract.

I'm not sure even the Unity shills are going to be able to sell how this contract "scrapes the skies" considering most of the alleged raises are years off - some so far off, this nine year contract will have expired already and we'll either be in the second de Blasio administration by then or (more likely) the first Moskowitz administration.

25 comments:

  1. toolazyforaloginMay 1, 2014 at 9:54 PM

    ****************************************
    The details are still a bit fuzzy at this moment, there's no new salary step ladder yet, but the basic gist is, you won't see 2009/2010 raises added to your step ladder until 2015-2020.

    So those of you who thought, gee, this is a shit contract but at least I'll get the 8% for 2009-2010 and the 1% for 2013 and another 1% for 2014 so that I making 10% more, well, you're not even getting half of that for quite some time.
    **********************************************************

    Correct me if I'm misinterpreting this but the "retro" would still be included every year for the entire 9 year contract but you would not see the money arrive until 2015 and at that time it will be evenly dispersed during the 5 year period from 2015-2020.

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    1. Remains to be seen. I'm taking nothing for granted anymore. I assumed the 8% would be in on the step ladder already, but that turned out to be a wrong assumption. So the answer I have for you is, I don't know.

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    2. toolazyforaloginMay 1, 2014 at 9:59 PM

      well I would think that if it's dictated retro that should be the case - if it was dictated as a stipend then it would be a one time payment.

      but who knows with Unity. I'm sure their mattresses are overstuffed with cash tonight.

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    3. I bet they're wondering how best to sell this. There will be a lot of disappointed people expexcting 8% to 10% next year who are only going to see 2%. This is going to anger some. I suspect UFT will sell it as best that could be done considering mess Bloomberg left. Dunno if that will work, but that's my guess on the sell campaign.

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  2. It's a disaster worse than 2005! The UFT is a disgrace. It treats the ATRs as if they have second class status. Now it gave up authority over 200 schools. A concession laden contract for no money.

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  3. I'm wondering what this means for those of us who are planning to retire soon. We did work those years for which the retroactive raises are being given--but it seems the money is being paid out sometime in the future. I want to retire because being an ATR has just been unbearable and it does seem that ATRs were thrown under the bus--but it seems that seniority right are going down the toilet for everybody.

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    1. Dunno, would think you get your raise, but hard to know how it effects pensions.

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  4. That is crazy! My wife and were just talking about this. Is the Uft Leadership kidding me! Are they down at 52 Broadway eating caviar and popping champagne! We waited 5 going on 6 yrs for a new contract, now those folks down at 52 Broadway want us to wait another 5 to get it all. This is some bull.... City knows what they are doing. We have to vote No!! Send Mulgrew a message, Unacceptable! Level 1. Exit Slip... Do better!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. At first I figured people would vote for this overwhelmingly.

      Now I'm not so sure.

      Wait until people find out the vaunted 8% retro raise is deferred until 2015-2020 and the raise they actually get for 203 and 2014 is 2%.

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  5. I was kinda happy this morning. As the day progressed and I read more articles, I became a bit weary. After this article, I'm not as happy as I was about 10 hours ago. I really thought I'd see a real increase in my pay check come the fall.

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    1. Nope - just 2%. Don't spend it all in one place. Oh, and $1000K one time bribe, er, payout, but it's really 63% of that after taxes and such.

      For me, it'll be a little more than $1500 a year. About $800 after taxes and such.

      That's $33 a paycheck.

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    2. You got it right. 2020 before we are made whole from 2009. Even the Post won't be able to say the city is going to go bankrupt because of us.

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    3. Can't wait for your report from the DA on this, James. Will be interesting to hear the propaganda spew for a contract that doesn't completely pay out for 2009 until 2020.

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  6. The questions you should be really asking are:

    Who is paying off Mulgrew?

    is it Bill Gates?
    Is it the Koch brothers?
    is it Michael Bloomberg?
    Is it Rupert Murdoch.?
    Is it all of the above oligarchs?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I vote for Bill Gates with Randi Weingarten as conduit. Why are AFT unions across the country getting screwed with the same shit?

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    2. Yes, the UFT/AFT leadership are in the bag. No question. They have eroded contractual protections over the last four contracts that I have seen, although say what you will about Randi, at least she got $ for it. Mulgrew got shit paid out so far in the future, you can be sure you won't get it.

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    3. He was paid with 10,000 $60 payments twice month in perpetuity. Bill de Blasio gave him all the preK teachers in his union and he gave de Blasio a huge win

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  7. This contract is becoming more and more of a disaster by the hour. My only hope is that they have gone too far this time with the sell outs and that someone (either the other unions, or God forbid the members themselves) puts a stop to this. One contract was voted down before, and we can vote down another one.

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    1. More I see, the more I start to think it really could be a closer vote than we've seen in a while. Still think it passes though by a pretty large margin.

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  8. Who is holding Mulgrew's brain hostage? R A N D I !!!

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    Replies
    1. Nahh - they share same thinking on this - sell out members, make 1% happy.

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  9. The high school will vote it down. How will we get the elementary schools to vote it down? WE MUST VOTE NO. They will go back and get a better deal.

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    Replies
    1. What you're up against is convincing people the leadership can go back and get a better deal. That's going to be a major problem.

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